Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-12-07
Credulity and Cures.

Credulity and Cures.
Something in the nature-of a sol
emn warning to his brother practi-
TONERS as well as to the public is
given by DR.. Frederick Peterson OF
New York, who writes in the Journal
of the American Medical Association
under this caption. After inquiring
why do physicians often pin their
faith to special methods and special
medicaments? DIR. Peterson emu
merates a lot of panaceas that have
failed. and then says:
Now, after this resume of the
many features of credulity among
the laity, l approach with some
trepidation and feeling of delicacy
the subject of eredulity in the medi-
cal professionalism. We, above all
others, should be hypercritical
should make cult of skepticism in
therapy. But do we? No one knows
so well the extraordinary progress
in all branches of medicine, espe-
cially during the past SO years; nc
one knows so well the tremendous
difficulties and complexities encoun-
tered, the mistakes made, the old
paths retraced or abandoned. the
amazing vistas opened. All these
experiences should make the doctor
of medicine, in particular, a pro-
found skeptic, and happily also we
may well believe an optimist
Il am afraid, however, that we,
toQ-just because dazzled~ by the
effGlgence of so many new discov-
ries-share, in a measure, the
credulity Of the public in remedial
agencies. We see their errors plain
ly, and sometimes they see ours;
but we do not see our own. The
same psychologist factors are at
work in us as in TIE general public
for the creation of faith in the new
drug or in the new method. We do
not know enough about it to be suf-
ficiently critical. This ignorance OF
ours prepares the ground for the
new belief, the new conviction. Its
value is asserted by authority. And
we are eager to believe in the new
hope of help held out to us for the
healing of the sick. Then, again,
there are the marvellous mysteries
behind all the new names-hor-
mones, opsonins, endocrines, am
boceptors, etc.-such wide field for
new facts, such a vast horizon for
blamed for not being always able to
get our bearings in these uncharted
seas"
Here the doctor enumerates a
number Of the certain cures" that
have sprung up and passed during
the time he has been practicing his
profession, the variety of operations
mentioned being interesting to the
doctors, if not to the laity, and
then goes on: y
II suppose very few drugs have
had such rapid rise and sudden
drop into the medical limbo as GRO
talin, exploited for epilepsy. 1t
ended like sky-rocket. Perhaps /
should mention here in connection
with erotalin, Bacterium cincinnati
cum, which caused so many epilep-
ties to have their colons reduced to
semicolons by operation. This germ
is extinct, along with the general
paresis germ discovered in Scotland
some years ago. I presume many
recall a series of volumes entitled
Geographic Clinics by which the
enthusiastic author, an opthalmolo-
g1st, sought to prove that the ma
Jority of diseases were due to eye
strain and could be corrected by
prisms. He was very bitter against
certain of his confreres who believed
in the same etiology of human ILL
nesses, but who insisted quite vio-
lently on the cutting of eye muscles
by a long series of delicate opera
lions to remove eye strain. The
originator of the latter method was
awarded a prize by a. distinguished
foreign medical society for his great
contribution to science!
Our past experience should lead
US to be extremely cautious and
skeptlcal in the. presence of many
OF the therapeutic measures before
us now. Leaders, despite their great
intelligence and high position, often
stampede the rank and file of us like
sheep. Our leaders are very hui
man and subject to the sway of per-
sonal equation. / know one general
consultant who seldom makes a
diagnosis Of anything except hypo-
thyroidism or neutrality-suspicious.: in
fact. I believe that he must in his
mind have classified the whole hui
man race as superior and inferior
thyroids. | know another who does
not see ordinary things in the ordi-
nary light of day, but by a prismatic
light; he sees them through the
rainbow of the endocrines. Surely,
SO much pulling Of teeth, so much
removal af the submerged tonsils. is
not justified~ by results. At least I
feel so from the many cases of
psychoses, nervousness. sciaticas,
neuralgia, spinal pains, cervico-
brachial neuritis, and the like which
have come under observation after
such treatment had proved futile.
81 am glad to see a growing
skepticism with regard to Wasser-
mann tests. They are of real value
as corroborative of clinical findings:
but when these are in doubt the
Wassermann tests should be con-
trolled by reports from three diff
ferent laboratories. 1t is not long
since a single laboratory test was
considered final. and that despite the
presence or lack of clinical evidence.
II shall close with a few words as
10 psychanalysis, on which subject
I am qualified to speak, for I know
Freud and Jung personally. have eX-
amined the method practically, and
have or have had a number of prac-
titioners of this Cult, as my friends.
1t has taken considerable hold in
America-tbough not SO much in
Europe--and owing to the fact that
many reporters and writers are
psychopaths and have undergone
treatment by psychanalysis. these
doctrines are now frequently en-
countered in editorials in news
papers, magazine articles. and few
books by mediocrities. The theories
of Freud and Jung are to psychology