The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-02-23
MEN OF CHARMED LIVES.
Pass Unscathed Through
Ills of all Kinds.
From the Philadelphia Record.

E,om the Philadelphia Record.
Physicians are commonly supposed to
- charmed life. They seem endowed
With a divine right to go whittier they will
- ,atnrn uuscathed. Though spending
n,onv hours of every day in upbuilding the
9Th Of mankind, they seem utterly re-
-or5lass of their own, yet their apparent
oaolact seems fraught with no i'll results.
1,+ev encounter the most malignant diseases,
oro in frequent attendance upon patients
.--bose very touch would seem to embody
"ontagiop, vet they are very rarely stricken
down.
THEY KNOW NO PROPHYLACTIC.
disease seems to go wiuging past physi-
oions inst as the angel of death flew high
sboye the Israelitish chimney-pots in the
dovs of the ten plaques. There is wide
snread belief that the members or the
rFcdical fraternity carry about with them a
1ronbvlectic which renders them more in
PP-Iperahle than was Achilles. Among
otbers II is supposed that doctors, constant
Tact with drugs and indictments throws
obont them an impenetrable hygienic halo
Rut at such theories the physicians laugh,
and one has even gone so far as to say that
so-ceed prophylactic is as impotent
.osiusa disease as is a saints toe bound up
ir a handkerchief an aVerter of sin.
THE DIVINE RIGHT OF DOCTORS.
lam an out-and-out CaIvanistic fatalst
-, this subject said prominent physician
vasterday. II believe that Providence
must have made a special dspensation in
the case of medical men. They are the
hraveyt class in the world, but so are they
the most careless. They eat what and
when they please, and average scarcely six
hours sleep per day, just two hours less than
they prescribe for their patients Every
time they 90 into a sick room they run a
greater or less risk, but they are fearless
and unfinchiug. The thought of catching
or transmitting disease is the most remote
from their minds.
There is very little danger that doctor
will carry germs of disease from house to
house. | have treated cases of diphtheria,
scarlet fever, measles and mumps IN the
same day, and have gone directly from one
patient to the other without thought of
transmission. never think of changing
nv clothes when | come home from visiting
f malignant type of disease, nor do | ever
have them fumigated. And it is right here
that my fatalism is put in practice"
DOCTORS ARE NO EDWARDS.
Chow do physicians take care of them
selvesan repeated a distinguished medical
professor, as he turned to face his interlocu-
Tor. "Why they don't. They never take
that they are not liable to a contagious dis
ease is that they know no fear and remain
in the sick room only a very snort time,
half an hour at the longest. Then they are
so much out of doors that they are apt to
enjoy much better health than the business
man who spends the whole day in his office
and carries his wOrriment home with him.
Doctors as a rule do little worrying. They
eat and drink what they want, aud thougn
their hours are irregular, they learn to take
snatches of sleep almost anywhere. They
grow haI dened to the wear and tear Of d
PHYSICIANS life, and increased experience
makes them proof against Contagion."
NOT ALL PHYSICIANS ARE EXEMPT.
"There are among doctors susceptibilities
to particular forms of disease that diSprove
the theory that the health of medical
man is almost impregnable." said anothe
physician. "Why, | nave caught scarlet
fever five times in the course of my prac-
tice. Ii should be summoned to visit a
scarlet fever patient tonight l would be
sure to have sore throat tomorrow as a
preliminary symptom. | have know
many cases of doctors who were similarly
liable to cholera or to diphtheria. Men
who can stand any mount of exposure to
smallpox ofte times will be cut down al
the very first contact with typhus fever.
TWO DANGERS ENCOUNTERED.
in the sick room: One is the inhal alton OF
microbes, and the other the danger that
germs may enter the pores of the skin. But
if the doctor handles his patient carefully,
has the room we'll ventilated to prevent the
air becoming poisoned, and is careful not to
inhale the sick mans breath, he will reduce
10 minimum the danger of contagion. A
physician should never visit his patient
when ne is in an exhausted or worried
state, nor when he is hungry. But by
properly observing the laws of hygiene
by making up in Que night the loss OF another
nights sleep by, employing moderation IN
the use of food, drink and tobacco, and by
frequent bathing aud plenty of outdoor
life, physician can make himself as nearly
disease proof as it is possible for any one to
be have learned to snatch an hours
sleep here and there through the day, and
by sleeping in my carriage or in my chair
bring my daily average uear to eight hours.
| eat and drink what desire, but put a ban
on tea. Tea-tippling is more dangerous
than whisky drinking.