"SCALPEL AND SWORD"

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 19, 23 January 1937, Page 24

"SCALPEL AND SWORD"

SURGEON & SOLDIER

SIR JAMES ELLIOTT LOOKS BACK

(By "Qulvis.") The excellent title which Dr. Elliott *ias given to his book of' i*ecollections, published under the auspices of Messrs. A. H. and A. W. Heed, of Dunedin and Wellington, is not belied by the contents. A medical man, particularly a surgeon, by his very calling gets a closer insight into human nature than is vouchsafed to almost any other profession one can bring to mind, arid when the medical man can write, his reminiscences are sure to be entertaining and edifying to tlje reader. Dr. Elliott does not present : a list of fellow-practitioners who have taken to authorship, other than the composition of technical treatises on subjects of interest to the profession, but among the names would be some very distinguished writers, including Sir Thomas Browne of "Religio Medici" and "Urn Burial,' 'the poet Akenside, the other Dr. Brown, who wrote."Rab and his Friends," Sir Conan Doyle, of Sherlock Holmes fame,. Dr. Cronin of "The Stars Look Down," and Dr. Axel Munthe of "San Michele." These are just a few names that occur without reference to formal bibliography. All these men had the literary art to the full and the question does arise quite seriously as to whether a course in medicine would not be a very fine apprenticeship to letters. Better, perhaps, not to press the point further, or we shall be having our indispensable bodyguard of doctors, our cordon sanitaire, taking to the much less indispensable trade of literature. As Dr. Elliott says in a chapter on "The Medical Life," full of wise and illuminating reflections: The practice of medicine is one of • the fine arts, not concerned with the mere representation of life, but with life itself, and the highest form of life—mankind. . . . Medical men have not only to fight disease, but with sympathy to understand the individuality of the men, women, and children who need advice ' based on a broad outlook and on deeii knowledge and experience. . . . The medical man needs for the full discharge of his duties, n flexible mind, a convincing personality, .1 groundwork of humour, a superstructure oi common sense, friendliness, simplicity, imagination, and other ill-deflncd qualities, some of them emotional, and, above all, professional skill. The chapters in "Scalpel and Sword" are of varying interest to the average reader. The first and last chapters, for instance, descriptive of New Zealand, seem designed more to create a background for the English reader who does not already know New Zealand. From the New Zealand viewpoint this is a defect common to many books by New Zealand authors, a sort of squint-eyed stance, one eye on Britain and one on New Zealand. As "Scalpel and Sword - ' will appeal to readers in both countries on account of the variety of its contents the defect may be overlooked in this case, but it does tend to break up the unity of impression for the New Zealand reader, who is familiar enough with the general outline of his country, its original .inhabitants, its early history and its scenery. It is, however, to the advantage of a reader who pre-fers-to browse that he can pick uj . any" chapter and become engrossed without feeling a loss of continuity. EARLY WELLINGTON. The author landed as a child with his parents in the Wellington of thtl early eighties and here L one of his first impressions, a homely, whimsical touch that will bring a smile to the lips of readers who can recall something of the earlier days' and the myth of gold picked up in the streets: A phenomenon displayed itself to my wondering eyes and childish thoughts. There he [their host] was. his baldness a perfect tonsure, and his body wrapped in a brown dress-ing-gown with a cincture of corded rope tiec round the bulging of his equatorial part. He had a buckct in one hand and a coal-scuttle shovel In the other, and he was gathering soft juoist, golden, irregular heaps off the roadway What was It for? Surely, gold was not sc easily come by. Here was a first impresslnr cut deep and indelibly Into a lasting memory like many another airy fancy, to be reducec to the commonplace in turn as often as not, itself uplifted into something fanciful. The sordid, gold stuff of the road was for the materia: purpose of earth burial, to iiurture the rose: in the garden, and to sweeten tlio elusive fragrance of their essence. The chapter on Wellington, seen by a boy in the eighties and nineties, is most interesting, full of anecdotes and Stories picturesquely told. Here are -the old horse-trams: At the stopping-places of these public Vehicles was written on the nearest lamp-post 'the sign, "Walt Here for Tram and Bus," and a wag, by the deletion of one letter and the addition of two, made it read: "Walt Here 01 fframp and Bust." Then there is old Wellington by Bight:. At • night the streets are . quiet, for' the foiilest fiends in the hierarchy of noises, the electric' tramcars and ■ motor-cycles, are qulel enough In the womb of time. "All the aii a solemri stillness holds," save for the rumble and rattle of the night-carts, which with the pan-closets of Te Aro, and a generally unsatisfactory disposal of night-soil, are the causes of outbreaks of typhoid fever often taxing tile accommodation at the public hospital. This statement may appear a little impolite, but it Is Just as true as the undoubted fact that a dose of calomel or Epsomsalt will alter and make sanguine the mental outlook of a man surly and depressed prior to bis medication. DUNEDIN AND EDINBURGH. Electing to become a doctor, the young Elliott goes first to Dunedin tc attend Otago University, of which excellent descriptions are given, and then to Edinburgh, the home of medicine. Here in the nineties Elliott came across many famous men of whom he gives some graphic pen pictures. While still a medical student he enlists for service in the South African War, oi the mismanagement of the medical side of which at the beginning he •writes with a caustic pen. Then back to Edinburgh to complete his studies and become a full-fledged doctor. The Journey back seemed slow, and it was well on into darkness when I reached the Medical School. Tho paas-llst was hung up on a wall In the gloom inside the quadrangle, but high and massive Iron gates barred the way. I scaled the gate, how I do not know until this day, and lit a match. In Its flickering light I saw my name. . . Then follow two chapters on the "Romance of Medicine" and "The Medical Life," and after that the Greal War and Dr. Elliott's service in "The White Ship," the hospital ship Maheno ; for which the author conceived a deer affection, expressed in the chapter "Farewell, White Ship." After the wai Dr. Elliott paid a visit to America ;with a small group of distinguished Australian and New Zealand medica. men to be made Fellows of the American College of Surgeons. The chapter "Among the Americans" is brilliantly witty and ironical. "There was food," says the author, "overabundant and to spare, and America ■was the one country on earth that hac become enriched by the Great War She bore then no signs of her Scan and Stripes." But he has this to saj at the finish: Thero are no better wen to be met witt anywhere than the lilghci types of Americans On the whole, English people have more tc }eorn from Americans than Americans car learn from Englishmen. The Ameitons ii the main strive harder mean business They are free from the afPcctation that not cood form to be serious or earnest. Th< areatest league in the world, for its peac< Bod prr»£Tess, is an .English-speaking Alliance

It will be a crime before God If these two great nations 011 each side of the Atlantic, each speaking the tongue of Shakespeare and of Milton, and with similar Ideals, drift apart from jealousy or impatience or from any other cause. "Scalpel and Sword" is a good book, full of good things, tempting ever to quote, were there space for further quotation. One more must suffice as a fitting ending with something of Stevenson in the style: Whatever happens—and no doubt great things are coming—the doctor must always endeavour to be the patient's most weleomc sight. He will ever need not only sympathy and forbearance but also courage and tenacity, for ho well knows he is fighting a rearguard action against, th© .Angel of Death, and will be beaten In the end.