Henry Baird Favill, AB, MD, LL.D., 1860-1916, a ... - University Library

582 HENRY BAIRD FAVILL
competent to assume any medical responsibility, and to
this fact is due largely the notable conservatism which
characterized his surgical views.
No man knew better than he the triumphs and possibilities
of operative management. No one was less carried
away, by enticing possibilities, from the sound footing of
medical judgment. In many directions, the evolution of medical
thought went past him, fell back of him, and finally
stands at this moment abreast of a position which through
it all he steadily maintained. To his breadth of view as to
the human body, in other words, to his all around development
as a physician, is due this recognized soundness.
In other directions not technical, in the broad human
relationships between doctor and patient, he maintained
an equal poise. Occupying a position where he could have
arbitrarily commanded extreme material rewards, he habitually
maintained a conservative attitude. His patient's
real interest was his interest, and he rarely was beguiled
into the sophistries of modern professional relations.
To the mind unaccustomed to consider medical specialization
in its effect upon individuals, these reflections may
not seem so important, but to the medical mind fully
appreciating the dangers and disadvantages of too narrow
lines of thought and activity, the characteristics of Doctor
Senn stand out not only as noteworthy, but as offering a
demonstration that breadth and depth are not incompatible.
Surgery owes him an inexpressible debt, but those who
knew him best, and particularly during the greater part
of his life when he was an active factor in general medical
affairs, know that his greatest contribution to the interest,
intensity, ideals, and scientific conception of medicine was
as a physician.