Disputed Passage

Lloyd C. Douglas

Description

Young medical student John Wesley Beaven is torn between the detached, cold pragmatism of Dr. Forster and the humanistic attitudes of kindly Dr. Cunningham. Matters are brought to a head when Beaven must choose between his career and impending marriage to fellow student Audrey Hilton. 

Sujets

• Fiction
• Romance
• Medical

Informations

• Publié par: Rare Treasure Editions
• Date de parution: 06 novembre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781774643259
• Langue: English

Extrait

Disputed Passage
by Lloyd C. Douglas

First published in 1938
This edition published by Rare Treasures
Victoria, BC Canada with branch offices in the Czech Republic and Germany
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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except in the case of excerpts by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
Disputed Passage

by
Lloyd C. Douglas

WITH SINCERE APPRECIATION OF HER
CONSTANT ENCOURAGEMENT AND VALUED
COUNSEL THIS NOVEL IS DEDICATED
TO MY WIFE
Have you learned lessons only of those who admiredyou, and were tender with you, and stood asidefor you?
Have you not learned great lessons from those whobraced themselves against you, and disputed thepassage with you?
Walt Whitman
Chapter One
It was two o’clock in the afternoon of the last Thursdayin September, opening day of the fall semester.
The weather was unseasonably sultry, and the air inDoctor Milton (Tubby) Forrester’s lecture-arena lay asinert and stale as the cadavers in the grim old anatomicallaboratory adjoining.
But if the atmosphere of the dingy little theater was notrefreshingly tonic it was emotionally tense. Whatever itlacked in sweetness it made up in stress; for Anatomy, underthe brilliant but irascible Forrester, was reputed to be thestiffest course in the entire four-year curriculum.
Hopeful of being credited at the outset with the flimsyvirtue of punctuality, the exceptionally large class of newmedical students—one hundred and thirty-three; all men,this year, but eight—had assembled with the nervouspromptness of first-time voyagers boarding a ship.
As for the personnel of the class, less than half werenewly graduated from the main body of the State Universityonly a mile distant. The rest of them had recentlyreceived their degrees—Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor ofScience—in colleges of various rating, scattered all theway from the Alleghenies to the Coast. A few of the moregregarious imports had nodded and exchanged casualcivilities in the Registrar’s quarters, earlier in the day;but everyone felt himself a stranger in this unfamiliarsetting; even the men who had been living for a quadrenniumwithin a ten minutes’ walk of the Medical Collegecampus.
But no matter from how near or far they had come,there wasn’t a person present this afternoon, in TubbyForrester’s amphitheater, who had not heard the dismayinglegends of his impatience, his arrogance, his bad temper,his noisy tantrums. And yet it was largely on account ofTubby that most of them had decided to study medicinehere. Tubby was mean as the devil, but he knew his stuff.Not only was he an anatomist of high distinction but arecognized authority on neurological surgery. His officewalls were covered with impressive certificates of kudosbestowed by medical schools and renowned scientific societies,tributes embossed on vellum in four languages.
In not many medical colleges did the novice have accessto such talented supervision in his early adventures withAnatomy. Tubby maintained that if a man had a naturalflair for the subject his gift would show up promptly. Hewas ever on the alert for budding genius in this field. Tohis colleagues on the faculty he had confided that he wasstill on a hunt for potential anatomists who had the makingsof neurological surgeons.
The ordinary, run-of-the-mine medical matriculate didnot pause to reflect that he might be better off in a schoolwhere mediocrity was treated with more patience. Thebig thing was to earn a diploma bearing Tubby’s distinguishedautograph. Even a very small and useless spoonachieved some dignity if the word ‘Sterling’ was stampedon its handle.
But it could not be said that any of the ungifted had beendeceived into the error of casting his lot with this great man.Tubby made no bones about the fact that he was interestedonly in the upper tenth. His attitude toward the largemajority of his students was contemptuous and contemptible.His savage sarcasms stung them until their very soulswere afire with hate and their eyes burned with defenselessfury. Hundreds of practicing physicians—ranging in agefrom thirty-five to fifty, and in locale from the Lakes to theGulf and from Sea to Sea—were proud to be able to saythat they had their Anatomy under Forrester, but they invariablyadded that Tubby was a brute, and many withbetter memories for the indignities they had suffered athis hands referred to him in terms much more unpleasantthan that.
