The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-06-13
THE STANDPATTERS IN HEALTH
 EDUCATION

| A reader writes:
 Your teachings about cri are very remark. | able. I discarded my hat and overcoat last winter and got my feet wet many times when l had to let the wet shoes and stockings dry on | my feet for hours, but thanks to your enlight- | ening articles never worry about such trlhing discomforts any more.
 | "I should think the persons responsible for keeping people in fear of such silly things as
 wet feet or uncovered head should be made to
 prove their statements or suffer nanishment
 Likewise the knowing ones who preach that
 the skin absorbs this and that find most of
 away when one calls to attention your chal-
 lenge to fair test of that on your own skin. So far as medical men, or their mouthpieces, are concerned, they content with the situa-
 tion as it is. They do not care to prove anythlng. l It is enough for their purposes if people so on | believing there is some harm in the kind of ex- posture our friend describes With people believ' able ieeway in the matter of diagnosis. You see,
 if he hasn't the least inklng what ails the patient
 is nearly always some such incident which some body kindly recalls-and leave 1t at that. The pa tient his friends readily assume the poor fel- | low has contracted a heavy cold. The newspapers | never crack smile at this, when publishing the
 news of the illness of a parsonage. When the real diagnosis is ultimately made-if one is made the newspapers chartaby omit comment on the tentative diagnosis of a bad cold Newspapers are
 ter ter '1s who eiyes them something to print. Not only is my challenge to undergo any prop | erly controlled experiment. or test or the imper- meability of the skin unlikely to be accepted by any of the standpatters who imply that in some
 vague circumstances something is or can be ab-
 other challenge to undergo any reasonable test | by exposure of my body to cold or wet prove the harmlessness of such exposure is equally unlike- | ly to find favor with any of the standpatters. You how it is Both of these hallowed | medical traditions have been thoroughly im- planted in the medical mind, and the doctors | have based great deal upon the premises. with
 out troubling to investigate the soundness. of | either. Now when 8 mere lowbrow happens along and yells 'Hi there, your foundation is wabbly!" | the old guard just grit their teeth and sternly We'll mind. The standpatters will have | to acknowledge their mistake eventually. They are in much the same position as are the big braves in the surgical field who angry decline to recognize the value, at least in certain handi- capped cases, of diathermy extirpation of the | method of snaring them out. But this does not stop thousands of patients from seeking and ob-
 The % od guard qua % the standpatters, seem determined | to die hard-boled. They will be given kindly. sympathetic care in their plight-for lot of eminent Red Cross authorities are doomed to go down with them, clinging desperately to THEIR | error the -under-head water trap which so | effectually prevents resuscitation
 Standpatism in health education is no longer | respectable policy.
 QUESTION SAND ANSWERS 32 Warts in 21 Days had one big wart burned off my hand with | broke out and was ashamed to have anybody
 my hand Then read in ny your % Maqta I
 night for three weeks. ana they have all disap-
 peared. (M. P.)
 Answer-There may be something in it-I | mean something in the castor oil that cures or | kills warts.
 Professor Gives Us Lowdown Correspondent signing himself Professor -, tattoo artist. explains there are two classes or grades of his calling, the amateurs or beginners and the old experienced experts. He opines that all the weak minded persons who submit to this
 mutilation, at least those who suffer i'll effects just happen to select the amateurs. Answer-If ours were @ civilized. intelligent race this hideous practice would land both the artist and his victim in jail. It is disgrace | that any enlightened community tolerates the depraved practice of ''tattoing' the human body unless this Is done to conceal render less con- spicuous some scar defect.
 Remarkable Coincidence | had running ear for 10 years. One day read your article, went t0 my druggist and had
 him put up 10 grains of borlc acid in one ounce Of pure grain alcohol. as you directed. | used
 only three drops of this in the when the rtifi-
 ming stopped. It has never troubled me since tM. E.)
 Answer-well. chances are it would have stopped just the same If tho druggist told you
 one of his best stories If you used the drops for
 threo weeks or months t would make good
 enough testimonial. but threo drops is much foo
 httio Must have been coincidence