Page:A Brief Record of the Lives and Writings of Dr. Rufus Wyman and His Son Dr. Morrill Wyman (IA briefrecordofliv00wyma).djvu/20

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ter, Massachusetts. The next year he began the study of medicine, entering his name as a student with Dr. Samuel Brown of Boston. Under Dr. Brown's direction he attended the town Almshouse, then the new one, in Leverett Street, in that day the only means of obtaining clinical instruction excepting through the private practice of the local physicians. Dr. Brown falling ill, he finished his studies with Dr. John Jeffries. He received the medical degree, and at once began practice in Boston in connection with Dr. Jeffries, who had become warmly attached to his pupil, and had proposed that he remain with him. After a year or more of arduous and successful service in this association his health began to suffer, at times with pulmonary difficulties, and he determined to seek a situation in the country away from the coast. His selection fell upon the town of Chelmsford, near the town of Westford where he had attended the academy. Here he resumed practice, as a country doctor. His professional reputation rapidly increased. He soon acquired the respect and esteem of his fellow townsmen and of those of the neighboring towns to which his practice early extended. As a contemporary remarked, “Besides the duties of a practitioner he was, as every intelligent and upright physician must be, the friend and adviser