The Indianapolis journal., 1903-12-27
DOCTOR DETECTS DISEASE
By Merely Noticing Walk of Person
MaIady Can be Told.
London Mail

A weIl-known doctor sat in his consulting
room. He is a man who, in spite of his
medical training, has not lost any Of his
active interest in life. After distinguished
hospital and university career he has for
years worked in one of our larger London
hospitals, and there among the Out-patients
has obtained a priceless experience of men
and things.
One of the results of such training Is a
state of preoccupatiOn which causes him to
diagnose instinctively. AS he walks abroad,
as he sits in restaurant, as he listens to
a concert. as he visits any public place,
he observes quickly and dispassonately, al
ways from a medical point of view.
People are around him who have secrets
which he alone guesses, of which, in many
cases, they themselves are not aware.
This doctor-there are many like him
spoke yesterday of his interesting walks
abroad 1t was in the afternoon, when the
patients are not ringing at the bell, and he
mad TIM to talk. London is a wonderful
place." he said. "One meets such interest
ing people.
You have never seen a case Of spactic
paraplegia, 1 suppose? Well there's a fine
example TO be seen in a street of Holborn.
rails of a public institution at ten minutes
past 6. SpactiC paraplegia is a disease of
the spinal cord. The patient walks with
his toes turned in, they catch IN one an
other and trip him up-then he clings."
Such was the Doctors definition of an in
teresting person. He was referring TO
cases" he met and recognized at sight.
Gait is a wonderful thing" he went on.
Down the shady side of Pail Mall you see
nice old gentlemen with alcoholic neuritis
who walk as IL they are carefully stepping
oh X he M wit
sciatica who takes care never to put down
his heel and always sits with one hip
straight and his foot curled under him. A
man with palsy INDUCES in little runs and
his fingers never leave OF rolling cigar
cites. Locomotor ataxy gives "A peculiar
walk, sort OF circular sweep with a de-
cided stamp.
"In restaurants" the doctor mused, zone
sees strange people Why, only yesterday
my lunch was spoilt by a lady with Bright 5
disease l read IL in her anaemlc condition
and the pouches under the eyes, and she
was eating a most obviously improper meal.
The other day / sat down at concert TO
enjoy the Tannhauser overture when / saw
a 'cellist whose hand spoilt everything No.
ii was not his playing. His hand, poor fell
low, ouriously curved. and in a few
months he would not be able TO play: il
was muscular atrophy.
"At street door is a middle-aged woman
of a curiously bloated look with patches
Of hair fallen out who, If you asked her a
question would take very many seconds To
reply. MyXoedema probably-the loss of
the thyroid gland. Or there is someone with
facial paralysis-a calm expression on one
side Of the face and all wrinkles gone, an
afficticn which has been described as the
best cosmetic known. On a railway plat
form you note a man sitting down with legs
crossed. His free foot beats regularly
aortic regurgftation.
"A man is speaking in the park. He is
wild in his words Sometimes as he COM
mences a new sentence his lips look as II he
were about 10 weep. Looking closer. / note
that the pupils of his eyes are or a differ
ent size. IL is the commencement of the
general paralysis OF the insane.
Everywhere there are signs. There is
the dull look OF the epieptic, the wild look