ession, and I had almost
forgotten to set among them, as a study of character, the life of the
tranquil, high-minded Jenner, the country doctor who swept the scars of
smallpox from the faces of the world of men, and beside him John Hunter,
his friend, impulsive, quick of temper, enthusiastic, an intensely
practical man of science. These are illustrations of men of the most
varied types, whose works show their characteristics, and who would, in
the end, I fancy, have been very different had fate set them other tasks
in life, for if the sculptor makes the statue, we may rest quite sure
that the statue he makes influences the man who made it.

These, I have said, are our heroes, but I still think there remains to
be written the simple, honest, dutiful story of an intelligent,
thoughtful, every-day doctor, such as will pleasantly and fitly open to
laymen some true conception of the life he leads, its cares, its trials,
its influences on himself and others and its varied rewards. John Brown
got closest to it in that sketch of his father, and in her
delicately-drawn "Country Doctor" Miss Jewett has done us gentle
service. But my doctor would differ somewhat in all lands, because
nationality and social conventions have their influence on us as on
other men, as any one may observe who compares the clergymen of the
Episcopal Church in America with those of England.

The man who deals with the physician in fiction would have to consider
this class of facts, for social conventions have assigned to the
physician in England, at least, a very different position from that
which he holds with us, where he has no social superior, and is usually
in all small communities, and in some larger ones, the most eminent
personage and the man of largest influence.

In the rage for novel characters the lady doctor has of late assumed her
place in fiction. Lots of wives have been picked up among hospital
nurses, especially since the Crimean war, and since other women than
Sisters of Charity got into the business, and so made to seem probable
this pleasing termination of an illness. There was a case well known to
me where a young officer simulated delirium tremens in order to get near
to a Sister of Charity. If ever you had seen the lady, you would not
have wondered at his madness; and should any author desire to utilize
this incident, let him comprehend that the order of Sisters of Charity
admits of its members leaving the ranks by marriage, thei