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Boston Medical and Surgical Journal Memorial of Dr. Page

By 1844, the year Dr. Page died, the Massachusetts Medical Society published a journal for its members. Still in their infancy, medical societies sought to establish a male medical profession with well-defined standards. This tribute to Dr. Page lauded what the society considered professional and personal excellence.

 


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1. What biographical data can be found in this document?

2. Compare the values praised in this memoir to those of Martha Ballard.

3. Why was there no similar tribute to Martha Ballard?


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172 Memoir of Benjamin Page, MD  
 

the floor--showing the effect of personal strength when under the influence of excitement or alarm. Many years ago his father's house in Hallowell, and nearly opposite the Academy too, was set on fire by a free negress, a servant in the family, and though living at a considerable distance, he was enabled to reach it in time to give his assistance, and aid in preserving it from the flames.

Dr. Page devoted himself almost exclusively to his profession, and unambitious of elevated distinction, he enjoyed with complacency the unrivaled success which he early attained. His advantages of professional education were not equal to those of the present day, but the benefit he derived from a free access to the best private medical library in New England, that of the late Benj. Vaughan, Esq., LL.D., and an intimate personal intercourse with him, who constantly possessed the improvements in the science of medicine, more than counterbalanced the defects of early advantages. Possessing naturally a strong mind, whose powers were happily adjusted, he was able to make all sources of knowledge and means of improvement which lay in his path subservient to this use. The distinguishing trait of his mind was judgment, which conduces more than any other to distinction in the medical profession. Of a manly and ingenuous disposition, he disdained to practise any of the arts of quackery. He never made any efforts to acquire the talent to display his knowledge for the purpose of obtaining the reputation of a learned man, but was content to evince, on all occasions, an ability equal to the exigency of his situation. His resources were shown by what he could or did do, rather than what could or did say. Hence his professional distinction was not so extensively known or so generally acknowledged as it otherwise have been. He was a happy exemplification of the Latin motto, "esse quam videri malim." I should wish to be, rather than to seem.

It is no slight evidence in favor of his character as a physician, that he was able to sustain his reputation in competition with junior members of the profession, who had been enriched by all the improvements and helps of the discoveries and advantages of medical science within the last fifty years. In no other science have equal improvements been made within the same period. The character of his practice was cautious and considerate, in opposition to adventurous and precipitate, the ripened fruits of much reading, large experience, deep thinking, and uncommon accuracy of judgment. Hence most of those who employed him as a physician had profound confidence in his medical skill. His patients generally thought that under his care they were sure of receiving all the aid which a physician could administer. His deportment in the sick chamber was bland, tender, soothing, sympathetic, delicate and winning. When he conquered the disease, he usually gained the heart. He sacredly observed the principle of concealing in his own bosom whatever he might witness in his patients, or the family where they were, that could by communication to others possibly prove injurious to them. This is an indispensable and invaluable quality in a physician ; too little appreciated--too often wanting. It was the bright jewel of his character--the crowning virtue of his life.





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