Many found employment as farm hands or at some trade,
as teachers of languages, but the principal occupation at which they
succeeded was the practice of medicine. Whether they were competent
physicians or only dilettantes they all gained the confidence of the
Russian peasantry. In a land in which physicians are scarce the followers
of Aesculap are highly appreciated.
When a Russian peasant had overloaded his stomach and some harmless mixture
or decoction given him by some of the pseudo physicians had had a good
effect--post hoc ergo propter hoc--the medicine man who had come from far
away was highly praised and highly recommended.
Lieutenant Furtenbach treated with so-called sympathetic remedies and had a
success which surprised nobody more than himself.
Real physicians were appreciated by the educated and influential Russians
and secured a more lucrative practice within weeks than they had been able
to secure after years at home. Dr. Roos, of whom I have already spoken,
having been taken prisoner near the Beresina, became physician to the
hospitals of Borisow and Schitzkow and soon had the greatest private
practice of any physician in the vicinity; he afterward was called to the
large hospitals in St. Petersburg, and was awarded highest honors by the
Russian government.
More remarkable was the career of Adjutant Braun which has been told by his
friend, Lieutenant Peppler, who acted as his assistant.
Braun had studied medicine for a while, but exchanged sound and lancet for
the musket.
Pages:
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191