Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1901-09-21

raigned. indicted, tried and sentenced
to life imprisonment in less than thirty
minutes.
THE IMPATIENT PATIENT.
People are much more sensitive and
impatient about their health nov than
formerly, and needlessy SO. thinks DR..
j. F. Goodhart, who touched on the sub
ject in an address delivered before the
British Medical Association at its re-
cent annual meeting. They will have
medicine whether they need 1t or no,
and hasten to place themselves upon the
operating table on the slightest excuse.
Says DR.. Goodhart, as quoted In the
Hospital:
THE sick man now always wants to
know too much. He wants to know
what is the matter with him when 1t is
not possible to tell him; moreover. he
will have an answer, and If not he
thinks the doctor an ignoramus, and
calls In some one else. The public
will have the disease ticketed, even
when there Is no means of identifica-
tion; and having got a name for his
complaint the patient thinks the pilysic
tumbles out of the same slot, and that
between the two he will be cured Off
hand. There is no idea of doubt-none
that the powers of medicine are limited
in all sorts Of ways, and that waiting
for developments or subsidences is the
only skillful course. Waiting Is de-
scribed as nothing is being done for
me- and some one else is called in with
"a Can't you do something
"The morbid sensitiveness of people in
the present day is well shown by the
lrapidity with which they fly to medi-
cine. The number of new drugs that are
daily launched upon us Is bewindering
II. the extreme. Then. too with what
simpatience do men and women in the
present day rush into the not always
sufficiently repellent arms of surgery! A
little pain unneryes them, and all they
know of surgery is its successful side. It
is day of great things, and why should
they not have the benefit of these ad-
yances? And so with an ache here or q
pain there they undergo an operation.
The energy Of life that have spoken of
knows nothing Of risks; knows nothing
of shock; will hear nothing Of waiting
and rest in bed, and the disappointment
In consequence is often considerable.
"And now what are we, the
doctors, doing in this impatient, restless
age to stem the tide. to stay the panic,
to bid the people keep its head? do
not doubt that every one OF us does his
best for the man that consults him, but
l am not sure that in attending to the
exigencies of the immediate present we
Go sufficiently take heed OF the future;
and first among our failings may be put
q morbid readiness to detect disease.
Engaged as we are in this pursuit, there
comes q risk that we too little appre-
cIate the wide range of health; that Is,
how good a state of health is compatt-
hle with numberless slight and even
sometimes considerable departures from
normal. I will take an Illustration from
the heart. Over and over again in the
present day heart is said to be
strained. or weak, or dilated. or even
diseased as to its valves from want OF
sound appreciation OF what is to be con-
sidered health, not for the general but
for the particular. One would almost
think from all the talk one hears
about dilatation of the heart, strains
ir healthy young people from trivial
causes. the grave conclusions that
are based upon, perhaps, some slight
displacement of the impulse, etc.. that
the heart is so fragile an organ that It
needs to be coddled from the cradle to
the grave hate the term weak heart.
It collins or. worse, throws useless upon
society, many an otherwise useful life.
again, take the stomach with its ca
tarrhs' and its 'dilations. Their best
treatment often is to let thief severely
alone. But the public won't have 1t.
Who does not know the difficulty there
is In preventing people from undergoing
serious operation for the purpose OF
stitching these harmless mobilities-for
1t is only quite exceptional that 1t is
otherwise-into their places? 1t Is the
game in many another region: throats
and noses suffer treribly from this lust
of operation that has beset the public.
Ears are now being swept into the pan
ic. and incline to think that the only
region of our art that preserves its
proper decorum Is that of ophthalmic
surgery. and it, believe, reaps the re-
ward of well-doing that is usual in this
topsy-turvy world in being regarded by
and so 1t is supposed to be the thing to
go abroad to skim the cream of skill.
Coming then, to drugs. why do we
give them? TO cure disease, you an
swer at once, and think the question
unnecessary But wait a minute; drugs
are given for several other reasons
some of which are far less free from
criticism Sometimes because the pa
tient will not be happy illhe gets them;
sometimes to hide our Ignorance, or to
mark time While we watch and wait;
and then we often give drugs as an ex-
pertinent in the hope that they may do
good. All treatment by drugs is more
or less of an experiment. That We can
not help. SO long as one man differs
from another it must be 80. Many an
nilment badly needs a remedy, and who
knows but what in each new drug some
human i'll may find alienation? What
/ would discountenance Is the giving
drI,sys hv rifle nf thum b. -