Doctor and patient / by S. Weir Mitchell.

  • Silas Weir Mitchell
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Doctor and patient / by S. Weir Mitchell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    great appearance of what must be at times merely acted interest, are harmful. When I was a small boy, rny father watched me one day hoeing in' my little garden. In reply to a question, I said I was digging up my potatoes to see if they were growing. He laughed, and returned, When you are a man, you will find it unwise to dig up your potatoes every day to see if they are growing. i^or has the moral of his remark been lost on me. It is as useless to be constantly digging up a person's symptoms to see if they are better, and still greater folly to preach long sermons of advice to such as are under the despotism of ungov- erned emotion, or whirled on the wayward cur- rents of hysteria. To read the riot act to a mob of emotions is valueless, and he who is wise will choose a more wholesome hour for his exhorta- tions. Before and after are the preacher's hope- ful occasions, not the moment when excitement is at its highest, and the self-control we seek to get help from at its lowest ebb. There are, as I have said, two periods when such an efibrt is wise,—the days of health, or of the small beginnings of nervousness, and of the uncontrol which is born of it, and the time when.
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