Omaha daily bee., 1888-02-29
TALK ON THROAT TROUBLES.
Interview With DR.. Macdonald, the
Throat Specialist.
THE GROWN PRINCE WILL LIVE.
But His Voice May BE Injured or De.
strOycd-Review of British
Magazines-Other For.
eign News,


porter to-day interviewed Dr. Greville
Mcdonald, one of the regular stan OF the
London throat hospital of which Sir Morell
Mackenzie and DIR. Howell, now at San Reno,
are consulting physicians He was asked:
Why have the German doctors been so
positive that the disease was cancerl
l account for that partly from the fact
that the crown prince has been treated by
German doctors, some of whom have shown
almost total ignorance of the human throat,
and then it is largely due to the doggedness
of the Teutonic character Great German
physicians had declared authortatively the
disease was cancer, therefore cancer 1t must
be. English doctors, on the other hand,
led by Sir Morell Mackenzie, who has
probably seen more throats than any man
on earth, can only say after carefully
observing the symptoms, we see no
reason to believe that we have to do with
cancer 1t is the characteristic Anglo Saxon
reserve.
Do you consider that the disease may ter
inmate fatallyl
That is not the question at all. 1t is no
longer the life of the crown prince, but his
larynX which is threatened. His voice may
be injured or destroyed, but he will live,
because he can breathe. All danger from
| the operation is now past. BY the way, the
newspapers have shown q disposition to
underestimate the dangers of tracheotomy,
which is really an operation grave enough to
make any surgeon hesitate. Besides local
complications, there is always to be appre-
| hended the shock to the lungs caused by air
| entering them without having been warmed
| as is normally the case in going through the
| passages of the head. After the healing
| of the wound those who have suf-
| fered tracheotomy experience little in
| convenience from the tube. The servant
who received you is an illustration of this.
| Hers was one of the most remarkable cases
| on record. Her throat had gradually become
| so deformed that when performed the ope-
| ration she could neither breathe nor swallow.
| | succeeded in clearing these abnormal OBJ
| structions and now she eats her food with a
relish and is talking constantly, although her
| voice is changed. Yes, l have known the
| calibre of singers voice to be entirely
| altered, say from soprano to alto, by an
operation on the throat, and the voice is often
much improved by changing the shape Of the
| resonant chambers of the throat.
Are peoples throats more sensitive nova
days than they were formerly9
Say rather that peoples imaginations are
more sensitive. The public think too much
about their bodily ailments. A person gets q
bad sore throat and is Immediately convinced
he has a cancer. You can't lay down any gen
eral rules. Some men need to bundle up
| great deal, and others do not. However
there IS one supposed precaution which
cannot condemn to strongly That is these
ridiculous mouth covers. They are botl
| silly and mischievious. If man wants hi.
mouth shut, let him shut it himself.
Do throat diseases vary in different coun
| tries!
Most decidedly. Berlin, for instance, i
said to be an excellent field fo
throat doctors. Among the thousands o
cases treated annually at the throat hospita
here, there are very few whereby life woul,
be endangered. / should consider six case
of tracheotomy in year an unusuall
large number. The climate in Americ
would seem favorable to the throat
} perhaps from its greater dryness. In visit
ing hospitals in the United States / hav
learned that certain forms of children
J throat troubles very common in England ar
almost unknown there. On the other hand
America seems eminently the home Q
. nasal catarrh.
Might that fact have anything to do wit
the traditional twang!
do not think it Just to reproach you
. countrymen with their so callsd twang. Yo
, | speak in a higher key than we do. You us
y milder modulations. In short, YOU sin
more or less in talking. Those are your ma
, ural characteristics but we Englishmen fo
get the peculiar throaty character of ou
own voices when we set ourselves up abov
our Yankee descendants over in the states.