Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-06-21
HAVING BLIND FAITH.
It Is Commendable in a Patient tbut
Ignorance Is Culpable.
NEED TO KNOW ALL WE OAN.
Shirley Dare Comes to the Defense Of Ply.
sicians Who Write
HOT SHOT FOR HIGH-PRItED DOCTORS
WRITTEN FOR THE prspArcH.1

WRITTEN FOR THE pIsPArcHl
Whose falls out of the hands of God, says
the Talmud, shall fall into the hands of the
physicians. Having occasion lately to realize
this proverb, being in the hands of six doc
tors In as many weeks, others are welcome
to profit by my experience. am no foe to
doctors or medicine. Sharply as our genial
Autocrat has spoken against drugs, doubt
| if his theory that they had better be thrown
| into the sea would keep him from taking
soda mint or Carlsbad salts after an alumni
| dinner or opium to allay the pains of in
complete digestion. Drugs are our vicarious
redemption from suffering, and whether to
fall into the hands of doctors is the first step
from grace or the last depends wholly on the
doctor.
1t never recommends a neighborhood to
be very far from medical aid, but family
paper of high repute lately expresses itself
in terms which we have all heard too often:
'tIt is not too much to say that more than
half the physical ills which people are be-
lieved to suffer are the result of an over
vivid imagination. Nothing is more alb
surd than to read of symptoms of disease in
medical books and brood over them. 1t is a
wise and safe rule to leave medical matters
to medical men, being sure to employ man
in whom one can have thorough trust, and
then rely implicitly upon his judgment.
The Theory Of the Majority.
You have all heard it before, and very
| likely quoted it in exhortation to some
weaker brother or sister. The belief of
hundreds of people counting themselves in
| telligent is: First, most diseases-other
folks diseases-are sheer imagination;
second, you don't want to learn or read
anything about them so as to know whether
| they are imaginary or not; and, lastly, if
| you are sick put yourself in the hands Of a
| doctor and leave health, life and death to
| him. That is the theory of hygiene by
which most people live and more die.
| Popular ideas of medicine, law and drain
| laying trot on the same level You are to
leave your life and your property, which
makes life worth living, and your drains,
which concern both health and property, to
some professor of the arts concerning them,
and you are supposed to be as incapable
of knowing anything about the first
| two as you are about taking levels
through walls, banks and angles. That is to
| say, you are born into the world a dummy
U
interests, and on your peril you seek to dis
sipate your native ignorance. 1 have just
been through the trial of having drains laid,
and if there is anything OF which consid-
cred myself hopelessly and incurably
ignorant it was the science of drain digging.
The rich and ancient borough of Dedham is
in the hands Of local officers who devote
their energies to laying town tax much
higher than that of London or New York,
and in consequence are unequal to laying of
town drains. Yearly as the tax rate rises
the water rises in the cellars, and, as there
is no prospect of taxes lowering, the possi-
bilities of floating off in some spring thaw
are disconcerting.
Shirley Dare's Experience in Drains.
So sent for q man of drains, well rec
commended, and placed affairs in his hands
with that childliks confidence which
medical men find exemplary in their
patients. The first discovery was that the
tile drain, supposed to keep the cellar dry,
sloped three inches up to the town gutter,
which was too weak to run down hill, must
be added that of Dedham water, which
was expected to be able to run up hill Ny
unassisted reason proved equal to grasping
the situation without tottering on its
throne.
Step by step the interest grew In side
drains, dry wells, surface water and hard
pan. Unaided 1 discovered the difference
between days work in fact and days
work so-called, and between few pointed
words and some well disposed workmen 1
have the pleasure of seeing work finished
this afternoon which this morning I was
assured would take two days.
At dawn there was before my window a
fve-foot drain, filled part of its length with
rubble stone to a foot of the surface, that be-
ing the fashion of contract drain filling for
people who don't know better. But from
reading up about drain building and a word
or two from better-informed people, the
heaped rubble was disposed Is inches deep
over the bottom of the 5O-foot drain and the
rest filled with gravel, sods and sand, as it
should be, saving some days work with
men and teams and some dollars to my
pocket
1t was rather funny to see q small woman
and Manx kitten superintend that drain
digging, suppose, but it is done for gen.
Grafton to come, and what I want to make
apparent is that the average disorders of our
systems can no more surpass our under
standings than the laying of cellar drains.
If it were impossible or inadvisable for men
and women to comprehend the needs of
their own bodies and lives it would be q re-
Election against the wisdom of Him who
made US
Safety Lies in Intelligence.
It is true that we cannot without more
time and study than most of us can devote
learn the intricacies of chronic disease and
the skill Of surgery. But we can under
stand quite enough to prevent the horrors Of
cancer, tumor, abscess, tubercle and their
train. We can learn the pulse, the heart
beat, the sympathy between digestion, nerves
and muscular exhaustion; between colds
and infammations and the prompt treat
ment of their initial disorders.
Is knowledge of our joints, nerves and or
gans to lead us to sick fancies about them
or the reverse? Is the ability to determin-
ate the freaks of gas in the stomach from
the presence of live animal there injuri-
GUS to nervous, dyspeptic woman? When,
day after day and hour after hour, the
crawling sensation repeats itself on the
shoulder so that one would swear a worm
was creeping there, is it or is it not quiet
ing for sensitive person to know it is q
disorder of circulation, which physicians
know as the aura, only disturbing as itpoints
to disorder of the nerves.
Is it best or not for woman to be able to
detect the beginnings of tumor in time when
it can be dispersed by diet and massage, or
should she ignorantly wait till it spoils her
figure and takes years treatment and vivi-
section to relieve her of it? More. Is it
not comfortable for a woman to read medi-
oino annuoh Tn learn that che has n n m velitis