Dr. Page's great fort as a physician was the management of fevers
and chronic diseases. In his treatment of surgical diseases
he was also particularly successful. He made no attempt to excel in operative
surgery, though there are few of the minor operations which in the course
of his long practice, he had not repeatedly and successfully performed.
His chief end and aim was to restore wounded and lost parts, and to avoid
operations when practicable ; and there are many now living who owe to
him the preservation of "life and limb," which might have been
mutilated or destroyed in more adventurous or less skilful hands.
He never sought for extraordinary cases to herald his skill, being satisfied
with the triumph of the moment, and relying of the semper paratus
which should always attach to the physician and surgeon--never losing
sight of the truth conveyed in the beautiful thought of Milton,
---- ---- ---- to know
That which before us lies in daily life,
Is the true wisdom. ------ ------ |
In the management of dislocations and fractures he was particularly
expert and invariably successful. His treatment of consumption
differed from most other practitioners, and was cordial and restorative
instead of depleting and debilitating ; and he was happy to find, towards
the close of his life, that his system of practice was beginning to be
more generally appreciated, and adopted with the happiest results. The
bugbear inflammation, which in these northern latitudes leads to
such deplorable and fatal mischief, in the indiscriminate use of calomel
and the lancet, never haunted him in his practice. He often cautioned
his pupils against their baneful effects, and thought it better for young
practitioners to avoid them altogether, till from riper years and observations
they had learned to estimate their importance, and successfully apply
them to practice.
"Better," he would say, "never used, than universally abused."
Verily their name is legion, and their work is death--and he enforced
his counsel in his earlier and later years, by two memorable examples,
Presidents Washington and Harrison, both of whom fell melancholy victims
to a false and irrational system of practice, and the deplorable errors
of the schools. Falsus principia, falsus medicinae.
Dr. Page was unsurpassed, also, if not unequalled, in the success of
his obstetric practice. How important he regarded, and how successfully
he practised it, appears from the fact that he attended upwards of three
thousand females in their confinement, without the loss of a single life
from the first year of his practice ! This is almost miraculous, and
may challenge the professional records of Europe or America for anything
to compare with it. The causes of this success may be traced chiefly to
his uncommon tact and skill, but above all to his intuitive knowledge
of disease, his profound and unerring judgment, and the unbounded confidence
everywhere and at all times, and in all emergencies, reposed in him ;
and lastly, to the preparatory measures, and the soothing regimen which
he usually advised those who submitted to his charge. He rarely invoked
instrumental aid, or made use of those popular and energetic means so
common in the hands of others. In this branch
