WHAT THE PHYSICIAN CAN DO 279 



Grand Rapids, Michigan, who being taken ill, 

 called, one by one, thirteen physicians in twenty- 

 four hours. Each gave a prescription. The next 

 day the man was dead! Is it any wonder? He 

 probably did not need one physician. Thirteen 

 were a dozen and one too many. Grand Rapids is 

 not the only place in the world where, as Scripture 

 has it, one has " suffered many things of many 

 physicians." 



Malpractice is practice which should not be prac- 

 ticed at all. 



A populous city had the usual number of doc- 

 tors. One among them was most popular. He 

 had large practice. Almost uniformly his patients 

 recovered. Undertakers complained that he gave 

 them no jobs. Other physicians wondered at the 

 secret of his great success. He alone knew it, and 

 kept it. In practice he gave chiefly bread pills ! 



The pills were innocent. They had no virtue; 

 but they did not kill. Not to interfere with Na- 

 ture, is to let Nature cure. 



To take medicine gracefully is a fine art, the 

 finest art, secretly to hide it in the stove. 



If seriously ailing, by all means consult a physi- 

 cian. Induce him to tell you all he knows about 

 your ailing. It will not take him long. But do 

 not swallow that which you do not know, and he 

 does not know. A step in the dark may be a step 

 into the grave. 



In medicine, guesswork is a crime. No work is 

 infinitely better. 



