I Have Not Yet Found Any Situation In Which I Could
Practise To Advantage As A Surgeon; And Unless Some
Of my friends
interest themselves in my behalf, I must wait patiently until the cloud
that hangs over my future
Prospects is dispelled." Evidently he could not
reconcile his taste either to farming, or to the dull and wearisome
drudgery of a country surgeon's life; in fact, he seemed altogether
discontented with his profession. But when he saw that his prospect of
employment by the Association was by no means certain, and might be long
deferred, he felt that, as an honest man, it was necessary to provide
some certain means of support for a wife and family. In October 1801, an
opening took place at Peebles, by the decease of one of the two regular
practitioners in that town: he settled there, and soon acquired a
practice which, if not particularly remunerating, was at least tolerably
extensive. He was surrounded by a pastoral, and, in some places,
uncultivated district; and had often to make long rides at night along
bad roads, to afford aid to those whose poverty did not allow them to
make any return for his skill and kindness. The rides of a country
surgeon, near an unfrequented district, are dreary and long; "he is at
the mercy of all who may demand his assistance within a circle of forty
miles in diameter, untraversed by roads in many directions, and including
moors, mountains, rivers, and lakes," generally for a very low
recompense, and sometimes for none at all.
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