This afternoon, with ample time and a suitable environmentfor morbid meditation, the new class sat in thesteeply ascending semi-circular rows of creaking seats, restingtheir forearms on the battered desks, scowling at theirfidgeting fingers or absently thrumming the corners oftheir virgin notebooks. Occasionally they lifted an apprehensiveglance toward the door leading from Tubby’soffice. The early Christian martyrs waiting in the arena forthe lions’ cage to open may have had at least the consolationthat their impending discomfort would be brief. Therewould be four years of Tubby Forrester.
Tradition held that the first session with this erraticbully was guaranteed to be a highly interesting entertainment,provided you were not of the dozen or more whowould be singled out, stood up on their feet, and given achance to make or break themselves irrevocably in a preliminaryskirmish where it was dangerous to be witty anda disaster to be dull.
Customarily he opened his address by referring to thismeeting as ‘The Acquaintance Hour’—a phrase that wasexpected to fetch a sardonic chuckle, for it was with suchverbal lollipops that the University churches and the ‘Y’angled for new student patronage. Irreverent as Satan,Tubby loved to toy derisively with these ingratiatingclichés of organized altruism. But by the end of ‘TheAcquaintance Hour’ all the subtlety of his mockerieswould have been abandoned, and you would have had ataste of the real thing you had let yourself in for when yousigned up for Anatomy under Forrester.
‘If you have to be petted and patted,’ he would growl,‘join the Glad-handers’ Club, or the Back-slappers, or theWell-wishers. If you find that your system demands moresugar, there are plenty of institutions in this locality whereyou may have it for much less than the asking. They willteach you how to be as friendly as a wet dog. Tea will beserved, songs will be sung, charades will be played. If youwant your boots licked, they will do it for you. But don’texpect any of that nonsense here! This edifice has beendedicated to Science. Here we strive to be precise in ourresearch; honest in our nomenclature. If you are a jackassyou will have to go elsewhere to be deceived into the beliefthat you are a zebra.’
He was entering now from his office. Ten minutes overdue,he marched with jerky-gaited pomposity to the waist-hightable that served as his desk. This table, mounted onlarge rubber-tired casters and topped with a two-inchmarble slab, was six feet three in length by three feet wide;and you didn’t have to be a medical student to guess whatuse was made of it when it wasn’t acting as Tubby’s lectern.
The class brought itself to rigid attention as the steelyeyes comprehensively surveyed the well-filled theater.There was no need of building up any dramatic suspensehere, but Tubby coolly looked the crowd over for a longmoment while with both hands he rhythmically tugged atthe platinum watch-chain spread across his ample abdomen,a disquieting gesture that suggested the whettingof a carving-knife.
‘Dear Christian Friends,’ he began, clipping his words.A general grin testified that Tubby was measuring up to thepicture of him that everyone had conceived. ‘This,’ saidthe attitude of the class, ‘is the fellow. No doubt of that.Hard-boiled, all right. A nine-minute egg.’
‘It is indeed a pleasure,’ railed Tubby, ‘to welcome sogoodly a number to our Acquaintance Hour. Among thosewho have preceded you through these charming halls, totake up the arduous activities of the most ancient profession—saveone—some may have told you that in thissnug little theater, and the more commodious workshopadjacent, we are just one happy family, loving one anotherall the day long.’ He paused to let this mockery soak in andcollect its wages in knowing sniffs and dry chuckles. Hispenetrating gaze raked the rows, tier by tier; a dartingglance that dared you to withhold your tribute to hismordant wit. His attitude was that of a peeved sergeantinspecting a squad with the hope of discovering a loosebutton.
The pause was alarmingly lengthened. Midway of thetop row, Tubby’s sweeping search rested for an instant,carried on to the end of the row, returned to the middle,and concentrated upon a face that was quite unaware ofthe inquisition. There was a dead silence, but the inattentiveone had failed to notice the ominous break in Tubby’saddress, apparently unaware that he was under fire.
Presently the sour flippancies were resumed, but theylacked their previous finesse. Tubby was not intentionallypulling his punches but they hadn’t the old steam backof them. Again and again his gaze shot truculently to thecenter of the top row where it had met that impassiveprofile. It was a lean, strong, determined face, the featuresclean-cut as an image on a coin, and as immobile. The lipswere in repose but not compressed: they did not denoteanimosity or disapproval. Had they been primly puckeredinto an evidence of hostility, Tubby would have beenbetter satisfied. He would give the offended beggar anotherwallop; give him something to be sore about. But theselips were not registering distaste; not registering anythingbut unconcern. The deep-set eyes which Tubby had triedvainly to command were vaguely exploring a far corner ofthe neglected room where a soot-smudged wall met a discoloredceiling. It was obvious that the insufferable felloweither wasn’t liste