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                         THE HOSPITAL BULLETIN


      Published Monthly in the Interest of the Medical Department
                     of the University of Maryland

                          PRICE $1.00 PER YEAR

        Contributions invited from the Alumni of the University.
                    Business Address, Baltimore, Md.

                  Entered at the Baltimore Post-office
                        as Second Class Matter.

            VOL. V BALTIMORE, Md., APRIL 15, 1909      No. 2

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                THE ETHICS OF THE GENERAL PRACTITIONER.

             _An Address delivered Before the University of
                     Maryland Medical Association,
                            March 16, 1909_,

                          BY GUY STEELE, M. D.
                           Of Cambridge, Md.


A celebrated divine once said that the most difficult part of a sermon
was the selection of a proper text. I must thank the President of this
society for saving me this trouble. When, however, Webster's is
consulted for a proper definition of the word "Ethics," and it is found
to mean "The science of human duty," it would seem that he has chosen a
text almost too comprehensive for the limits of a short paper, even when
restricted to the "ethics of the medical profession." It may not be out
of place to thank him for the honor he has conferred upon me by deeming
one whose student days are scarce twelve years behind him worthy of
presenting this subject to you, for a paper on this topic is almost of
itself a sermon, and we naturally look up to those, whose many years of
experience and works have brought them prominence, for instruction in
morals and duty. Still, I take it, whether young or old, all of us like
to preach on fitting occasions, and not the least part of the
inspiration to effort is the character of the audience. My invitation
was to read a paper before the Clinical Society, and incidentally I was
told that some of the students had expressed a desire to be present.
Little, however, did I anticipate such a flattering attendance from them
when examination time so nearly approached, and it is evidence of a most
commendable spirit when they can bring themselves to take even an hour
of their most valuable time from study to devote to a consideration of
the moral duties and responsibilities which shall be theirs when they
shall have passed through the April ordeal. Much that I have to say
tonight will be directed especially to them, and if they or their elders
in the profession may in the years to come look back upon this night
with the recollection that I have more forcibly brought to mind some of
the old and half-forgotten maxims and axioms that make for a better and
purer professional life, I will have been more than repaid for the time
I have expended in the preparation of this paper.

In discussing the ethics of the general practitioner towards his
patient, I would have you remember that your first and most important
duty is to give to those who trust you the very best that is in you.

To you young men, full of enthusiasm for your new profession, and imbued
with Utopian ideas of the mission which you have undertaken for the good
of mankind, it would seem almost foolish for me to mention this as the
first advice I would offer you. But I think I can see a smile of
understanding flit across the faces of those who have for some years
fought the battle of life, and who have had the wire edge of early
ambitions and determinations blunted by contact with unappreciative
patients and unworthy professional competition and the daily incidents
of a busy life. They know that it is very easy to feel too tired, or be
too busy, or have some other engrossing affair in mind which prevents
that entire devotion to duty which all admit is essential to success in
medicine. Half of success in life or in any undertaking is due to a
successful start; therefore, let me ask you to firmly determine on one
or two fixed principles, and to stick to those principles through thick
and thin. Be fully assured that no halfway devotion to your profession
will ever bring you prominence or success. The time-worn phrase that
"Medicine is a jealous mistress" loses none of its truth by frequent
repetition. Recently I saw in a prominent medical journal the advice
given that doctors should take a prominent part in politics and bring
themselves forward in other ways, and that thereby in some way unknown
to me the glory of the profession would be enhanced, and much benefit
result to the community. Far be it from me to discourage a proper civic
spirit and a proper interest in public affairs, or to advise an
avoidance of any duty which good citizenship imposes upon every honest,
patriotic man, whatever his business or profession. But I take it that
no more baneful, no more dangerous advice can be given to our young
professional man than this. You cannot be successful in both politics
and medicine, and while we can point to one member of our profession in
the United States Senate, and to some notable exceptions in our own
State, where men of our