Texas Surgeon: an Autobiography Page: 44
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tion that would ensue upon Alice's wedding night. To remedy
their daughter's presumptive defect, her parents were having
her drink large quantities of heavy cream. And, sure enough,
time after time I went to the store to bring home bottles of this
restorative. But that it had the desired effect I am inclined to
doubt.
Meanwhile, I took out a library card at the Newton Public
Library, and read books on geology, biology, and other technical
subjects, as much to feed my momentarily arrested dream of be-
coming a doctor as to acquire information for its own sake. I
also read, from cover to cover, the several volumes of Gibbon's
Decline and Fall, a work that fascinated me as much as any
dozen novels. Gibbon's descriptions of epidemics especially ap-
pealed to me, not only because of my medical bent, but because
in this period-approaching I890-onslaughts of typhoid, ty-
phus, smallpox, and cholera were of common occurrence. All
immigrant ports of entry were subject to waves of disease, and
Boston, though never so hard hit as New York, was no exception.
The more I read in my spare time which grew because with
the approach of the cold months less and less demand was made
upon my services, the more discontented I became. What a
gap yawned between the Boren stable and medical school. As
the year waned, so did we all. Even Mr. Boren seemed de-
pressed. From Bridget I learned that he had suffered some sort
of financial setback. When on an impulse I gave Mr. Boren
notice I would be leaving, he seemed hardly surprised and made
no objection. Again we had a chat, and I told him about my
wanting to be a doctor. He nodded in melancholy agreement
with an ambition so laudable and gave me much sage advice
on the world's ways.
Strangest of all, when I left, Mrs. Boren, whom I had labeled
a cold fish, suddenly began to weep salt tears. The whole house-
hold seemed agitated by my going. I can only think that my
departure must have brought into focus the feeling of decline in
the Borens' fortunes which all of us for some time had been
44
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Atkinson, Donald Taylor. Texas Surgeon: an Autobiography, book, 1958; New York. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth143566/m1/56/?rotate=90: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting University of Texas Health Science Center Libraries.