On chloroform and other anæsthetics: their action and administrationSnow, John
History
On chloroform and other anæsthetics: their action and administration
Snow, John
Anesthetics; Chloroform; Snow, John, 1813-1858
which was often not merely unnecessary in relation to his propositions,
but injurious to them, as reasonings overstrained.
He admired art, and felt real pleasure in advancing it. He enjoyed
innocent recreations, and was ever at home in the family circle. He had
his regrets that he had never married, the fates had been against him
permanently on that score. He loved the prattle of children. When he
went to court during last season, and had arrayed himself in his court
suit, nothing connected with the event amused him so much as the saying
of the child of a friend, who, on seeing him start, with his sword and
flattened hat, held up her hands, and exclaimed: “Oh! isn’t Dr. Snow
_pretty_, mamma.” The idea of being considered pretty roused in him
quite a new and droll sensation, which he could not help telling about
as a rare incident in a courtier’s career. The anecdote is simple, but
it gives a good idea of the simple and genial nature of the man.
It has been shown that the tendency of Dr. Snow’s mind for philosophical
pursuits led him away in some measure from the practical drudgery of
professional life. From this fact, it has been too hastily inferred that
he was therefore, in the common parlance, “not a practitioner.” Those
who knew him as a practitioner, who had had the advantage of his
assistance in cases of doubt or difficulty, have a very different
opinion. These speak of him, with one accord, as having been, without
any ostentation, one of the soundest and most acute of our modern
physicians. He had great tact in diagnosis; an observant eye, a ready
ear, a sound judgment, a memory admirably stored with the recollection
of cases bearing on the one in point, and a faculty of grouping together
symptoms and foreshadowing results, which very few men possess. Mr.
Peter Marshall, of Bedford Square, who often called in Dr. Snow in
consultation, has remarked to me in nearly the same terms as I have
expressed, his independent appreciation of Dr. Snow’s practical
knowledge. For my part, I never had the good fortune to put many fees
into his pocket; but as I had often the pleasure of meeting him on pure
scientific grounds in cases of interest, I can bear truthful testimony
to his eminent qualities as a practitioner, and to the fact that his
philosophical labours only served to render him more intelligent and
profound in matters relating to diseases and their treatment. He did not
become the idol of the people in common practice, far from it: but the
failure arose not from deficiency of knowledge, but from a more perfect
knowledge with assumption whipped out of it. It is no discredit to his
memory that he was not the idol of the people in common practice, though
it cost him much suffering to feel himself kept down, by that wisdom
which is the oil to the water of popular ignorance concerning life and
its laws. For, to be the idol of the people in physic, is too often to
be the Juggernaut of physic,—an idol of wood or of stone in showy gold
and tinsel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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