THE DOCTOR IN AMERICAN LITERATURE A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Department of English The U niversity of Southern C alifornia In P artial Fulfillm ent of the Req.uirem.ents for the Degree’ Master of Arts hy Donald M. Lay, Jr June 1942 UMI Number: EP44186 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI EP44186 Published by ProQuest LLC (2014). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 £ 4 5 This thesis, written by .....................DOKALDl--M,-..-LAXt.-.J-R«......................... under the direction of h Faculty Committee, ^ i and approved by all its members, has been presented to and accepted by the Council on I Graduate Study and Research in partial fulfill- \Js? * '¥***) ment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Dean Secretary Date.-S' £*Tn jh QXCJO-Q- 7 7 . AP Faculty Committee Chairman TABLE OP CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER PAGE I, THE DRAMA OP MEDICINE IN LITERATURE . . . . * . 1 Part I. The history of raedieine. . . . . . I Part II. Medical school, the hospital, the doctor . . ..................... 7 II. THE DOCTOR AS A FIGURE IN LITERATURE . . . . . 17 Part I. The country doctor, the general practition er . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Part II. The doctor as a romantic hero . . . SO Part III. The doctor as a medical hero ................................................ 26 Part IT. The doctor as a social force . . . . 32 Part 7. The degenerate physician . .................... 36 Part VI. The "mad" d o c to r...................... 40 III. THE DOCTOR AS AUTHOR...................................................... 44 Part I. L iterary propaganda for the "new m e d ic in e "..................... 44 Part II. Reminiscences, memoirs, le tte rs, a u to b io g rap h ies . 58 l i i CHAPTER PAGE Part EX. Formal biography..................... 68 Part IV. The doctor as novelist . . . . . . . 70 m IV. CONCLUSION . ......... . . . . . * ......... BIBLIOGRAPHY I. Arranged according to sections . . . 88 BIBLIOGRAPHY II. Arranged according to alphabetical sequence.......................... 93. INTRODUCTION No career, mode of lif e or profession is comparable to that of a doctor. In the firs t place, i t is v ita l, constantly dealing with life and death,-"Death* the giver 1 of Life, the slayer of L ife, the beginning and the end." Such .an existence affects profoundly the psychology and a c tiv itie s of the p articip an ts. Therefore, the doctor, as an author, creates lite ra tu re from an unique point of view and, as a lite ra ry figure, gives us an interesting charac­ te r. In the second place, the profession is constantly ex­ citin g . A doctor who is interested in his work, liv es an fascinating career, going through one adventure after an­ other. He is always concerned with people, th eir eccentric­ itie s , in firm ities, foibles; consequently, he often learns to know them b etter than they know themselves. He becomes an important part of th e ir liv es, often a v ita l influence in determining they sh all live happily or unhappily — or sh all even continue to exist at a ll! The p o ssib ilities for an eventful life become nearly in fin ite . Finally, his work is constructive; a good doctor contributes immeasurably to the ease and security of exist­ ence. He can teach many lessons, set good examples, and ^ Axel Munthe, M.D., The Story of San Michele. (E. P. Dutton and Company, 1930), p. 178. V give valuable advice, both physiological and psychological. Unfortunately, It is a ll too seldom that many of our medical men take advantage of these p o ssib ilitie s. The position of a prominent physician is Illu strated by Dr. Axel Munthe: «Tell us a story," said the Baroness, as we were sittin g in the drawing room afte r dinner. "You doctors come across so many odd people and are mixed up in so many strange situ atio n s. You know more of real life than any­ body else. I am sure you have a lo t to te ll us if you want to."* I t is the everyday excitement of medical life or easing pain, saving lives, working 'scien tific magic which also makes it one of the most fe rtile field s for lite ra ry endeavor. Dur­ ing the last twenty years, through the media of book,_stage, screen, and radioj neaxly every kind of imaginable kind of approach has been made to the subject of medicine. It Is the purpose of th is study to discuss the most outstanding of these works, classif ying them more or less.as tojsublect^-nyatter and..type. It w ill..attem pt_tq follow_the trends and development of general lite ra ry in terest and in­ dicate, the causes for the value or popularity of certain works. It w ill give an insight into the_difference