"Speaking of operations--" / by Irvin S. Cobb ... illustrations by Tony Sarg.
- Irvin S. Cobb
- Date:
- [1915], ©1915
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: "Speaking of operations--" / by Irvin S. Cobb ... illustrations by Tony Sarg. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![as being a person of character and decision and scholarly attainments. He wore whiskers. Somehow in my mind whiskers are ever acsociated with medical skill. I presume this is a heritage of my youth, though I believe others labor under the same impression. As I look back it seems to me that in childhood’s days all the doctors in our town wore whiskers. I recall one old doctor down there in Kentucky who was practically lurking in ambush all the time. All he needed was a few decoys out in front of him and a pump gun to be a duck blind. He carried his calomel about with him in a fruit jar, and when there was a cutting job he stropped his scalpel on his bootleg. You see, in those primitive times germs had not been invented yet, and so he did not have to take any steps to avoid them. Now we know that loose, luxuriant whisk¬ ers are unsanitary, because they make such fine winter quarters for germs; so, though the doctors still wear whiskers, they do not wear them wild and waving. In the pro¬ fession bosky whiskers are taboo; they must [17]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29817675_0023.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
