The Bessemer indicator., 1893-11-18

Physicteos Always Appear In Good
Health, Though They Often succumb to
Dissass-whea In Need of specI.,i.t
They osil in . Fellow Practitioner.
One side Of . physician's character
Is seldom seen by his patients. That
Is whom the doctor becomes patient,
and In turn has to have another
physician TO attend him. This con-
tiugency never seems to occur to tho
lsyman.
The doctor Is always In good
physical condition when he makes
his round OF sick calls. He goes
where epidemics and contagious
diseases Of all sorts are rife, and IL
he ever shccumbs to them his former
patients are not apt to see him. SO
that to the casual observer he ap-
pears to bear charmed life and
to be beyond the reach OF any harm,
barring perhaps railroad accident
or collapse OF a government build
ing. But this is not so. The physi-
clan is sick. not quito so often, per-
haps. as the average citizen, who
knows less of the rules OF hygiene,
but every doctor knows what 1t is to
have had some OF his fellow prac-
titioners under his care.
DIR. w. A. Hammond, in speaking
OF this phase of the DOCTORS life to q
Washington Post reporter. said:
"Yes, the physician is subject to
sickness as much as any other man.
AS rule, he makes q worst patient
than alayman, principally, suppose.
from tho fact that he misses the
moral support that is lent to the lay
man from his ignorance OF tho pro-
fessiou. For Instance, If you give a
laynan hypodermic injection of
water and tell him it is morphine, he
will go to sleep almost us quickly as
though he had taken the drug into
his system, while physician would
not take a dose In that way. and
wlion he know OF tho deception il
would not have any effect on him.
Then, too, there are q great many
other ways in which the physician
can morally Impress and aid his lay
patients, but which fall when he
comes to deal with another doctor,
who says to himself, 'Oh, yes, have
been through all that myself, and
know just what it means
..Do physicians as rulo attend
themselves? Yes | should say that
they do, SD FIR lis they cah, rather
than call in another physician. And
don't know but what they do as
well or better. in that line than any
one else could do for them. A doc
tor, of course, can understand his
own symptoms he ter. than be can
describe them to another person, and
unless 1t Is serious case he is likely
to oo able to ureat them successfully.
When, however, the case gets be-
yond his own handling he calls in q
fellow practitioner. and if he is wise
puts himself completely under tho
other DOCTORS charge, and docs as he
is told. Whsther he docs this grhce-
iully or not depends entirely on the
man. and l think we have some of
the best, as well as the worst. speei-
mems OF humanity in the medical
profession. The really large-minded
men are pretty much the same in
whatever state you find them, and the
little, contemplate fellows will be
petulant and irritable when sick Just
as any other patients.
lone thing that now sends ply
sician to another physician for treat
ment when he is ill more than ANY,
thing else is the cutting down of the
medical field into specialties, and a
physician would be just as likely to
have specialist to attend himself as
to have one for any other member of
his family.
al have treated great number of
doctors in my time, and the most
troublesome cases have been those
who have been afflicted with the NOR
phine or alcoholic disease. remem-
ber one case, in particular, OF doe
tor who came to me to be treated for
the opium habit. He put himself
under my care, and authorized me to
lock him up If necessary, which, how
over, Ibid not do until l found that
he was getting opium on the sly, and
when he was locked up in q room
with a nurse with him, he got up
one night and, going to the third
story window. made a rope OF his bed
clothes and lot himself down, and
broke his leg in getting to tho
ground. Then lie made a terrible
fuss about the setting of the leg, and
declared that it was not done prop
erly, and that he wanted the ban
dages of and the job done over. But
after the opium got out of his sys-
tenn he came around more like an Or
dinary patient, and l got along with
him very we'll.
1.-The only immunity that physi-
clans have from epidemic diseases is
that which comes from superior
knowledge of the causes OF disease
Transmission. and greater caro- in
guarding themselves against it. A
physician. for instance, would mover
have the cholera except through
gross carelessness. for that is a
disease that can be transmitted only
through swallowing the germs, nnd
this can be avoided by proper care
and cleanliness. but in typhus fever,
which is the most excessively con-
tagious fever known, physicians are
no more exempt than any one else,
and great many of them die from
it in every epidemic. 1t is possible,
now, however, in tho advanced stage
of antiscptic treatment, by proper
care and washing In curbolic acid
baths for the physician and tho nurse,
who is exposed to the disease, to
staua better chance to escape.
Tho Mud Wasp and 1t. Young.
For centuries the mud wasp has