“ PHYSICIAN, HEAL THYSELF.” 
BY 
Joseph Price, M. D., 
PHILADELPHIA. 
REPRINTED FROM THE 
American Gynaecological and Obstetrical Journal 
for July, 1895. [Reprinted from, the American Gynaecological and Obstetrical Journal 
for July, 1895.] 
“ PHYSICIAN, HEAL THYSELF.” 
Philadelphia, June 25, iBgy. 
To the Editor of the American Gynecological and Obstetrical Journal: 
I confess that I am not so familiar as I should be with the Bible. 
It may be that my text is matter of “ unconscious absorption.” I put 
my brain, my conscience, my heart, the skill of my fingers, my time, 
and my purse in my calling. 
The letter of Dr. Richard C. Norris, physician-in-charge of the 
Preston Retreat—“ To the Editors of the American Gynaecological 
and Obstetrical Journal”—has just been called to my attention, and 
commands from me, in duty to the records of the institution I had the 
honor to serve, and in duty to myself, an answer. I answer without 
any appeal to that common honor or common honesty which charac- 
terizes the profession. I answer for the Retreat and for myself. 
I will begin by quoting his introductory sentences: “ I inclose a 
letter which I will ask you to publish in the next issue of your 
Journal. The statements therein made are absolutely correct (Italics 
mine) and are capable of ready demonstration. I send the letter to you 
for publication, prompted by a desire for accurate statement of statistics. 
Dr. Price has at all times treated me with courtesy, and I am there- 
fore not actuated by any other motive." 
I am grateful to Dr. Norris for his acknowledgment of courtesy. 
In that connection I can only express the hope that to all the repre- 
sentatives of my profession, when they meet me on common grounds, 
I extend to them the easiest thing in our professional living—courtesy. 
In this, under the stress of conditions, I may not always have suc- 
ceeded. I hope that at no time I have ever played the hypocrite, the 
sycophant, or ccrward. I never have been or will be any man’s enemy 
until he willfully and deliberately plants himself in my way and makes 
himself mine. I have the comforting faith that there are many noble 
fellows of my profession who, in common with Dr. Norris, and with 
less of questionable sincerity, will acknowledge <l courtesies ” freely, 
willingly, and gladly extended. They make up the happiness as well 
as the mutual helpfulness of the profession. As to the motives which 
Copyright, 1895, by J. D. Emmet, M. D. 2 
Joseph Price, M. D. 
have prompted Dr. Norris’ communication, the cool, impartial, and 
unprejudiced temper of the profession is better able to judge than I 
am. In our modern days, it is known that there is such a thing as 
bidding for cheap notoriety. As to the desire of “ accurate statement 
of statistics,” I can respond in all sincerity to the sentiment “ to be 
just to other and similar institutions.” It will be recalled by every 
member of the profession who has heard a word from my lips or read 
a line from my pen, that I have expressed special pride as an Amer- 
ican in our American maternities, and at the same time expressed ad- 
miration for the worthy features of others across the waters. The 
only worthy ambition or pride I could have was to make our own 
maternities, so sacred their mission, the best within the power of the 
genius of man to make them. I am glad to say here that Ido not 
know a member of the profession, and hope I will never have the mis- 
fortune of knowing one—or rather another one—who has such a very 
happy way of expressing his appreciation of courtesies. The profes- 
sion, being made up of those sharing a common humanity, has its 
failings, but is not altogether impoverished in the common decencies. 
Now, then, for the record of the Retreat as Dr. Richard C. Norris, 
now physician-in-charge, gives it : “ The mortality record of the 
Preston Retreat during Dr. Price’s residency there is as follows : 
There were ten hundred and ninety confinements and two deaths in 
the institution, with two more deaths outside of it that should unques- 
tionably be credited to it. One of these was in the case of a woman 
sent on the sixteenth day from the Preston Retreat to the Pennsyl- 
vania Hospital, where she died three weeks later, and it was found at 
the post-mortem examination that she had appendicitis and purulent 
peritonitis.” 
In regard to the appendicitis case : Women commonly leave the 
Retreat with their husbands on the thirteenth or fourteenth day when 
convalescence has been thorough, favorable, and aseptic. Such was 
the condition of the woman referred to above. Appendicitis is com- 
monly an acute and virulent disease, and in this case, from the purest 
feeling of humanity, I regret that the woman did not send for me or 
return to me to be cared for in my private hospital. 
In saying this it is foreign to my intent and purpose to raise even 
the shadow of a doubt as to the good faith and wisdom of the treatment 
of this patient in the Pennsylvania Hospital. My regret is a natural 
one regarded from a professional and surgical standpoint, and will be 
so regarded by the unprejudiced of the profession. I would not have 
about my statement the coloring of reflection upon any one ; it should “ Physician, heal Thyself.'" 
3 
be kept in mind, however, that this woman died thirty-seven days 
after her delivery, and with her death her delivery had nothing to do ; 
and, further, she was twenty-one days in the Pennsylvania Hospital 
without a diagnosis, post mortem revealing appendicitis—not a post- 
puerperal disturbance. As to having sent patients to the Pennsyl- 
vania Hospital, the statement is altogether and absolutely false, and 
no minute of such an act appears upon the records of the Preston 
Retreat. If such existed, it would have been known to the committees 
which, monthly, carefully and scrupulously examine the records. 
In regard to the use of the curette, my statements were correct 
when I made them, and are as correct now as then. 
The statistics in the seven years and a half of my professional 
connection with the Retreat remain as I have given them. With Dr. 
