It will be observed by the reader that in speaking of the gratification which is derived from the successful treatment of disease, I have had no reference at all to the _reputation_ for success which is awarded to medical men by the community. This may be based upon real merit, or it may not be. When it is not, but is acquired by making false issues before the public, as is too often the case, it is indeed a source of gratification—a gratification, however, which is not only of a low order, but the hold which the possessor has upon it is exceedingly uncertain. He feels it to be so, and is in constant fear that some competitor, practising the same arts, will overmatch him in skill, and filch from him his ill-gotten joys. But on the other hand, the success of the honorable practitioner in acquiring a medical reputation, based as it is upon intelligent grounds, is a source of high gratification, and he has, too, the satisfaction of feeling that it is a permanent possession. True, there are some who employ and praise him from whim and caprice, who from whim and caprice may desert and blame him; but his patients are for the most part those who repose in him an intelligent and firm confidence. And this affords him a gratification, of which the caprices of the world and the intrigues of his brethren cannot despoil him. The attachments which the physician forms in so many families in the different walks of life are rich sources of happiness. These attachments are generally reciprocal. In some cases the interest which he feels in the patient, beginning in infancy, and extending through many scenes of sickness up to adult age, has accumulated all this time more and more strength and tenderness. Sometimes in the long life of a physician, this interest in some families of patients reaches through three or even four generations. And these intimate attachments bring the physician into very near relation with some characters of rare excellence in the different walks of life. The admiration and the love with which he looks upon such noble spirits, of whom the world is not worthy, and the communion which he is permitted to have with them up to the moment of their departure to a world of bliss, are among the highest sources of the happiness of the physician. The opportunity which the physician has for observing human character is a prolific source of enjoyment. It opens to him one of the most interesting of all studies, and in his daily intercourse with patients of every variety and degree, he finds no lack of material in illustration of any supposable variation of character.