Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 March 1896 — TESTING THE DOCTORS. [ARTICLE]

TESTING THE DOCTORS.

Chinese, Dike Other Physician*, Reserve the Right to Disagree. The emperor of- China has lately had so much trouble with his functionaries of every kind that he has grown distrustful of them all. He had noticed that, while his statesmen seemed to bewidely at variance, the court physicians agreed beautifully whenever they were called together. But a test that, he might make of their skill and sincerity occurred to him. Feeling somewhat indisposed, the emperor sent for one of his court doctors. These physicians are paid public functionaries and are learned professors. One of them came, listened to his majesty’s account of his trouble, diagnosed it, prescribed and took his leave. Then the emperor sent for anotiier court doctor and gave him exactly the same account of his difficulty. This doctor then made hit own diagnosis, which was quite different from his brother physicians, prescribed a different remedy and went his way. A third and fourth physician were called and each found a different disease and each prescribed a different medicine. Then the emperor became angry and also sarcastic, and begged to know how he could have so many things the matter with him and live, and whether he should continue to live if he took all the diverse sorts of medicine' that, had that day been prescribed for him. The doctors could give him no satisfactory answer to these questions, but each insisted that' he was right and all the others wrong. But the emperor declared that this could not be true, and condemned every one of the physicians to lose a month’s salary. Of course the moral of this story has no occidental application. Though the doctors of our western countries reserve the right to disagree, such a case of radical divergence probably could not occur under the practice of our perfected science.—Youth’s Companion.