Some days ago, I read a book titled “The Spirit of Medicine – The Life of Dr. Osler” written by Dr. Shigeaki Hinohara, whom I deeply respect (published by Iwanami Shoten). William Osler (1849 – 1919), a Canadian physician, was a pioneer in modern medical care as well as an educator in the field. His writing “A Way of Life” is well known together with his other addresses and his words are eternally etched in many minds. I myself keep a copy as my desk companion.

I often think that a distinguished physician has a prodigious talent to bring out the innate goodness of human nature. Such a physician is capable of changing the atmosphere of any place where people gather. William Osler was one such individual. In the book I introduced above, there is a passage to the effect that “when he enters a sickroom to see his patients, the atmosphere of the room changes all of a sudden as the patients relax and feel like entrusting their bodies and souls to him….”

The same thing can be said about Mr. Rempu Fujimoto, my mentor. The atmosphere of the room quickly changes as he comes in, causing a comfortable feeling of tension, which makes us feel happy. A strange analogy between the two. Their commonality is that both are filled with a high-level sense of mission. Transcending the realms of Western and Oriental medicine, their common power to sense the innate goodness of human nature drives away the obstacle of malice and opens the way for the vital energy and blood to flow.

A passage in the book by Dr. Hinohara quotes Osler as saying that effective treatment of a patient does not demand medication alone, which is only a part of the treatment, while there are many other things that should be considered such as the patient’s psychology and the environment in which the patient is placed. He also says that Osler had always insisted that the medical world was committing a serious mistake of impeding the natural progress of healing by excessive use of medicines.

Thus, an alarm was sounded by a Western medical doctor against excessive use of medicines, the same idea based on Oriental medicine, even as long as 100 years ago today.

I myself as a professional clinician must think again about what is the most important matter in treating my patients.

Atopic problems, convulsions, bed-wetting, underarm tumors, headaches, or asthma. Lots of infants and children are brought to my acupuncture clinic for these complaints and many others. The patients themselves seem to be quite willing to see us and get the treatment, for which the so-called “contact needles,” which do not pierce the skin, are used. The kids look happy to extend their head or back, showing their innocent “cooperation” and changing the atmosphere of the clinic all of a sudden. How pure-hearted and unadulterated they are! They have powers to extract the innate goodness of human nature. The absence of malice is a literal counterpart of the Japanese expression “Mujaki (lack of malice).” What a marvelous virtue “Mujaki” is! There is no “pretentiousness” or “aggressiveness.” These infants and children just take everything as it is and as it comes to them.

Not long ago, a baby girl of about several months was brought to me with an atopic problem. She kept gazing at me without blinking her eyes. Then she smiled at me. She judged me OK, I thought. “How lucky I am!” I felt relieved and happy to touch her skin with respect. She seemed to know everything. In her, I was made to feel the depth of the great universe itself. The greatness of children. That is what I learn from them. They teach us lots of things, indeed.