The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-03-04
ABOUT SPECIALISTS
THIS is AN AGE OF sPEcIALIzA-
TON
The Society Girl Has to Have Dozen
Doctors-Dr. Gould Has Written
Book on Eye Strain, and the Society
Girls Ills Are Many.

This is an age of specialization, when
one with a general ssmattering of many
things and not much concrete knowl-
edge of any one in particular, VIII mo
1t difficult to make living. Special
lists are now demanded in almost every
line, and while work Of all kinds has
been much improved by this tendency,
the danger of an extreme in this, as In
everything else, is great. In medicine
and surgery this idea has become so
general that the old family physician,
with his black bag from which he could
bring some remedy for any Ill, is now
a thing of the past. There is now and
then what is known as general prac-
titioner, but they are few One has to
go to one man for the stomach, an
other for lungs, another for liver, and
on through long list, SO that one who
had much the matter with him might
have a list of physicians as long as
his arm. If he escaped with his life
ne would do WELL Then when he has
appendicitis (Which he is sure to have
If he is anybody, he must have a sur
geon, a branch now quite separate from
medicine. Indeed, even in surgery there
are specialists, those who make a spe-
cfalty of taking out the appendix, for
instance, and with whom one is hardly
safe for a moment. All this sort Of
thing is very we'll, and has certainly re-
suited in greater efficiency among the
medical profession, but no wonder we
are busy! Take a society girl with
plenty of money. She has her aurist,
her oculist, specialists of other kinds
who attend to all sorts Of weaknesses;
then she has her throat specialist who
finds growths about once a week that
must be cut out; her skin doctor, her
manicure, pedicure, hair dresser, mas
seur, not to mention the woman who
gives her lessons in breathing. There
is young woman in st. Paul who gets
many dollars an hour to teach the I'M
initiated how to breathe! And then
some one will wonder why we don't
live as long as they did in Bible times!
The expense of keeping young
woman in doctors and other specialists
is appalling. Oh, yes we forgot the
complexion specialist, who puts mask
on our faces and tortures us in vari-
Gus other ways to make us beautiful
Talk about being busy. when one re-
members all these things it is remark
able that woman has a moment even
to devote to dress. All these things
we have enumerated are distinctly
hale old age without any specialists
and with their appendices where the
Lord put them is problem that we
respectfully pass along 10 wiser heads.
They knew nothing of the germ theory;
indeed, they must have lived and fat
tened on germs. How our hearts go
out to those misguided ancestors whose
threats must have been full of growths
and who never knew the comforts of
sanitation.
We intended to speak of the dan
gers of specialization when we began
this screed, but the thought of the
benefits have quite taken us off the
track. One result of mind continual
ly harping on one thought is a book
which appeared a year or two ago,
written by DIR. Gould, famous Phila-
delphia oculist, called Geographic
Clinics" in which he passed famous
patients in review, such as Carlyle,
Darwin, Huxley and Browning, argu-
ing that all the suffering endured by
these famous folk was caused by moth
ing but eye strain. Now the writer has
followed the first volume by second,
in which he continues his investiga-
lions, and announces that George Eliot
Lewes, Wagner, Mrs. Carlyle, Spencer,
Whittier, etc., bracketing some names
that were surely never ciassed together
This is a sample of how far special
list can go. DR.. Gould evidently thinks
that all the trouble in the world comes
from the eye. After seeing pictures OF
Mr.. and Mrs. Carlyle it is not difficult
to believe that they suffered from eye
strain. but in sense that would prob
ably be repudiated by DIR, Gould