I have long had in mind to write from a physician's point of view
something in regard to the way in which the well-trained man of my
profession does his work. My inclination to justify the labors and
sentiments of an often misunderstood body of men was lately reinforced
by remarks made to me by a very intelligent patient. I found him, when I
entered my room, standing before an admirable copy of the famous
portrait of the great William Harvey, the original of which is in the
Royal College of Physicians. After asking of whom it was a likeness, he
said, "I should be a little curious to know how he would have treated my
case."
I had to confess that of Harvey's modes of practice we know little, but
I took down from a shelf those odd and most interesting letters of
Howell's, clerk of council to James I., and turned to his account of
having consulted Harvey on returning home from Spain. Only too briefly
he tells what was done for him, but was naturally most concerned about
himself and thus missed a chance for us, because it so happens that we
know little of Harvey. At this page of Howelliana was a yellow
paper-marker. Once the book was Walpole's, and after him was
Thackeray's, and I like to fancy that Walpole left the marker, and that
Thackeray saw it and left it, too, as I did.
My patient, who liked books, was interested, and went on to say that he
had seen several physicians in Europe and America. That in France they
always advised spas and water-cure, and that at least three physicians
in America and one in London had told him there was nothing the matter
with him, and that finally a shrewd country doctor had remarked bluntly
that he would not give him any medicine, because he was overdosed
already with work and worries, which was true.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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