NEW SERIES, VOL. XL MAY, 1938 No. 2

I is the leading independent surgical Journal. It publishes many pa R

rs read before the outstanding Surgical Societies, but it is rtot ‘“the o cial . organ” of any organization.

EDITORlAL BOARD

Editor :

C. R .O’C&k9 Louis E .Pbancuf Eugene H .Pool ~ouglaa Quick N .P. R&bun H . A. Roy&r Henry S. Ruth A.C.5kot.t M.G.&clig St. Louir 3, Bentley squier ?qeew To+ H. J. Stander ww rmh George w . swift Seattle H. L. Updcgtaff Los Angeles Grant E. Ward BakinwTe I, H. W&y San Fr‘%&%o

DIGNITY IN MEDICINE

nECENTLY we attended a dinner tendered to a country fl genera1 practitioner who had completed fifty years

of service in medicine. This gentIeman, serving a rura1 community, has Iived through the manifoId changes in medica practice which have marked the past haIf century. He has been active both in community and in medical affairs, has served on countIess committees and has been eIected to the presidency of his county medica society. He has the respect and affection of his medica coMeagues, who know that he is a good doctor, a credit to the profession. Outside of his community he is unknown.

His friends and feIIow workers, gathered to do him honor, presented him with a gift, and in acknowIedging it, he feIt caIIed upon “to say a few words,“-words, which among other things, stated something of the credo and phiIosophy which had governed his Iife.

“The medica coIIeges of today,” said he, “are graduating men better equipped than those graduated in my time. HospitaIs are more numerous; and there is no comparison between the scientific equipment of the hospital of today and the one of fifty years ago-or even with the one of twenty years ago. The intern today is undoubtedIy being we11 trained.

“But medicine has in it today more of the science than of the art. When I began in practice, the young doctor did not have a doIIar sign as his goal. He went into medicine because medicine fiIIed his heart, and he feIt it was his destiny in Iife to serve his feliow humans. He beIieved in the axiom, ‘Do good work and the money wiI1 Iook after itseIf.’ In my Iifetime I have done more work with the knowledge that I wouId receive no remuneration for it than work for which I have been paid.

“I, J&eve in the ethics of our calling. Our ethics caII

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322 American Journal of Surgery Edits xiaIs MAY,XQ~~

for no debate. Economic conditions are no excuse for making changes that wiIl aIIow of a fuIIer purse. I beIieve that every physician shouId acquaint himseIf with the probIems of the profession, and then vote fearIessIy and honestly when the time arrives for their consideration.

“I be&eve WhoIeheartedIy in the Ameri- can MedicaI Association. It represents the backbone, heart and brain of our calling. 1 believe that every seIf-respecting physician shouId be a member of his county medica society and that he should be active in that society. He shouid cooperate in sending we11 instructed deie- gates to the meetings of the state society; they in turn can send on proper deIegates to the annua1 meetings of the American MedicaI Association. He shouId abide by the final findings and ruIings of the parent body. If individual physicians, or groups of physicians, become free lances and break away from the parent organization just because the majority have voted contrary to their beIiefs, disaster is around the corner for American medicine.

“Put up your fight in your state and county societies, but, if defeated, abide

by the decisions reached by the majority. Outside groups, groups that go contrary to the decisions reached by the House of DeIegates of the American MedicaI ASSO- ciation, have no part in organized medicine and should be frowned upon.

“I think that today the young man in medicine is concerning himseIf more with the so-caIIed economic side of his work, especiaIIy in his probIem of gathering in more and more doIIars. He seems to be Iess concerned in serving his feIIows. Hc is forgetting that medicine is a profession and not a business.

‘<In my day medicine was a thing of great dignity. I wish that those days couId return, In the present day medical schools I wouId have a part of the curricuIum each year devoted to a course of Iectures aimed toward the return of dignity to physicians, even though scientific medicine might suffer a bit for the time sacrificed.

“I am gIad I have been a physician. I look back on a happy Iife. It is my honest conviction that medicine is the greatest of a11 professions.”

To a11 of which we say-“Amen.” T. S. W.

CO~GRAT~LAT~O~S AND BEST WISHES

T HE W. B. Saunders Company has been celebrating this spring its fiftieth anniversary as a publisher of books

for the medica profession. The highIight of the festivities was a dinner in PhiIa- deIphia on March dth, given in honor of Mr. Max BriideI, Associate Professor of Art As AppIied to Medicine in the Schoof of Medicine of Johns Hopkins University.

The occasion was a very joyous one, with both the pubIishing fieId and the physicians of the country we11 represented. Mr. R. W. Greene, vice-president of the company, gave the address of weIcome. Dr. Thomas S. CuIIen acted as toast- master. Dr. Howard A. KeIIy spoke of Max Br8deI’s contributions to the fieId of gynecoIogy; Dr. CuIIen described the creation of the Department of Art As AppIied to Medicine in Johns Hopkins; Dr. Morris Fishbein was at his best in a discussion of Max Br6deI’s influence on medicai iIIustrating; and Mr. Henry L. Mencken read a very witty essay on Max

Br6deI as a pianist. A portrait in oils of Mr. Br6de1, painted by Thomas Corner, was presented to Johns Hopkins by Mr. Lawrence Saunders and accepted for the University by its provost, Dr. Edward W. Berry. Mr. BrijdeI himself gave one of his CharacteristicaIIy modest talks.

It was an occasion which honored not onIy the recipient, but aIso the donor. Max Briidel’s work is a milestone in medica art, and the Saunders Company has set many a miIestone in medica pubIishing. We, in the name of The American JournaI of Surgery, take this opportunity to offer our sincere congratuia- tions to the W. B. Saunders Company, a medical pubIishing house with a half century of tradition and creditabIe per- formance behind it. We hope that in the next fifty years, further prosperity wiII come, together with a greater opportunity to serve the medica profession of this country and of the world.

T. s. WI