The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1894-01-13
WHEN 4 DOCTORS ARE I'LL.

Il >|fEW lHE:E HEN .DOCTORS:ARE ILL
55lE5T,HEY PREscRlBE< FOR, THEM
SELVES WITH SUCCESS.
|IPhysicians Always Appear in Good
se Health, Though They Often succu NIB to
S. piseaso-When. in Need OF a Specialist
h h They Call In q Fellow PractItioncr.
One side OF a physicians character
= seldom seen by his patients. That
ls when the doctor becomes patient,
ana in turn. has to have another
physician to attend him. This con-
ftlngency never seems to occur to the
lalayman.
sfs The doctor is always in good
physical condition when he makes
bis round OF sick calls. He goes
where epidemics and CONTAGIOUS
tolseases OF all sorts are rife, and if
Inc ever succumbs to them his former
iFPatlents are not apt to see him. so
|%that to the casual observer he ap-
|tpears to bear charmed life and
20 De beyond the reach of any harm,
barring perhaps a railroad accident
or collapse Of a government build
l:ng. But this is not so. The phvsi-
/ clan Is sick. not quite so often, per-
haps, as the average citizen. who
knows less OF the rules of hygiene,
but every doctor knows what it is to
have had some of his fellow prac-
tltloners under his care:
| DR.. w. A. Hammond, in speaking
OF this phase of the doctors life to a
NV ashington Post reporter said:
IS ''4es, the physician is subject to
E.slckness as much as any other man.
LAS rule, he makes a worst patient
than layman, principally, suppose,
from the fact that he misses the
moral support that is lent to the law
man from his ignorance of the pro-
fession. For instance, if you give
layman' a hypodermic injection of
water and tell him it is morphine, he
will go to sleep almost as quickly as
though he had taken the drug into
his system, while physician would
mot take dose in that way, and
when he knew of the deception it
would not have any effect on him.
linen, too, there are a great many
other ways in which the physician
can morally impress and aid his Law
PATIENTS but which fail when he
comes to deal with another doctor.
who says to himself, oh, yes, have
been through all that myself, and
/ knoE last Nl9at i tnean fals atsena
themselves? Yes 4 should say that
they do, so far>as they can, rather
than call in another physician. And
l don't know but what they do as
we'll or better, in that line than any
one else could do for them. \ doc
tor, OF course, can understand his
own symptoms be ter than he can
describe them to another person, and
unless it is serious case he is likelv
to pe able to treat them successfully
When, however, the case gets be-
yond his own handling be calls in
cllow-practitioner, and if he is wise
puts himself completely under the
other doctors charge, ana does as he
is told. Whether he does this grace
fully or not depends entirely on the
man, and l think we have somo of
the best, as we'll as the worst, speci-
mems of humanity in the medical
profession. The really large-minded
mon 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.
"One thing that now sends ply
sician to another physician for treat
ment when he is i'll more than any
thing else is the utting down of the
medical field into specialties, and
physician would be just as likely to
have a specialist to attend himself as
to have one for any other member of
his family.
81 have treated a 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 1 remem-
ber one case, in particular, of doc
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 it necessary, which. how
ever. Ibid not do until I found that
he was getting opium on the sly, and
when he was locked up in room
with a nurse with him, he got up
one night and, going to the third
story window, made rope of his bed
clothes and let himself down, and
broke his log in getting to the
ground. Then he 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
dagf sph and the job done over. But
! afte fahe opium got out of his sys-
tenn he came around more like an or
dinary patient, and got along with
him very we'll.
The only immunity that physi-
clans have from epidemic diseases is
that which comes from superior
knowledge of the causes of disease