The joy of joys by few possessed, That friends may weep, the worthy sigh, Pleasant manners, a neat office, close attention, good legal acquirements, perseverance, and small expenses, will insure to any member of the bar the means of making money. The amount he makes will depend mainly upon the care and attention he gives to his CHAPTER XXI. THE PHYSICIAN. This is the way physicians mend or end us, LORD BYRON. We belong to a profession in which there have been in every age men whom we may be proud to call our fathers. But a man whose father was ennobled on account of his high character and great services to the cause of humanity, does not necessarily derive advantage from the title which descends to him. He does so only when he imitates the virtues of his parent, and labors for the common good. A desire for profit and reputation might be enough to prompt him to do all this; it would also be good policy. But he will not do it with a full certainty of success if he be not influenced by still higher motives, by a true love of science and humanity. JAMES JACKSON, M. D., LL. D. ERE is another branch of the higher or intellectual labor. In this, as in all other branches, there are degrees of usefulness and of necessity, of skill and education; while the profession is still eminently intellectual, useful, and necessary, in at least its loftier development, to the comfort and best activities of man. At the same time it supplies the means of making an independence, or of raising a competence to a fortune. The general business of the art of healing is subdi vided into several branches some more, some less intellectual; some more, some less mechanical; though all profess the application in practice of the controlling principle which binds them to this division of labor. The object of this chapter is not to show what constitutes a good, or what a bad, or what an indifferent practitioner, what is skill or what are clumsiness and malpractice, in the profession. Each is taken as he is; and our aim is to show how he can make the most money with such knowledge and skill as he possesses, presupposing that the more knowledge and the more skill he exhibits, the wider will be the range of his service and the greater his pecuniary returns therefrom. It is a general remark that professional workers pay little attention to their monetary affairs, and that they are commonly poor for the reason that they consider money of little account. There are, indeed, some such melancholy examples of humankind. They have few real wants; those are simple, and are easily satisfied. So long as they have some sort of clothing to wear, any food to eat that will satisfy hunger, and plenty of books to read, their money wants remain just the equivalent of their expenditures. They will not check, thwart, perhaps destroy their natural tastes by the engrossing cares of wealth sometimes not even by the keeping of the simplest books of account. They see no genuine satis faction in a heap of glittering gold, which requires sleepless nights and vigilant days to guard or to manage in its investments, while it will give to them, they hold, nothing more than they already possess. To them the pleasure of acquiring knowledge is far greater than to the miser is the pleasure of acquiring gold. The miser in his turn takes no heed of the employments of the professional man; they would be irksome to him, while to the professional the occupations and joys of the miser would be but weariness and disgust. Notwithstanding these contrasted views, however, every practitioner in a profession has his own moral, social, and political duties to perform; and he should be faithful to them. He has a right to strive for his personal independence and for the independence of all dependent upon him, as his first great duty; and afterwards to indulge his tastes and inclinations. Several ways exist in which these ends can be reached, some of which will be detailed hereafter. But the public can make no rightful demand that he shall labor beyond this point, while it has a solid claim that he shall be steady to his trust until that end is attained. The leading elements of success in the profession of the physician are knowledge and skill; after these is kind, pleasant, winning, gentle demeanor. No one can fully estimate the value of such manners, in the substantial fees they will return to the possessor, especially to the doctor, since he has to deal with human nature in its most nervous, sensitive, and excitable states. The very presence of an angel of mercy, a true healer, at such a time, seems to quiet the sufferer, soothe his pains, and allay his disease, almost without medicine. On some afflicted beings the influence of a magnetic nature is truly marvelous; and if it has no greater result on others not so susceptible, it nevertheless renders his presence in the sick-chamber a ray, or rather flood, of sunshine that stimulates, encourages, and vivifies the enfeebled system. On the contrary the reverse qualities chafe, excite, irritate, prompt a repulsion and ill reputation which operate most unfavorably upon his prospects of employment and success. Many cases are on record or held in memory where the more pleasing qualities, combined with mere average skill, brought more business and money than the highest technical qualifications, unsupported by attractive personal traits. Our proposition, however, is almost an axiom, and needs no further illustration, much less argument or appeal. Civil treatment of everybody is an indispensable requisite to the physician who would procure the most in return for the exercise of his abilities and skill. He may carry uncivil conduct to such an extreme as to neutralize almost entirely his talents and reputation, and he be able to get patients only in extreme cases, or when no other practitioner happens to be at hand. No reasoning need be undertaken to show that he loses money, and that seriously, by such a course, as he |