The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

•JISTHE HEALTH BULLETIN.THE DOCTOR'S DREAMA Graphic Picture of a Doctor's Duties As They Are andAs They Should BeBy Dr. Victor C. Vaughan, President American Medical Association, Ann Arbor, Mich.The Dreamer.Dr. Smith is a practitiontr in oneof the large cities of the Middle West.He is a man of good training, a classicalgraduate, took his professionalcourse in one of our best schools, anddid hospital service both at home andabroad. He is a general practitionerand keeps well posted in all that hedoes. He makes no claim to universalknowledge or skill, but is conscientiousin all his work, and when hemeets with a case needing the serviceof a specialist he does not hesitate tocall in the best help. He has made agood living, demands fair fees fromthose who are able to pay, and givesmuch gratuitous service to the poor.He is beloved by his patients, held inhigh esteem by his confreres, and isrespected by all who know him. Heis a keen observer, reads character forthe most part correctly, and is not easilyimposed upon. While he recognizesthe value of his services, he is not inthe practice of medicine with the expectationof getting rich, and his interestsare largely human and scientific.He has deep sympathy for thosewhose ignorance leads them to sinagainst their own bodies, but he is devoidof weak sentimentality and doesnot hesitate to admonish and even denouncethe misdeeds of his patientswhatever their social position. Duringtwenty years of practice in thesame locality he has become acquaintedwith the vices and virtues ofmany families.He is not looking for the coming ofthe millenlum, but he is often impatientof the slow pace with which therace moves toward physical, mentaland moral betterment. One of his patronsis a large manufacturer employingmany unskilled laborers. Dr.Smith has often pointed out to thisman that the efficiency of his workingforce would be multiplied many timeswere the men paid better wages, thework done in rooms better lighted andventilated, and in general with a littlemore humaneness shown them. Anotheris at the head of a big mercantilehouse which employs clerks at thelowest possible wages and makes theconditions of life well nigh unendurable.A wealthy woman gives largelyto church and charity from her revenues,which come from the rental ofhouses in the red light district. Anotherof the doctor's patrons is a grocerwho sells "egg substitutes" andsimilar products "all guaranteed underthe pure food law."We will not continue the list of thedoctor's patrons, and it must not oe inferredthat all are bad, for this is nottrue. The majority are honest, conscientious,people as is the case in allcommunities. Our country has a populationof nearly one hundred millions.Millions of these are decent, respectablecitizens, not altogether wise, butfor the most part well intentioned.Thousands are brutal in their instincts,criminal in their pursuits, andbreeders of their kind. We claim tobe civilized, but there are those amongus who would be stoned to death were