Book on the physician himself : and things that concern his reputation and success / by D.W. Cathell.
- Cathell, D. W. (Daniel Webster), 1839-1925
- Date:
- [©1892], 1893
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Book on the physician himself : and things that concern his reputation and success / by D.W. Cathell. Source: Wellcome Collection.
333/380 (page 319)
![the Sabbaths to call your own,—when your harvest is past and your summer is ended you will have but little, very little, left to support you when you reach the down-hill of life, or are broken down in health, with memory worn out, eyes dim, arms’ strength and hands’ cunning lost, other faculties deteriorated, unfit, unable to work, and in need of a physician yourself. “Thus they who reach Gray hairs die piecemeal.” The physician is, as a rule, so poor a man of business that if he receives money enough to meet his necessities he is but seldom troubled about the balance. Money comes, money goes, and he saves nothing. The writer had a friend, a strong man and an excellent physician, who detested keeping accounts, and was so neglectful about his fees that he kept no systematic register of charges and payments whatever, trusted all to his memory, and rarely sent a bill; the result was that his easy and convenient terms, together with his superior skill, made him extremely popular, and brought him more business than he could do justice to, and kept him overworked day and night, until, at the end of fourteen years, the incessant fatigue, exposure, anxiety, and crowding cares of his overgrown prac¬ tice ran him off his legs, broke down his giant strength, and he died, almost, as it were, by suicide, leaving his starving wife and unfed children without a dollar—yes! nothing—except painful regret at his improvidence and lamentable lack of busi¬ ness system. He was, indeed, the “pet of the town” while he lived; but how fared his wife and children after his life’s work was over] Be it your duty to self and to others to guard against such a system, or, rather, lack of system; for, while you owe certain duties to your patients, you also owe some to yourself and some to your family, if you have one, and no man should ever sacrifice and neglect either department for the other. One would suppose that physicians, whose lives are spent in preventing and curing disease in others, might themselves](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29323824_0333.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