between the doctor as a layman sees him and as he aotdaily i s ; how 2 Axel Munthe, M. D., The Story of San Michele. (E. P. Dutton and Company, 1930), p. fcl". vi he appears in lite ra tu re and how he appears to himself* It w ill analyze the hest purely lite ra ry works that have been w ritten about doctors and the practice of medicine, when­ ever possible, considering the authors, th eir backgrounds, lives and ideas. Finally, it w ill discuss the significance of recent lite ra tu re in the novels, autobiographies, and biographies w ritten byodoctorsoabout th e ir profession and its problems. Because of the vast te rrito ry covered by the sub­ ject, the conclusions must be general rather than specific or summed up in s ta tis tic s . ® The Ju stificatio n for making th is study lie s in the fact th at, because of the recent tremendous progress which has been made in the field of medicine and because of the significance of th is progress for human beings, people have shown a great in terest in the subject of doctors and th eir work and demand information about i t . This information is interesting and comprehensible to them only when it is pre­ sented in terms of th eir own experience; that is, through the ? -r'?v ^ OTi'i ' ,<» lite ra tu re of biographical or fictio n al narrative, which deals with the subject in connection with human beings and th eir adventures, related in a simple, non-technical manner. There has been a great deal of th is sort of lite ra ­ tu re and it has contributed tremendously to the entertain­ ment, instruction, and inspiration of civilized men and women. These works have appeared in almost every conceivable vii L iterary form.; the novel has been the most popular; biography and autobiography have also been given much attention; the moving pictures bring them to a gigantic audience; drama has also brought them before a great number of people; even poetry has made its contribution* Therefore, since th is subject of the doctor and his profession is so extremely popular and is so widely exploited in a ll lite ra ry forms - and hence comes before such a vast public - further Ju stificatio n for the study of th is topic need hardly be sought* The importance of the problem is obvious to anyone who has received the miracu- lous benefits of modern medicine, who has admired the s k ill ( and knowledge of the doctor, who has imagined a world where such s k ill and knowledge did not exist, and who has read even so l i t t l e as a jo u rn alist's review of such a book as The citadel or The Story of San Michele* Perhaps X sh all be accused of idealizing the doctor and the importance of medicine. Some w ill say that there are s t i l l many doctors who know so li tt l e that the equipment of modern medicine becomes an armory of deadly weapons in th eir hands. Such men may be mote dangerous to society than the fifteen th century physicians who crowded five or six patients, with different diseases and of differing sexes, into one bed in the H&tel Dieu in P aris. Others w ill observe that there are mhny dishonest doctors who tre a t th eir patients for imaginary diseases and take th eir money; while others w ill viii note, and perhaps with ju stificatio n , that more and more doc­ to rs enter the profession with primary eoneern for making money, and with few philanthropic motives, A few w ill even assert that there are doctors who are absolutely vicious, and who deliberately murder and destroy with th eir medical s k ill. The existence of such types of men must be admitted, and, as we shall see, they are a ll represented in lite ra tu re . But in such a study as th is, which deals prim arily with the major works, the outlook is necessarily positive rather than negative. The valuable lite ra tu re in th is field is concerned with the greatness of medicine, its progress, its contributions, its outstanding personalities, and therefore, the meaner aspects do not receive so much atten tio n . For the purpose of th is study, the best lite ra tu re is the noble expression of noble subjects, noble events, and noble personages. « This study is concerned prim arily with individual books and th e ir analyses. These are considered separately, in succession, the t i tl e and author being mentioned at the be­ ginning of each discussion. Therefore, the need for foot­ notes is very lim ited. A complete bibliography w ill serve as an adequate means of identification of the various works. I t Jjiay be observed th at there is a dearth of quotations. It is too often a tem ptation to f i l l the pages of a thesis with quotations, most of which are generally superfluous. There have been very few opportunities to insert quotations