St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1881-09-24
Doctors and Their Latin.

There are those who think that the
long illness of the President, whether IL
result iatallv-which God Forbidden
in his complete recovery, will probaoly
effect one highly desirable innovation
the doctors will learn to write English.
The public demand for frequent tidings
from the bedside of the illustrious
patient has already developed at least
a desire for this reform Hitherto the
doctors seem to have regarded it as
toIerably certain that all men are
bound to sicken and die, and that, since
their fate is irrevocable, they might as
we'll die of prescriptions written IN pad
Latin as of orders for medicine written
in fair English, the former having the
decided advantage of being only intelli-
gible to the physician and to his coad-
! tutor, the drug clerk; and thus the pa
tient doesn't know what he dies of, and
his surviving relatives also remain IN
blissful ignorance in that regard. 1t is
convenient for a doctor whose dag
noses may be hurried or incorrect. to
take refuge in words of learned length
and terrible sound, and the same style
of language is useful in describing dis
ease to the ordinary layman.
! In other cases it may be still more
useful to conceal the simple nature OF
| the remedies prescribed. Plain soap
ndssugar may be Latinized into some
thing terrible to the patient, who con-
suits old Bolus about getting rid of
boil. And the man with a !cold-how
much more respect he will have for
his alment if cured with syr. ss'np|er
from the drug store at dime
spoonful, than if his wife gave him a
tablespoonful of the plain sirup that
came in Jug from the grocery store.
How much grander sounds sur. rhet
aroma than spiced rhubarb Goose
grease even may be Latlnlzed until
worth dollar or more as an onguent or
ointment. Ag. rose sounds better than
rose water, and az. is a more learned
expression than hydrant water. The
man who gets prescription containing
chiefly spr. t12tD1cnt and takes it, is on
better terms with himself and his all
ment, fancied or real, than if he had
been told to 90 to a saloon and get a
"ponv of whisky.h And the child with
a cold-what intense respect has its
mother for the physician who writes q
learned prescription in a language I'M
known to her, instead of plainly re-
marking ''sirup of squllls, bloodroot
and paregoric in equal parts; tea
spoonful three times a day; shake the
bottle'' Such is the reverence for pre-
scriptions written in Latin that a Hiber-
Man patient once affirmed he "felt bet
ter after rubbing his rheumatism with
that paper" The only part OF the or
der he was able to read was the direc-
ton, in English, rub well;" so he
wore the paper out rubbing the affected
part. There is still another advantage
in the use of Latin; it's pronunciation
affords a subject of debate-when they
have no subject to hack with knives
among the medical students, and some
range themselves on the side OF Prof.
Draper in saying duodenum, while 9TH
ers agree with Webster in the lay and
popularity accepted pronunciation.
But, seriously, this Latinizing OF pre-
scriptions-in very bad Latin, as a rule
is traditional custom that must soon
give way before the onward march OF
| popular intelligence and common
| sense. President Garfeld's ply sicians
: undertook at first to follow this old
: custom, and to entertain the public
, with bulletins ineligible only to pro-
, fessional men; but they soon found that
such language would not do in this
t case So deep was the popular interest
2 in the welfare of the President that
} the fullest information, conveyed in
t the simplest language, was insisted
upon. It is credltable to the distin-
g guished surgeons in charge of the pa
Z tent that they yielded, and the official
9 publications that come from the White
3 House are now written in English such
9 as ordinary readers can fully compre-
t Probably the prescriptions are still writ
: ten in Latin, but it is one step in the
9 direction of reform that the descriptions
n of the patients symptoms and condi-
4 tons are Ineligible. ~
: The reform will extend until we shall
n have diagnoses in English, and medical
e works will be written wholly in the
|. same tongue. Then people will be less
y mystified about the ills the flesh is heir
o to, and having ascertained what ais
8 them, may, in illness of not serious
$ character, venture to prescribe their
J. own remedies. The gentlemen whose
It life work is one of benefcence to the
n race will not long stand in the way OF
x these reforms. They cannot afford to.
@ st. Louis Globe Democrat.
IS Rocnrd 0f nrOuphts