I am, as you know, not a young man, and in the practice of my
profession, which has extended over a period of nearly thirty years, I
have learned to diagnose the cases that come under my care very slowly
and by degrees. Every year has taught me, what you will undoubtedly
learn--for I have great hopes for your future career--that physical
symptoms are often the results of mental ailments, and that, while
cordials and powders are sometimes very useful aids, the first and
all-important thing is to understand fully the _true_ history of my
patient.
I have laid stress upon the word true, simply because while _a_ history
is easy enough to get, about the most difficult matter in this world to
secure is _the_ history of one who comes to a physician ailing in body
or in mind. It is easy enough to treat a broken leg, a gunshot wound, or
even that ghastliest of physical foes, diphtheria, if it is one of these
and nothing more.
But if it is a broken leg as to outward sign, and a broken heart as an
inward fact, then the case is quite another matter, and the treatment
involves skill of a different kind.
If the bullet that tore its way through the body was poisoned with the
bitterness of disappointment, anxiety, terror, or remorse, something
more is needed than bandages and beef-tea.
If diphtheria was contracted solely from a defective sewage-pipe, it
will, no doubt, yield to remedies and pure air. But if long years of
nervous and mental prostration have made ready its reception, the work
to be done is of a much more serious nature.
So when I was first called to see Florence Campbell, the message
conveyed to me threw no light on the case, beyond what the most ordinary
observer would have detected at a glance.
The note read thus:
"Dr. H. Hamilton.
"Dear Sir: Although I have been in your city for several months, it
is the first time since I came that I have myself felt that I needed
medical attention. I have, therefore, not sent you the enclosed note
(the history of which you no doubt know) until now. If you will read it,
it will explain that the time has now come when, if you will come to me,
I need your care.
"Yours respectfully,
"Florence Campbell."
"Parlor 13, F------ Ave. Hotel."
The note enclosed was from a physician in Chicago whom I had known
intimately many years before, but with whom, contrary to the hint given
by the lady, I had held no communication for a long time past. It said:
"My Dear Doctor: One of my patients is about to visit your city. The
length of her stay is uncertain, and, as she is often ailing, she has
asked me to give her a note to one whom I believe to be skilful and to
possess the qualities which she requires in a physician. In thinking
over the list of those known to me in New York, I have decided to give
her this note to you. I need not commend her to you; she will do that
for herself. You will see at a glance that she is a charming woman, and
you will learn in five minutes' conversation with her, that she is a
brilliant one. She is also one of those rare patients to whom you
can afford to tell the unvarnished truth--an old hobby of yours, I
remember--and from whom you can expect it. She has had no serious
illness recently, but is rather subject to slight colds and sick
headache. I give her sulph. 12. She always responds to that in time.
"Yours, as ever,
"Thomas C. Griswold."
I folded the note and laid it on my desk and took up a pen. Then,
on second thought, I turned to the messenger and said, "Say to Miss
Campbell that I will call at four o'clock this afternoon."
Before I had finished the sentence he was gone, and I laid down the pen
and sat thinking.
How like Tom Griswold that was--the old Tom of college days--to write
such a note as that and give it to a patient! "Sulph. 12"--and then
I laughed outright at his interpretation of my desire for veracious
relations between patient and practitioner, and re-read his note from
end to end.
Then I read hers again. Neither of them indicated the slightest need of
haste on my part.
I pictured a pretty little blonde--I knew Tom's taste. He had been
betrothed to three different girls during the old days, and they had all
been of that type; small, blue-eyed, Dresden-china sort of girls,
who had each pouted--and married someone else in due time, after a
"misunderstanding" with Tom.
One of these misunderstandings had been over some roses, I remember.
They did not "match" her dress in color, and she was wretched. She told
him he should have known better than to get that shade, when he knew
very well that she never wore anything that would "go with" it.
He had naturally felt a little hurt, since he had bought the finest
and highest-priced roses to be had, and expected ecstatic praise of his
taste and extravagance. The "misunderstanding" was final, and, after a
wretched evening and several days of tragic grief, five tinted notes of
sorrow, reproach, and pride, they each began to flirt with some one else
and to talk of the inconstancy of the other sex. They vowed, of course,
that they would never marry anybody on earth, and finally engaged
themselves to marry some one else, who perhaps, had just passed through
a similar harrowing experience and was yearning to be consoled.
I remember that Tom smoked a great deal during this tragic period, that
he looked gloomy, wore only black neckties, and allowed a cold to run on
until it became thoroughly settled and had to be nursed all the rest of
the winter.
He knew that smoking injured him, and he doubtless had an idea that he
would end his misery by means of this cold, supplemented by nicotine
poison. How near he might have approached to success it would be
difficult to tell, if he had not met my sister Nellie at Christmas-time,
and, after having told his woes to her, promised her, "as a friend," not
to smoke again for three days and then to report to her. The report was
satisfactory, and she then confessed that she had forsworn bonbons for
the same length of time, as a sort of companionship in sacrifice.
This, of course, impressed Tom as a truly remarkable test of friendship
and sympathy, and,--well, what is the use to tell the rest?
You will know it. It had no new features, so far as I can now recall,
and I believe that they had been betrothed six months before Nellie
met grave old Professor Menlo and began the study of Greek roots and
mythology.
I think that, perhaps, Tom would have been all right if it had not been
for the mythology. But Nellie was romantic, and the professor was an
enthusiast in this branch of knowledge, and so, by and by, Tom, poor
devil, took to smoking again--this time it was a pipe--and local
papers were filled with notices of the romantic marriage of "Wisdom and
Beauty," and poor little Nellie wrote a pathetic note to Tom, and sent
it by me, with frantic directions not to allow him to kill himself
because she had not understood her own heart; but that she loved
him truly--as a friend--still, and he must come to see her and _her_
professor in their new home on the hill. And, dear, dear, what a time
I had with Tom! It is funny enough now; but even I felt sorry for him
then, and shielded him from the least unnecessary pain by telling
the boys that they absolutely must not congratulate me on my sister's
marriage, nor mention it in any way whatever, when Tom was present,
unless they wanted to have trouble with me personally.
And to think that Tom married Kittie Johnson before he had fairly
finished his first year in the hospital service; and had to take her
home for his father to support! Since then I had seen him from time to
time, and heard of his large practice, his numerous children, and his
elegant home; but he never talked of his wife, although I believed him
to be perfectly satisfied with her. He seemed content, was prosperous
beyond expectation, and had grown fat and gouty, when I last saw him at
a medical convention. He attributed his too great flesh and his gout
to the climate of his Western home, and was constantly threatening to
retire from practice, and said that he should ultimately come to New
York to live.
Yes, undoubtedly Florence Campbell is a petite blonde, with little white
teeth and a roseleaf cheek, thought I, and I laughed, and rang for my
carriage.