Personal Experience of a Physician

"Personal Experience of a Physician" by John Ellis, M.D., is a late 19th-century story where a doctor remembers his time learning medicine and trying out new ways to help people that go against normal medicine. Dr. Ellis talks about how important it is for doctors to be well-trained and to think for themselves because they are responsible for their patients' lives. At first, he didn't really believe in homoeopathy (a treatment using very small amounts of natural substances), but after talking to another doctor, he decided to try it out in his work in western Massachusetts. The story shares real-life examples of patients he treated using homoeopathy, showing how it seemed to work better than the usual treatments. This makes the doctor begin to change how he practices medicine and think that maybe homoeopathy is something worth looking into. The story is like a look back at his own life and also argues for doctors to be open to different ideas about medicine.