The evening times., 1898-12-16

| . 6Is.s
medical advice by letter, and it says It's
! better to write to woman because Il
man can't understand a woman, just be-
! cause he's a man, and 1t says, too. that
| it's just revolving to go to man physi-
| clan anyhow. And Mrs. Lovegood stopped
/ because she was out of breath.
Il bet YOU" said her husband. THAT
the advertisement don't say she's a wom-
| an physician. why. yes ii does, said
/ his wife, she looked at the advertise
ment again. well, no, l guess it doesn't
say she's a physician. but 1t means the
same thing. for ii says that II Is a woii-
/ an whose experience in treating woman
/ diseases is greater than that Of any nv
! ing physician male or female. Mr..
Iovegood chuckied and said. That
! what | love abogt you, my dear. You
are so ready to believe without ques-
/, ton when there's bargain IN
| view II you We're little fish, d eaten
YOU every time with rubber worm If
put a bargain sign above the hook.
| ..Oh, do be serious for once cried Mrs.
Lovegood. Then. To be serious, ne re-
! n,ied this woman doesn't claim 10 be
/ nhvsician. She would claim TO be ply
| sician if she could. because she is trying
! to convey the impression in every other
! way than BY a direct claim that she Is d
| nhvsician She IS not therefore a phSsi-
elan and can never have pracuced Heo'-
cine. Yet not being a physician and thete-
fore never having practiced medicine she
claims to have had experience IN treat
| ing woman's diseases greater thah any
| living physician Now the question IS
since she never practiced medlcihe' "he'S
| did she get that eXperience2
..Well. that is So" Mrs. Lovegood some
what reluctantly admitted, but then she
| is a woman" I'm not so sure ABOUT
that. even" said her husband. 1T looks
to me as if some man was working the
women with the bearded lady act
Bearded lady act! Do you mean
TO say that they have dime museum h
freaks for doctors? Why, you must De
foolish or else amazingly prejudiced,
cried his wife.
"you are too literal. my dear. SAID
Mr.. Lovegood. What | mean by the
bearded lady act is that some man Is
posing as a woman, writing over wonn-
ans signature or using woman as
stalking horse, assuming "on,a II >
character to mislead. The bearded iady
of the show is always a freak and gen.
erally A fraud The point In this ad-
yertisament we are discussing Is that
YOU are asked to write TO woman the
! Implication being that the woman IS
competent to give and will give you quail
fed and valuable medical advice. But
4 as it isn't specified that the "oiiia'
a physician. there's no iufraction OF the
law The probabilities are that there
isn't a qualified doctor around the place,
and the whole so-callcd medical corre-
spondence' is done by a lot of girl
clerks"
..Oh." Mrs. Lovcgood interJected,
THAT'S what it means, then, when they
Saa q l.
ence?'
Exactly. my dear" continued her hus-
band. And suppose the woman in the
advertisement is real woman ana not
the bearded lady, there's your dress
maker, who Is also woman, not TO
q speak of Mrs. Flanagan, the COOK
q mother who is a really excellent woman.
. If a woman's not doctor, then one
) woman's as good as another, and it's
3 foolish going to a stranger hundreds OF
. miles distant for the sympathy which
i friends at home can better supply. And
a as for man not understanding woman
q ! diseases because he's a man, that is the
8 cheapest sort of claptrap. Who have
0 done the doctoring in the past two thou
s sand wears? The men. Where must the
= modern woman physician go for her
a | knowledge? To schools taught by men
8 | and books written by men. III this Won-
an who claims men don't understand
woman's diseases. should ever take to
the study of medicine, she'd have to be
q taught everything she knew by the mer
who don't know anything, according to
. | her opinion The problem is, how man
who don't know anything about woman's
| disease can teach a woman to know
everything about them 1 give it up.
Then YOU wouldn't write, sald Mrs
Lovegood, doubtfully.
: Write? What for?" said her husband
: write to a woman? What's the use OF
+ writing to woman? If you want to
Il | write write to doctor The first queS.
q ton in sickness is not question OF sex
Il but a question of medical ability and
v qualifications. There's no sex in medicine
anyhow If you want to write why not
: | write to man of medical standing, a
: specialist like DR.. r. V. Pierce, of Buff
= falo. N. Y You know he's a regularly
: graduated doctor. You know he's a goo6
- one and at the head of a great medica
institution You know he's had thirty
!, years experience, and has. with the aif
= of his staff of nearly score of skilled
It specialists treated more than half a mil
; lion women, who freely confided in the
: integrity of the man and the skill Of
5 the physician. President Garfield once
" said of DIR. Pierce, he is one of the bes
q men in the world, and he is at the heaG
o of one of the best medical institutions iT
n the world There's nothing new about
it has been feature of DR.. Pierce's prac
tice for years, in fact, for more than &
n quarter of a century. Write to him be
q cause you'll get the best advice and M
string tied to it, so to speak,.
But" queried Mrs. Lovegood, ''do yo,
= think even though DIR. Pierce is quail
1, fed physician and ranks so high as
s specialist he can treat disease by cor
e respondence?"
* 81 don't see why not" answered Mr.
e Lovegood. Medical science is wheeling
e into line with everything else, and drop
I ping the hocus pocus of the middle ages
: The divinity that hedged in the prizes
: and physician is a thing of the past. A
S man Is taken for what he is and what III
II can do. OF course the members of tn,
e profession who are not specialists woult
e naturally fight an innovation which tool
e away their patients and their profits
W But when a new idea makes for publ,
e good it can't be destroyed. They used II
% say no steamer could be built to cross
the Atlantic She couldn't carry Goa