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328 obliged to substitute night for day, and day for night; he is often hurried away from a repast of which, with an ardent appetite, he was about to partake, and public opinion seems to require him to be ever ready to sacrifice any comfort of his own, at the bidding of others. The uneven tenor of his life is not congenial to the best interests of his physical or intellectual being; by it, the former becomes attenuated, and the latter broken into fragments.

This profession is not the proper sphere for ambition. Its duties and responsibilities are in general incompatible with civil office. But when that is not the case, public opinion often appears to forbid all such aspirations, and assign public honors to others, who, though not more competent or more worthy, are yet more at liberty to discharge the requisite duties; so that the physician is to a great extent enshrined in his own special province—his bounds are set, over which he is not allowed to pass. The public seem to think that every fibre in his flesh, and every drop of blood in his veins, is the lawful property of humanity. Of the intrinsic value of his services,