My Virtual Reading Room

Cross-posted to Dr. Watson's Consulting Room ;)

Continuing on the topic of Victorian medicine...here is a poem from 1849 (and still mostly relevant today, might I add) from Oliver Wendell Holmes--a practicing physician (who has made a lasting contribution to the field of infection control), a Phi Beta Kappa member, a writer, and a poet. 

Enjoy!
Cat
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P.S. And this--THIS they should teach in medical and nursing and allied health programs:

And last, not least, in each perplexing case,
Learn the sweet magic of a cheerful face;
Not always smiling, but at least serene,
When grief and anguish cloud the anxious scene.
Each look, each movement, every word and tone,
Should tell your patient you are all his own;
Not the mere artist, purchased to attend,
But the warm, ready, self-forgetting friend,
Whose genial visit in itself combines
The best of cordials, tonics, anodynes.