The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-09-03
A Sensible Physician.

At the recent annual meeting of the Brit
| ish Medical Association, held at Newcastle
upon-Tyne, DR.. Francis Sibson, OF London,
delivered an address which is worthy OF re-
mark. The strictly professional parts in re-
lation to medicines and pharmacy belong to
| the doctors; the best points Of the address
are those which claim everybody's attention.
Patients, nurses and friends are. alike inter-
ested. After alluding to the remedies OF the
pharmacopaia, the doctor went on to say:
| s.Side by side with the use of medicine, and
"not second to it, was the so-called hy'
s.gienic treatment of disease, the study and
regulation of the vital forces. The in
ssauence that every physician exercised upon
sthe mind, and through the mind upon the
'.body; the soothing or stimulating OF the
nervous power; the calming Of exultation
cor the stirring up OF apathy; the QuietinS OF
1.-THE orer-busy BRAIN or the spurring OF the
"haccid will; the repose OF over-used pow
"ers, or the awakening OF suspended vital
sfunctions; the subduing OF the over-sensi-
!ittive skin, ur the stimulating OF it when
..gan, muddy and liieless; the limiting OF
supplies to an over-ied frame, or the re-
s.pair of the body, wasting by disease, by
..the proper kind of food and stimulants; the
s'briugicg into play and SO again into ex-
oistence, muscles that had become wasted
ssand paralyzed BY disease-these were all
.among the aims that the physician sought
s'to accomplish"
And in accomplishing these aims, the iu-
auence of nurses and of all friends who fire.
ouent the room OF the invalid, is as useful as
the influence OF the physician. crest and
sease," DIR. Sibson says, are the features OF
the treatment he had applied to acute dis
cases for many years, especially to rheuma'
tism and sout. He submits his patients ito
"a rigid system Of absolute rest, protection
s.from external injury, gentle pressure equal
sswarmth, and the, remora! OF pain, chiefly
ssby treatment from without.
1t was formerly favorite notion with ply
sicians that the nature OF the remedy should
be concealed from the patient. DR.. S. fayors
the reverse of this. He "g:ves his patients
emo colored or favored liquid to make them
| "think they were taking medicine when they
"were not doing so, because they did not
sthink it quite right aad did not find it
nneedful to employ such a planned system
"of fiction. Ii physicians did so they conf
"plicated their observations, and deprived
themselves of the help that the patient
"could give them when he understood the
cain of the method OF treatment. What
sscrer might be the line OF treatment adopt
s'ed for disease, the influence OF treatment
son the disease itself was less than the phy-
s'sician was apt to think. The great ma
'.jority OF diseases tended to get well. They
Chad so to speak. LIFETIME OF their own,
"with its periods Of growth, maturity, and
decline; they we're the passing tenants OF
s'the body which they occupied, often with
ssgreat injury, for limited time. Treat
''ment could not change their nature, could
s'not expel them at once, could not quench
.'thenl, could not materially shorten or pro-
'slong their existence. But the treatment
sscould lessen the suferings Of the body oc-
coupled by the disease, shield it from outer
'sinjury, repair its waste, and support and
reinforce its powers; while it could ward
.'ofI those causes which tended to increase
:'or reawaken the disease, and lessen the
s'intensity OF its action, inhammat0ry or
otherwise especially upon the local struc-
stures. To watch, then, the treatment OF a
disease was to watch not, so to speak, the
'sremedy aud its immediate effects, ,irt the
:'d:sease itself, and its behavior during
''certain method OF treatment"
The remarks Of this London piiyscian are
not here quoted as indicating q system of
practice new or unknown in this country.
American physicians OF eminence have long
proceeded upon the same enlightened
principles. But Our chief object is to remind
others than physicians how much they may
do in promoting recovery, or warding of
dangerous diseases, by cheerful and ratioual
conduct in a sick room, and, By close atten-
ton to the personal comfort and the qniet
Of the patient. Fussy impatence, because
no magical results seem to follow doctors
prescription, often defeats The end which
would be quietly accomplished if the patient
were encouraged to hope, OF were at least
let alone. The nursing and the genera. de-
meanor OF friends and attendants are OF as
much consequence to the patient as the
skill o. the physician.
Chester County In the Land Ring.