The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1896-03-29
SECRETS OF THE PROFESSION.

telling his wife something about . lady
patient he had learned IN his capacity ~
hsr physician There Is a moral In this
for the doctor: but there are several other
morals AZ the story discloses. Mr.. and
Mrs. Arthur Kitson separated for some
reason. but Sir James Kitson made his
brothers wife an aIlowa nce Of 600 4
year. notwithstanding. Mrs. Arthur Kit
son had as her phydlcian DR.. Piayfair. who
was the husband Of sister OF the Kitsons.
She conided something to him In that ca
pacify; he told his wife: she told her
brother. James. and he, as q result. stopped
Mrs.. Kitsons allowance. Whereupon Mrs.
Kitson sued the doctor for libel. got $4,000
damages-and tainted.
No doubt the doctor was to blame, hut
the lady was very unwiss TO trust her Sc
cret to her brother-tn-iaw. especially when
that relative was the husband Of her
separated husbands sister. 1t was a COM
bInation suficient to break up any ordi-
nary family. because IL might be presumed
that the separated husbands sister
thought her brothers separated wife to
be no better than she should b any
way.
Physicians are usually very discreet In
whether they are oysters to their wives
on such topics Is not 80 easy TO determine.
1t must be very dinicult when a man has
spent the entire day visiting patients. and
many of them women, to avoid some re-
ference to the doings or observations Of
the day. and II such condolences are be-
slowed. doctors wives must be particu-
larry tactful and discreet or there would
DO many more libel suits such ~ that
brought BY Mrs. Kitson.
Attorneys know somsthing Of the burden
Of keeping secrets which come to them
professionally. but they are bound by as
Jealous . code Of ethics a. the medical
profession, and q breach Of confidence Is
exceedingly rare.
Both have their sources of private and
exclusive information. but when II comes
down to real. live. vivacious and healthy
scandal. the doctors and lawyers are mot
In it, with the hotel night clerk and the
night hackman. The lawyer gets the
scandal when the mischief has become
known; the doctor usually has to deal
with the prosiac consequences which are
sometimes concealed. and sometimes not
But the hotel clerk and the haekman know
Of II In Its early and romantic stages. when
II is throbbng with expectation or enjoy
ing the rapture Of stolen kisses.
The hotel register 10 as much Of . "blind'
by no code OF honor. yet standing upon the
nnwritten laws Of chivalry. the hotel clerk
and tho hackman tell no tales. II they
be married men. and married TO such wives
as DIR. Piayfsir's. what cornucopia Of
libel suits they would represent!
Among tho morals" which the case OF
DIR. Piayfair offers as a warning the most
obvious is tina, no doctor ought to tell his
wife any secret detrimental to another
woman's reputation. The story as told
does not disclose whether the information
was necessarily gathered in the course OF
his diagnosis or by tho patients confession,
or whether II was something observed or
inferred In the course of visit which had
no bearing on his PATIENTS immediate con-
dition. II matters very httie: he knew 4,
and told 4. and the moral is he should no,
have told II. tempting. though. 1t no doubt
was. Another moral is not to run such
risks with q hhlf-member OF your own fam
ily: tho nearer the relationship the keener
the enjoyment IN retailing scandal And
the third moral is 10 avoid setting into
such scrapes that Won ar. unwilling should
IA known or talked Of; this applies less
however. 20 the doctor and lawyer than to
the night hotel clerk snd night hackman.