18 AROUND THE WOULD VIA INDIA. 



inhabitants, in which Dr. C. W. Oviatt does his surgi- 

 cal and gynecologic work, and find him perform less 

 than three or four major operations, any day of the 

 year. These are by no means isolated instances; there 

 are many other comparatively small cities in which the 

 traveling physician will find excellent physicians and 

 surgeons from whose example and practice he will carry 

 away many new ideas, suggestions and hints of scientific 

 and practical importance. The clinical teacher is not 

 necessarily the best physician or surgeon, as much of his 

 time and talent are consumed for the benefit of his stu- 

 dents. It is the man with a solid, scientific foundation, 

 endowed with a keen, practical sense, studious and de- 

 voted to his work, who generally scores the greatest suc- 

 cess. Travel from place to place has this one great 

 advantage, that the traveler does not become one-sided 

 nor too much influenced by the views and practice of 

 any one man. The traveler must know how to discrim- 

 inate, what to reject and what to adopt. We often learn 

 more from shadows than light and from mistakes than 

 a correct technic. The privileged visitor must be .slow 

 in criticism and grateful for the opportunities he is 

 given to familiarize himself with methods employed by 

 men in various parts of the world. Let him travel from 

 place to place, cultivate the personal acquaintance of his 

 professional colleagues near and far and learn from 

 them all he can and remember that 



"The use of traveling is to regulate the imagina- 

 tion by reality, and instead of thinking how- 

 things may be, to see them as they are." — Johnson. 



Many men with brilliant minds and endowed with 

 the purest and noblest ambitions to succeed in their 

 calling; fail in reaching' the intended mark because thev 

 did not keep in touch with the outside world.- Tn the 

 practice of medicine isolation is a dangerous thing be- 

 cause it engenders a routine practice from which it is 

 impossible to escape in late attempts. The observation 

 o^ the work of others, the interchange of ideas and ex- 



