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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1116 



a large city. It has been asserted that the 

 opportunities brought by a considerable 

 income for wide association with the world 

 at large are broadening to the character of 

 the man and are indirectly of value to the 

 institution with which he is connected ; that 

 furthermore it must be a very serious ques- 

 tion to the physician himself whether he is 

 justified in planning deliberately a man- 

 ner of life which can never lead to wealtli 

 or real financial freedom, when there might 

 be open to him an opportunity to give to his 

 family and those dependent on him the ad- 

 vantages which come with a large income. 

 Is he not, it is asked, giving up the "larger 

 life ' ' for the smaller, and will not the uni- 

 versity in the end suffer by the loss of the 

 wide domestic and international relations 

 so often established by the professor who 

 has the material resources to visit his dis- 

 tant colleagues in their clinics and to enter- 

 tain them at his home? "Will not the hos- 

 pital, more directly, lose in the absence of 

 those cordial relations which arise to-day 

 from the association, as a consultant, be- 

 tween the chief of the medical clinic and the 

 practising physician? 



"Will not the students suffer, it is asked, 

 through their association only with men 

 who have had a more or less academic train- 

 ing in a hospital, who are out of touch with 

 the exigencies of actual medical practise? 

 "Will not practitioner and consultant suffer 

 seriously in losing their control of the hos- 

 pital material which is now to pass whoUy 

 into the hands of salaried men? And will 

 not the public suffer ? May it not indeed be 

 regarded as an injustice to the public and 

 to the practitioner that they should be 

 denied the services of these men especially 

 eminent in medicine or surgery, whose opin- 

 ions presumably are of special value — these 

 men who have been chosen to direct large 

 clinics? 



It can not be denied that these objections 

 have a certain force. 



The physician who, starting from modest 

 beginnings, has acquired, by hard work, a 

 large income can not underestimate the 

 blessings and the opportunities that such a 

 revenue brings to him and to those who de- 

 pend upon him. But such incomes are 

 rarely honestly gained without very hard, 

 very confining work, and without real intel- 

 lectual hardship to the practitioner if he 

 be a man of scientifi.c tastes or aspirations. 

 To one who has the temperament and ideals 

 of the student, the advantages of a univer- 

 sity professorship can not fail to appeal 

 very strongly. No man who covets a for- 

 tune should select a career of a university 

 professor. He who enters upon such a life 

 knows from the outset what his income is to 

 be, and what the outlook for his family. 

 He can not expect to be a rich man, and he 

 must plan his life accordingly. But the 

 compensations are great to one of scholarly 

 tastes. The opportunities for study and 

 research offered by the university clinics 

 and laboratories, limited though they may 

 be at certain times by the demands of teach- 

 ing, the freedom from the uncertainties, the 

 complications, the endless activities of the 

 life of a busy practitioner or consultant, the 

 hours for reflection, for rest, for recreation 

 offered by the stated vacations — these, 

 whoUy apart from the privileges and re- 

 sponsibilities of the organization of a large 

 department, are advantages so great that 

 they will always attract men of the highest 

 order. 



"And the larger life?" "Who can say 

 what "the larger life" is in itself? The 

 ' ' larger life, ' ' alas, does not always go with 

 wealth and that which surrounds it; and 

 who shall say that the opportunities which 

 come to the university professor of distinc- 

 tion and to those about him are more re- 

 stricted than those which are open to the 



