Dr. Chesterfield's letters to his son on medicine as a career / by Sir William B. Dalby.

  • William Bartlett Dalby
Date:
[between 1880 and 1889?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Chesterfield's letters to his son on medicine as a career / by Sir William B. Dalby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Dr. Chesterfi on MedicM to his Son Career. By Siu William ]?. Dalby. M LETTER I. THE PHYSICIAN. Y DEAR SOX,—Now that your student days are coming to an end, you will soon have to make up your mind as to what branch of the medical profession you will follow, and this decision will have so important a bearing upon your future that I propose to devote my next five or six letters to this subject. It will require careful consideration, for when you have at length made your selection and have started on the main line, pray do not forget that you must not leave it, or you will never do any good. Looking back to the early life of those who have been failures, I find that many of them have got on to a side line and been shunted, whilst the crowd of competitors has passed on. I will now endeavour to lay before you not only the advantages and drawbacks of the various departments, or the direction which your work is to take, but, what is of more direct importance, the qualities of mind and character which are the requisites to success in each. You will see, as I proceed to unfold and display my little sketches, how easily you may mistake your vocation by starting in some branch for which you are absolutely unsuited. Of your qualifications for each I must leave you to judge for yourself after I have given you a sort of ordnance map for your guidance. I really do not think that it is possible to exaggerate by any description the marvellous diversities which may exist amongst those who go by the name of doctors with the public. How great are the possibilities may be imagined by reflecting for a moment that men like Ovum and Magnet are evolved out of a medical