The Doctor in History, Literature, Folk-Lore, Etc.
History
The Doctor in History, Literature, Folk-Lore, Etc.
Literature and medicine; Physicians; Physicians in literature
I once asked him how he managed to get in his fees, since he never refused
to visit when sent for. He said that one year, from curiosity, he kept an
account of his gratuitous visits, and it ran into three figures; but he
never took the trouble to note them again, as it served no purpose.
Many years ago he went to his rest, and, at his request, during his last
illness, I paid him a farewell visit.
There are few finer descriptions of the country doctor than that contained
in Ian Maclaren's "Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush," a book which speaks
directly home to every true Scottish heart.
Dr. Campbell, in his large-hearted and genial Christian charity,
scientific research, and philosophical acquirements, always reminded me of
Sir Thomas Browne, "the beloved physician" of Norwich.
The following pleasing incident, relating to a medical man, came under my
own notice. I often visited a country minister, an intimate friend, a
learned man, and a genius, the quaint originality of whose observations
often reminded me of Fuller, the Church historian, or Charles Lamb.
Although of limited means, the Rev. Robert Winning, of Eaglesham, was ever
hospitable; if he knew of any poor student, he would invite him to the
manse for a month, on the plea that he would help to prepare him for his
examination in Hebrew and Greek. The old manse servant, also an original,
was paid a sum of money as compensation for refusing tips from visitors.
One day, seeing an advertisement of a new book in a magazine I was
reading, Mr. Winning remarked to me, "Andrew, I wish you would buy that
book, _cut the leaves_, and lend it to me to read!"
One evening a message reached him from the village inn, saying that a
doctor had come to an urgent case, which required him to stay over night,
that there was no room in the inn, and asking if the minister could give
him a bed. His wife, knowing the house was full, asked her husband what
they should do. His reply was, "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers,
for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Give him a room,
though we have to sleep on the floor." He was accordingly hospitably
entertained.
Some time after, the minister took ill. The medical guest heard of it,
went to see the local doctor, and, with his consent, visited the minister
twice a week, from a distance of nine miles, and for a period of some four
months, till his death. When the widow afterwards sent for his account, he
said there was none, for it had been more than discharged on the first
evening he had spent at the manse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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