The Caring Physician

Francis W. Peabody entered medical school in 1903 and almost at once was recognized as an extraordinary human being. After a varied and exciting indoctrination in his profession, including responsibility for children ill with the dreaded poliomyelitis, an extensive medical trip to China, and an unintended role in the start of the Bolshevik Russian Revolution, he became the enormously successful chief of a new Harvard unit at the Boston City Hospital. The expectations for a long productive life were snuffed out by cancer six years later when he was only forty-five. Gifted in many spheres and possessed of great courage, his especial compassion and wisdom in patient care have made Peabody’s short life an inspiring legend for all time, an essential message for anyone who practices medicine, and an uplifting experience for any patient.