Page 195 - Neglected Arabia Vol 1 (3)_Neat

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NEGLECTED ARABIA
I

Missionary News and Letters
Published Quarterly /
FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION AMONG THE FRIENDS OF
THE ARABIAN MISSION
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Some of the Rewards of the Doctor
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Dr. C. S. G, Mylrea
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A S I write the above title, 1 urn reminded of Dumas1 famous book, »
"Twenty Years After.” I have just realized that I can con­
sider such a theme from’ the standpoint of twenty years* ex­
perience. I once heard the great John Deaver say, in the course i •
of some remarks on diagnosis, that while knowledge was indispensable ** l i
mil skill invaluable, still in the long run, other things being equal, it was
the man with the most experience whose opinion was most worth having. l
Experientia docet.
“Some of the rewards of the doctor.” Not an easy theme on which
lo discourse! To many of us it seems as though it is the other side of
tbc coin, the reverse, which naturally presents. In one's pessimistic
jooaients, one recalls how mankind, the world over, when it is ill, loves 1
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d* doctor with its whole soul, longs for his coming and is at rest only
on the assurance which his arrival brings. One then goes on to recall
that mankind, as soon as the strain and anxiety and pain are past,
H*cdily forgets the doctor, even to the ignoring of his little bill. Every i
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ductor's memory is full of promises given in the time of trial, promises
which have remained promises and nothing more. Forgotten is every­
thing, the broken nights, the untouched meals, the weariness, and above •*
ill, the burden of responsibility. How few laymen realize what the
itruggle with death means to the conscientious doctor! In the very
allure of things the doctor cannot always succeed. The grim reaper
will, all too often, take his harvest, and at a breath will-fall, both the
Warded grain and the dowers that grow between. Again and again, with
ioguish in his soul, the doctor must silently face the blame for what *
wii unavoidable. Again and again his success is passed over unacknowl­
edged. "The failures that we make live after us.” Perhaps this is one
rraxm why so many doctors ignore and try to forget their failures.
CcfUiiily, on reading the average medical journal, one is apt to get the •v
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tf^rcssiou that there is very little failure in medicine. At all events very
lew failures are published, especially in surgery.
So much for rather a pessimistic soliloquy, which, after all, will per­
fect* serve only to brighten the other side of the picture, the obverse of
coin. Medicine is not all failure and ingratitude. It does have its
frwards, some of them personal and concerning the individual alone; *
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of them general and benefiting his lay colleagues and the work
&cf are doing.