Goodell’s consent, I always included his statistics with my own. They 
were the statistics of the institution and not of an individual, nor 
were they ever so claimed. They covered a period of more than ten 
years. During my period of more than seven years as resident physi- 
cian there were two deaths, neither of which could in common hon- 
esty or by any form of logic be credited to the mortality of the insti- 
tution. The first case was one of eclampsia, admitted in labor and in 
convulsions, and died on the fourth day without secreting a drachm 
of urine. The second death was one in a case of acute mania with a 
vicious history. Had either of these patients died in an ambulance 
on their way to the institution, her death could have as honorably 
and honestly been credited to the Retreat. 
Again quoting : ‘‘ The second death outside the hospital followed a 
Caesarean section. The woman had been delivered once by Dr. Price 
and a number of times during Dr. Goodell’s incumbency by the in- 
duction of labor, high forceps, and version.” This statement, after 
the “ labor of the mountain,” is correct. It will be noted that Dr. 
Norris has been having his field days outside of the Retreat or his trust. 
What mother was neglected ? The will of Dr. Jonas Preston, through 
whose beneficence the Retreat was founded, limits the field of the 
charity to Philadelphia and Delaware Counties. Mrs. Elizabeth 
Hartley, the deformed Englishwoman, was a resident of Altoona. 
After many unfortunate deliveries, she was counseled by me to have a 
Caesarean or Porro operation that she might have a living child. For 
the delivery referred to she made no application to the Retreat ; her 
name does not appear on the books or minutes. By correspondence 
she made all her arrangements for the Caesarean section, and trav- 
eled from Altoona in a common railroad coach at midnight. All 4 
Joseph Price, M. D. 
arrangements had been made to receive her at a private hospital. 
She simply went to the Retreat on her arrival in the city, because she 
knew the nurse there and had no other acquaintance to whom she 
could go. On her previous admissions to the Retreat she had de- 
ceived both Dr. Goodell and myself as to her place of residence. It 
would have been very agreeable to me could she have been admitted 
to the Retreat, as the entire care of her was at my expense. The cold 
night ride resulted in acute double pneumonia, of which she died 
speedily. The resident physician of the Retreat receives applications 
and recommends admissions. The regular monthly committees of 
four visit the institution weekly, examine papers of all applicants, and 
inspect wards. Any accusation of irregularities is a reflection upon 
the managers, their intelligence and honesty in the discharge of the 
duties of their trust. With the record of six Porros without a death, 
I am satisfied that if the above case had been a resident, and could 
have been admitted to the Retreat two weeks before period of delivery, 
she could have been saved. In this connection I might refer to nu- 
merous distressing cases—one a Porro at midnight—referred to me 
while resident at this splendid charity ; many of them gave intense 
anxiety for the mother and for the record of a charity the good name 
of which had reached beyond the bounds of our own continent. One 
distressing case I now recall was sent from the Pennsylvania Hospital. 
The woman was pregnant and at term. She was suffering with a 
tubercular ankle joint ; a partial resection had been done at the hos- 
pital, and drains placed. She was in a feeble and exhausted condi- 
tion when sent to the Retreat for delivery. She was safely delivered, 
and returned to her family fully convalescent. It is not as much what 
is in the communication of Dr. Norris as what can be read between 
the lines : not so much the tortured statements as the animus. He 
parades his conscientiousness as to the integrity of the statistics of 
the Retreat ; he seeks the statements of some itinerant gossip, that 
most despicable species of the human family, to impeach them. His 
time could have been more profitably employed in looking after the 
great trust his association with the institution imposes. Instead of 
traducing his predecessors, soiling the name and fame of the institu- 
tion with which he is officially associated, and by innuendo insulting 
the managers, he could have employed his time in reducing his own 
mortality. We appreciate the fact that his mortality in his short in- 
cumbency must be very mortifying to him ; but he does not improve 
the matter by rushing into one of our leading medical journals and 
assailing the splendid record of the Retreat. His time, nerve, and “ Physician, heal Thyself 
brains could better have been devoted to the study of obstetrics, a 
subject with which he does not seem to be as familiar as one should 
be filling so high a trust. Where the mortality of any maternity (Re- 
treat included) exceeds two per cent., it would be well for the man- 
agers, for the sake of their own good names and in all charity, and for 
the sake of poor mothers, to close the doors of the maternity or have 
its walls leveled to the ground. 
I have no objection to Dr. Norris keeping his own statistics inside 
and out. As they now seem, certainly no one would be desirous of 
the job. But I object to any attempt on his part to keep or correct 
mine. The hand that touches me I would have surgically clean. 
Before my election to the Retreat I was informed that Dr. Goodell 
was opposed to my succeeding him. I called upon him to ascertain 
the grounds of his opposition. (At no time could our personal relations 
have been regarded as angelic.) In my interview with him he frankly 
stated that his records of the work of the institution would be left 
behind him, and that he did not desire to have an enemy succeed 
him. To this I replied that the records were the property of the Re- 
treat ; that they belonged to the trust, and as such were sacred to 
the institution. Dr. Goodell was never given reason to complain of 
betrayal. I was succeeding a professor in one of our leading colleges, 
and I recall then as now the very terse utterance of an eminent 
teacher ; “ A dishonest man is dangerous enough in his ignorance, but 
he is tenfold more so when armed with the polished weapons of a 
higher education.” I would like to have Dr. Richard C. Norris’ 
statistics in the form in which he keeps them, the deaths in the Re- 
treat, and those immediately following discharge, whether due to 
appendicitis, Caesarean section, or imperfect convalescence. 
241 North Eighteenth Street. Joseph Price, M. D.