Thomas Trotter, M. D / by Sir Humphry Rolleston.

  • Rolleston, Humphry Davy, Sir, 1862-1944.
Date:
[1919?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Thomas Trotter, M. D / by Sir Humphry Rolleston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    2/10 (page 412)
    Ibtetorical. THOMAS TROTTER; M.D.1 By Sir HUMPHRY ROLLESTON, K.C.B., M.D. t ! « Introduction. The peculiar interest in the lives of those who have striven and deserved but have not attained success as ordinarily estimated may be explained by various reasons ; partly speculation as to the causes of this failure and partly sympathy with the want of the arts of success and with betrayal by the fickle goddess, for according to Samuel Butler in Hudibras Success, the mark no mortal wit, or surest hand, can always hit. The man who fails to achieve the reputation or recognition which he considers his due may according to his disposition be thus either embittered or stimulated by divine discontent to outdo his former efforts. There is indeed something to be said in favour of deferred success, and specially in not satisfying the supreme ambition, for when this is done the restless energy that inspired success may be met by the question what farther object is there for life and labour. Examples of collapse and death soon after, and possibly favoured by, the advent of the prize long awaited would not be difficult to quote. The manner in which success or failure is borne is an index of character, and though it may be true that success is more difficult to bear than the reverse, the problems involved by the failure to succeed are the more interesting. But here we are met by the question what is true success? Shall we agree with Macbeth that it is the possession of “ honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,” or that it turns on the verdict of posterity such as may be very roughly estimated by inclusion in the Dictionary of National Biography, which may indeed be merely evidence of notoriety, or that it is some¬ thing higher though less tangible, and suggested in a negative fashion by the reflection “what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? ” The narrower question of what constitutes success in the medical profes¬ sion would serve as an attractive text for the old-fashioned introductory address at the beginning of the winter session. In a charming address on “Internal Medicine as a Vocation,1” before the New York Academy, Sir William Osier has given us the ripe and wholesome fruit of his experience, and refers to three London physicians with a world-wide reputation, ■“ One was said to be a good physician, but no humbug ; the second no physician but a great humbug; the third was a great physician and a great humbug.” The first achieved the greatest success, professional and social, possibly not financial.” These unnamed rivals are now all with the majority, but the reader whose hair is tbinniug will probably be able to make a shrewd guess at their identities. In the meanwhile two obiter dicta on the subject may be quoted. Cabot in his recent “ Training and Rewards of the Physicians ” (1918), points out that to the world apparent failure may mean more than success, and that many an inventor has failed to earn a living. Thomas Young, the most comprehensive genius and greatest man of science who ever 1 This article, with some slight alterations, is reproduced from the Anniversary Book presented to Sir William Osier, Bt., M.D., F.R.S., on his 70th birthday, July 12, 1919. 1 “ iEquanimitas, with other Addresses to Medical Students, Nurses, and Practitioners pf Medicine.” Second edition, 1906. Pp 1^7-152.