The Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1903-1909, 1905-09-05
DISEASES AN ASSET
DOCTORS PAY FOR STUDY OF ALL
MENTS OF THE BODY.
Peculiar Affections in Some Cases a
Source of Income to the Fortunate"
Possessors-How One May Know il
He Is of Monetary Worth.

There are many patients in the coun-
try with rare diseases who, instead OF
paying for treatment, could obtain
substantial income as subjects of sci
entific study There is, OF course,
something abhorrent in the idea OF
submitting ones body to experiment.
Yet everybody does this when i'll, for,
as a great authority asserts, every bot
tie of medicine which the doctor pre-
scribes is an experiment. Sometimes
the experiment is of more value to
the doctor than to the patient, for in
this way medical science is built up
bit by bit
Some years ago Canadian named
Alexis St Martin had the good fortune
to receive bullet wound in the stom-
ach. 1t did not kill him, and the wound
healed completely, but an opening al
ways remained. This fact was worth
good income to Alexis for the rest
of his hfe. For nine years he hired
himself to a well-known physician.
who was thereby enabled to study the
process of digestion in way it had
never been studied before.
In great many hospitals in this
country there are people under treat
ment for ailments which puzzle the
medical profession, and in many cases
the symptoms of the new complaints
entail so little suffering that the pa
tients would take their discharge but
for the fact that they are compensated
for lying in" In cases of this kind
the heads of the hospital staff go into
the case infinitely and detail clever
doctor to pay strict attention to the
patient In course Of time, when suf-
ficient is known to warrant such an
action, the medical students are per
mitted to study the case, visiting and
examining the patient daily under the
direction of visiting physician. 1t is
only those unfortunate people who
have submitted their case to special
study by large staff who know how
very trying is the ordeal to which they
have occasionally to submit,
OF course, the common diseases,
such as typhoid fever, consumption
and bronchitis, are of no money value.
But were a man in this country to get
bubonic plague or blackwater fever
or yellow jack, he could undoubtedly
command price. Most American doc
tors have never seen cases of these
diseases. Consequently they are liable
to make mistakes, and when practicing
at any of the great seaports, into which
every variety of disease enters at one
time or another, their mistakes might
have serious consequences.
Sometimes, too, person has a COM
mon disease in some unusual place.
He is, of course, pathological curl
osity, and as worthy of his hire as
fat boy or a giant. Cancer, for exam
pie, is far too common. But an epithe-
liam cancer on the upper lip is great
rarity and any one with such an I'M
Fiction could successfully demand a
fee for exhibition at the meetings of
medical societies.
How are you to know if you possess
a valuable disease? If your medical
man is anxious to get a photograph of
| the affected part, if he brings some one
else to see it, If he asks you to appear
| before a society, you may be sure
| your disease is a good asset.