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the man who intends
I am sorry to say that we are puttering around without being able to see the truth.
— two instances, in discussion of Alfred C. Cotton, M.D., Chicago, “Breast versus Bottle in Infant Feeding,” in The Illinois Medical Journal 5:6 (November 1903) : 325-329
1
Wm. H. Butler, Chicago: I think Dr. Abt has touched upon one of the points that characterizes the pediatrician from the general practitioner, and that is the question of substitute feeding. But we must acknowledge that substitute feeding is not based on any scientific method. He depends too much upon the puttering of the man who intends to do the feeding. Depending on a low percentage of proteids, as Dr. Abt says, it is a case of puttering with the child until you strike a food medium that will agree with the child...
328
2
Dr. Cotton (closing the discussion): It was not my intention to precipitate a discussion regarding infant feeding. It is well known that hardly a subject may be mentioned in any assemblage of practitioners, except, perhaps, along the line of the surgical specialties, that will precipitate a more prolonged discussion than infant feeding. Bodies fail to adjourn for dinner; set aside their business as long as anybody can get the floor to say something more about how to feed infants...
...That constitutes the difference between the surgeon and the physician. I am sorry to say that we are puttering around without being able to see the truth.
329