The ideal physician : his early training and future prospects : including the Naval Medical Service, Indian Medical Service, and the Irish Poor Law Medical Service / by Sir Lambert H. Ormsby.

  • Ormsby, Lambert Hepenstal, 1849-1923.
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The ideal physician : his early training and future prospects : including the Naval Medical Service, Indian Medical Service, and the Irish Poor Law Medical Service / by Sir Lambert H. Ormsby. 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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    knew we should have a number of qualified brethren, senior and junior, present, and they would hardly go to tlie trouble of follow- ing me through high-sounding platitudes with a sprinkling of poetry to make it read well in pamphlet form. I therefore select for my Address to-day the following subject:— “ THE IDEAL PHYSICIAN : HIS EARLY TRAINING AND FUTURE PROSPECTS.’’ To be an ideal physician should be the aim of every man who embraces medicine as a profession. Everyone is not gifted with the same qualifications for a successful career. Some few, indeed, may be born with considerable ability, but at the same time endowed with a rough, overbearing manner, yet by sheer deter- mination these may force their way into the front ranks of their profession. But such disregard for the feelings of others and such lack of politeness must always tell against their success in the long run. Others adopt this Abernethian style from ignorance. I regret to say it appears to be an age where young men are prone to pay but scant courtesy to their seniors, under the mistaken idea that having been born in a more enlightened age they could not possibly learn anything worth knowing from those who have gone before. This is a popular fallacy, and the outcome of youth- ful presumption and want of experience and common sense, for the more a medical student or young practitioner learns the more he appreciates those master minds who have been the pioneers- of his profession. The early training of the ideal physician, as for any other ideal, must be undertaken with very great care. It is, in fact, a pre- paration for a great and serious struggle, a most momentous battle. A youth must start as a student determined to succeed. Fix, then, in your own mind some successful model, and ascertain the means by which he succeeded, whether by tact, industry, skill, or a combination of all these, and then strive with all your might to acquire the same qualities. Take care in starting that you are equipped with all the necessary armour and weapons for the encounter upon which you have entered. Be industrious, punctual, cheerful, kindly, courteous to your seniors, respectful to your teachers, and prune oil those small objectionable asperities which might hereafter be the means of retarding your progress ; and above all avoid that sorry band