This is a delightful piece of occasional verse that makes a humorous mountain out of a molehill of professional jealousy--as in the following lines: "The pen (so springs the constant hope / Of all devout physicians) / Is mightier than the stethoscope / And runs to more editions."

Taken seriously, the poem indirectly points to something that is even more obvious today than when it was written: the stories of life and death, sickness and healing, that doctors face every day are of great interest to large numbers of non-medical readers.