Texas Surgeon: an Autobiography Page: 70
This book is part of the collection entitled: Rescuing Texas History, 2010 and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the University of Texas Health Science Center Libraries .
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and voices in my memory, yet others stand out as if I had seen
them only yesterday, and I am sure that if they could come to
life I would still feel awe in their presence. One of these memo-
rable ones was Dean Taylor, who taught therapeutics, but prac-
ticed eye, ear, nose, and throat. It was this man's example and
words of encouragement that decided me to take up this same
line in my own practice. Dr. Taylor was a small man, with a
quizzically friendly air which sometimes invited presumption
immediately regretted. For if a student showed the faintest sign
of brashness, Dr. Taylor's courteous smile would fade, and he
would point a finger, saying: "You, now, you have something to
tell us?" Whereupon the student found he was not so eager,
after all.
Then there was Dr. Joseph Matthews, who taught proctology,
the study of the lower intestinal tract. He was an extremely
polite, bald little man, polite to the point of silkiness. We all
rather feared him, not merely because he had been three times
president of the American Medical Association, but because we
were never quite sure what lay behind his smooth exterior. Still
another faculty member was Dr. Grant, who taught surgery. He
was aloof and dignified to the point of pomposity. He had a
reputation of great skill and aplomb in the operating room, at
a time when slash and dash were the vogue. And an understand-
able vogue, I might add, in view of the rudimentary controls
of anesthesia and the prevention of shock then available.
Finally there was good old Dr. Blue, who taught genito-
urinary diseases. All that I remember about this amusing fellow
-and it seems to me that many men in this field have quirk-
some natures-was that he invented a cure for gonorrhea called
"Blue's Five-Sixes." What this cure contained and how effective
it was I have no idea. In any case, we students made up endless
jokes about it and Doc Blue's course in plumbing, as was
inevitable.
During my second year at medical school I served on one of
the City Hospital's ambulances. It was a horse-drawn wagon,
70
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Atkinson, Donald Taylor. Texas Surgeon: an Autobiography, book, 1958; New York. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth143566/m1/82/: accessed March 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting University of Texas Health Science Center Libraries.