The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-10-10
MEDICAL.
By pR. 0. T. pozIER.

months she was advised 10 come pack to the same ohspital and have appendix re- moved. Her husband refused to ac- quiesce, brought her again to me, and I treated her for what I had first dias- nosed the case, interic cholic. She soon got well. and is now happy mother and a healthy helpmate to her husband.
 Case No. 3.-Mrs. L-- had been in infirmary here three weeks undergoing preparatory treatment before having her ovaries removed, became alarmed at the frequency of deaths occurring there, ran away from the place, came to me, was treated for a simple functional disorder and was soon restored to health, and Is still a we'll and perfect woman.
 Case No. Mrs. S- was exam ined by five surgeons, each of whom ad vised a laparotomy operation. I accepted the case, diagnosed the trouble as only functional, treated and cured her in four weeks.
 I could here truthfully cite many more like cases, but space forbids. But it is a fact, If every woman advised by sur geons nowadays to submit to ovarectomy would submit as advised, the results would undoubtedly be great falling off in our school census and booming bus niess for undertakers. However, I thank God that they don't all submit. though there are always too many who can be induced to do so.
 Men, although as liable to need such work, are not however, so easily infiu- enced as women, and when they call upon doctor usually know what they want At least they know what they don't want and won't have, and that is no manner of surgical trimming that would change their base voices to that of tenor. And if all women were as wise and resolute along this line as mon. sur seons would not be so overworked and
 our kindergartens would doubtless be more numerously attended
 The fact Is too many of our surgeons nowadays are most evidently animated by like spirit of the artist who aspred to fame by painting an alegorical picture of Prometheus, and who to aid ms prush in depicting the dying agony or ms SUD ject, sent out and purchased Tn the mar ket a captive whom he caused to be put to death by slow torture. and when asked bv his victim if he would not at least snare his life said: Spare thy nfeT What were ten thousand lives like thine to a fame like mine! No, but would to God I could paint thy dying groans! And with callous heart insensible to the pain tears, pleas, groans, and dying az onv of his victim he still in greedy hend-
 
 immortal fame, not by his artistic skiil' but by his heart1ess act. fame hke that which fear will follow many heart less but ambitious surgeons or lnls oay and time What reck these men II they kill instead of cure their victims! some few perchance will survive their work and may be pointed to as living exampies of their skill. Whilst of those whom they destroy they may truly say "The opera A. Il died from shock, or from some secondary cause, or that death was the fault or the patient in deferring too long the op- eration he had performed.
 Rut women's ovaries does not afford the only source for the exploitation Of surgical skill or summary method or getting graft. For there is within the pelvic space little insignificant peolcal attached to part of the alimentary
 canal. so unpretentious, unassumins modest. and innocent as have been almost unknown and unnoticed by surgeons up to few years ago, when some very sa- acious mercenary or ingenious pioneer into the pelvic regions, discovered ana dragged it forth into public notice since then. that little inoffensive, obscure and useless appendage has been given world wide notoriety, and because of it's hith- erto unrecognized existence. and be- cause of the ever-increasing, never sa- tiated thirst of surgeons for gain and glory it has been stgmatlzed, outiawed and accused of so much evil ana crime that it has come to pass that no man, woman or child dares to make complaint of any kind of cramp, pain, cholic, or ao- dominal affection, even though the symp- toms be that of green apples, worms, or of anything except hunger. lest oooor be called in and proceed at once to dias- nose the trouble as appendicitis, and without waiting for time or castor oil to give relief shall hasten to Jab hyper dermic dose of dope into the patient arm and after calling an ambulance hur- ry the victim to hospital or infirmary, where hardly waiting for hot water, ne quickly, but scientifically does the Harl Kari act. which at once entities the sub feet to a nice little funeral, or to become a member of the great and ever-growing grand order of subsidiary simpletons, whose missions henceforth is to become walking advertisers of the crazy fool or impecunious Medical Montebank who has so successfully separated them rom their cuniform appendix and from thelr cash all for his own glory ana greeoy gain.
 Am I too extravagant in my implica- tions? God grant that l am. but who can explain and make clear the reason for such a tic I wave of Laparotomies, If 1t is not a craze. What is the cause? Why are the old medical records and text books so silent upon the subject if thou
 sands of women were so fatally affected , before the 'ays of Doctor Battey? What
 writer of e past gives us any informa- tion of the great fatality attending ova- rian disorders before the first ovarectomy thirty-fve years ago. If this spaying procedure is so pressing now in order to i preserve the lives of thousands who are annually being thus mutilated why are all authorities so silent in regard to the necessity for such an inovation upon their modes and forms of practice?
 What surgeon or man of credit can ex- plain why I and hundreds of other doc tors who have engaged daily in the prac-