Ben Casey

A mount with a legendary moniker.

A son of the auld sod.

Euthanasia. ""Journeys end in lovers' meeting, Every wise man's son doth know.""—Twelfth Night

""To a close shorn sheep, God gives wind by measure."" (George Herbert)

Modern medicine.

Shadow and substance.

Looking Forward When I am grown to man's estate I shall be very proud and great, And tell the other girls and boys Not to meddle with my toys. Robert Louis Stevenson

Working in the hospital milieu.

The parabolic return. A scientist from Australia on his last legs.

The whirligig of 3/4 time.

The Freudian prescription.

The classical Rx, yet Dr. Swanson fails to inspire respect.

The punctuated forest. Autism and deafness in children.

The proverb put to the test.

""There is a march of science; but who shall beat the drums for its retreat?"" (Charles Lamb)

It being reckoned that Jesus was actually born in September.

The substance of things hoped for.

The good-humored M.D.s.

The seed of Mustard is the smallest grain, And yet the force thereto is very great, It hath a present power to purge the brain, It adds unto the stomach force and heat: All poison it expels, and it is plain, With sugar 'tis a passing sauce for meat. She that hath hap a husband bad to bury, And is therefore in heart not sad, but merry, Yet if in show good manners she will keep, Onions and Mustard-seed will make her weep. The Englishmans Doctor.       Or, The School of Salerne,       Or, Physical observations for the perfect Preserving of the body of Man in continual health Sir John Harington, 1608

Wise in their own conceits.

Rx for a medico.

MRS. MALAPROP: You are not like Cerberus, three gentlemen at once, are you? Sheridan, The Rivals

Rare blood demands a coast-to-coast search.

The imponderables of personality.

Dr. Ernest Farrow, a once brilliant neurosurgeon, is sent to County General for a refresher course. Learning that Farrow is paralyzed by self-doubt and recurring nightmares from the death of a patient, Casey attempts to assuage his colleague's fears and coax him back into the operating room.

The indeterminate.

Irreducible affinities.

""A fence around the void.""—Hawaiian saying

Fear of the unknown.

""Love doth know no fullness nor no bounds."" (Keats)

If there were dreams to sell,       What would you buy? Some cost a passing bell;       Some a light sigh, That shakes from Life's fresh crown Only a rose-leaf down. If there were dreams to sell, Merry and sad to tell,       And the crier rang the bell,       What would you buy? A cottage lone and still,       With bowers nigh, Shadowy, my woes to still,       Until I die. Such pearl from Life's fresh crown Fain would I shake me down. Were dreams to have at will, This best would heal my ill,       This would I buy.

""That's an old Spanish proverb.""

A father assaults his son over a youthful fascination with Nazism.

Castles in Spain.

The Sparrow in the Zoo No bars are set too close, no mesh too fine To keep me from the eagle and the lion, Whom keepers feed that I may freely dine. This goes to show that if you have the wit To be small, common, cute, and live on shit, Though the cage fret kings, you may make free with it. Howard Nemerov

""Do not go gentle into that good night."" (Dylan Thomas)

A wandering minstrel, he, with some disfigurement.

The ones that got away...

""Of such is the kingdom of Heaven.""

Although he's still an intern, Jimmy Peabody is raising funds to finance a medical clinic of his own, and one of the sources he's depending on is wealthy Adam Garrett, an elderly patient at County General.

The business has its allure.

Dr. Casey tries to help a lawyer kick her morphine habit, but encounters resistance, lies and manipulation when she gets a guileless young man to smuggle dope into her hospital room. He is visiting his mother, who is in the hospital for treatment of injuries received in a beating. (Part 1 of 2)

A sabbath diversion.

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear; Those of mechanics—each one singing his, as it should be, blithe and strong; The carpenter singing his, as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his, as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work; The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat—the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck; The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench—the hatter singing as he stands; The wood-cutter's song—the ploughboy's, on his way in the morning, or at the noon intermission, or at sundown; The delicious singing of the mother—or of the young wife at work—or of the girl sewing or washing—Each singing what belongs to her, and to none else; The day what belongs to the day—at night, the party of young fellows, robust, friendly, Singing, with open mouths, their strong melodious songs. Come! some of you! still be flooding The States with hundreds and thousands of mouth-songs fit for The States only. Walt Whitman, Leaves of Gr

A gentle occupation.

Last straws.

""Brave in his burning pride.""

A painstaking diagnosis.

""But one thing is needful.""

The patient and the ill.

Qualifications for the deed.

Sorrow and pity.

A Texas rose.

Souvenirs and trophies.

A decorated aviator with an alias goes into surgery.

A piece of baggage.

Post-scriptum to a surgeon's operating life.

Between you, me and the nurse's station.

Recollections.

Dr. Casey operates on Billy Harris, a holdup man shot and paralyzed, but he's also concerned about the policeman, who may have been too keen and might be mentally hampered.

Dr. Alan Reynolds' mental state is not improved by constant pressure from his wife to be a successful neurosurgeon. The strain increases when he treats an abused 10-year-old boy. Dr. Casey forestalls an unnecessary operation, and tries to persuade Dr. Reynolds to receive treatment.

By degrees to the bare facts.

Tony Romano, a struggling nightclub comic, suffers a cranial seizure. Dr. Casey operates, but Tony is left a paraplegic.

Dr. Karl Anders is a brilliant surgeon, and Zorba wants to keep him on at the hospital. But Anders is concerned with illnesses of his own—he's addicted to morphine, and suffers from leukemia.

Little Cathy Reed is brought to the hospital for emergency treatment after an auto accident. Casey prepares a blood transfusion, but her mother won't consent.