April 15, 1897 THE INDEPENDENT (47r) n 
the inner as well as of the outer effect of the physician's 
actions. To the phrase 'good man' I would like to 
add the words 'well brought up'; that is, in a fam- 
ily permeated by a spirit of charity toward all mankind. 
. . . He must be actuated by an uncontrollable impulse 
to help other unhappy creatures; and the experience of 
later life will have led him through reflection to the con- 
viction that, however eagerly the man of moral training 
may chase after happiness, he will ultimately find true 
happiness to lie in making others happy to the extent of 
his ability. . . . To enable the physician to spend him- 
self freely, he must have accumulated a rich fund of 
knowledge; and in possessing such a treasure the physician 
enjoys the special privilege of seeing it increase directly in 
proportion to the lavishness with which it is spent. 
Activity in the .practice of medicine leads to increase in ex- 
perience, development of judgment, impels us to supply the 
deficiences in our knowledge, enables us to follow the prog- 
ress of the art of medicine, which itself results from the 
progress of science. A physician who giveshimself up to 
critical, unprejudiced observation sees his own stock of ex- 
perience and knowledge increase, in the very dispensing 
of it for the relief of others-always provided that he is a 
good man, with a strong sense of duty, has a sound under- 
standing, and takes delight in work and in his calling." 
In an address to medical students on " Scholastic and 
Bedside Teaching," Dr. Holmes was recalling the career 
of Dr. James Jackson, who was one of the best physicians 
Boston ever possessed; and he lived to the patriarchal 
age of ninety. He was teacher of Theory and Practice 
in the Harvard Medical School, and he addressed a vol- 
ume to medical men under the title of " Letters to a 
Young Physician "; and Dr. Holmes calls the prefatory 
introduction to this,as fit to go with the three great pref- 
aces, not for any learning or rhetoric-tho charmingly 
written-but " for a spirit flowing through it to which 
learning and rhetoric are but as the breath that is 
wasted on the air, to the blood that warms the heart " 
And to conclude the picture of the high ideal of what 
the doctor should be, he quotes a eulogy of Heberden- 
an English physician celebrated for his perfect conduct 
at the side of the sick-bed in the last century: 
" From his early youth he had always entertained a deep 
sense of religion, a consummate love of virtue, an ardent 
thirst after knowledge, and an earnest desire to promote 
the welfare and happiness of all mankind. By these qual- 
ities, accompanied with great sweetness of manners, he ac- 
quired the love and esteem of all good men, in a degree 
which perhaps very few have experienced; and, after pass- 
ing an active life, the with and uniform testimony of a 
good conscience, he became a eminent example of its influ- 
ence, in the cheerfulness and serenity of his latest age." 
He too lived to be ninety. 
Dr. Jackson, like the great Abernethy, would have 
delighted in the better day that we live in, because he 
was a profound believer in all that we now condense 
into the word hygiene-air, meat and drink, sleep, 
cleanliness; in short, all methods of keeping well, as op- 
posed to "the vast community of quacks, with or with- 
out a diploma, who think the chief end of man is to 
support apothecaries, and are never easy until they can 
get every patient upon a regular course of something 
nasty or noxious. Dr. Jackson was punctual and pre- 
cise in his directions as to diet, air and exercise, and 
would none of the " about so much," " about so often," 
" about so long," that really ruins the practice of some 
men. 
Sanitary. 
The Ideal Doctor, 
The great pathological anatomist, Billroth, was asked 
to give his advice to a young man, named Robert, as to 
the expediency of the latter's becoming a physician. 
Some points in his reply are worthy of note, not only 
among young men who are thinking of becoming phy- 
sicians, but among the public which employs them. He 
says: 
"The doctor does not lie altogether on a bed of roses. 
Competition grows constantly more fierce; in the begin- 
ning things generally come hard. . . . The state of en- 
tire satisfaction which ensues on the passing of the exam- 
inations is gradually undermined by the discovery that our 
knowledge is but fragmentary, that in those cases where 
we would most gladly render assistance we often fail of 
doing so; often, too, we are harassed as to the proper 
course to pursue. . . . One must rest content with doing 
his duty to the best of his knowledge and belief. A man's 
greatest blessings are then met with in the shape of a 
placid and loving wife and undisputed domestic happiness. 
Hardly, however, have you reached your home prepared 
to enjoy these pleasures when there comes a knock on the 
door, and duty calls you out again into the cold and stormy 
night. ... If he has a true vocation for medicine he 
need not take this into much account. 
" ' What special quality must one possess in order to 
be a good physician?' Nothnagel, the great authority 
on nervous diseases, said lately, in an address to stu- 
dents: ' Only a good man can be a good physician'; and 
I too, share his opinion. It is the supreme regulator of