mplished and is accomplishing as the great head and organizer of the
largest steel business in the United States. Oliver Wendell Holmes was
successful as a physician and yet what would the world have lost if he had
devoted his entire time and attention to the practice of medicine! Glen
Buck once studied for the ministry. Imagine big, liberty-loving, outspoken
Glen Buck trying to speak the truth as God gave him to see the truth and
at the same time keep his artistic, literary, financial, and dramatic
talents confined within the limits of a pastor's activities. So it is that
some men are too meek and too small for the professions--others too
aggressive, too versatile, and too independent for the routine of
professional life. Still others have decided talents which qualify them
for unusual success in other vocations. If a man has unusual intellectual
attainment, he either does or does not acquire extensive education. If he
does not, the probabilities are that he will enter business; he will
become a merchant, a manufacturer, a promoter, a banker, or a railroad
man. In some one of the departments of industry, commerce, transportation,
or finance, he makes a place for himself by hard work, beginning at the
bottom. If, on the other hand, circumstances are such that he can secure
an education, then he passes by business, manufacturing, transportation,
finance; he must forsooth become a doctor, a lawyer, a preacher, an
editor, or an engineer. The question of vocation is thus, all too often,
decided by the incident of education and not according to natural
aptitudes.

INDICATIONS OF SUCCESS IN MEDICINE

The young man who is ambitious to enter upon a profession ought to study
himself carefully before beginning his preparation. He ought to know, not
guess, whether he is qualified for the highest form of success in his
chosen vocation. And there is no reason why he should not know. In the
appendix to this work we have outlined the leading characteristics
required for success in medicine. Some of these are absolutely
essential--others contributory. Among the essentials are health, a
scientific mind, pleasure in dealing with people in an intimate way,
ability to inspire confidence, and courage. Many a young man has taken
highest honors in medical school only to fail in practice because he could
not handle people successfully, or because he lacked the courage to face
the constant reiteration of complaints and suffering by his patients