The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-03-21
HOW TIT FEELS TO BE TAKEN IN

I To-day's worst letter stlrs up old memories Although I. never had such luck myself, have seen others taken in, and know those of us who were left out got nearly as great thrill out of 1t did the guy who was taken ln speak of the circus.
 | It is not so pleasant to be taken in by your
 protege gives me a little pain. not in the neck where l have many pains. but deeper down In the
 cardia. It carres'a foreboding of the future or practice
 The exhibit is q circular letter on the station cry of colleague whose name appears on my | list and to whom nave recommended numerous correspondents who sought treatment which the l doctor gives The letter is apparently copy
 gsts in his continuity. In 1t he offers the drug gst a "substantial remuneration" for every case the druggist sends him. and adds that where the
 patient will pay q larger fee the druggists per centage will be larger. Then my colleague in- closes stcker bearing his office address and the name of his speciality. and asks the druggist to
 paste it in prominent place go that ,,, he VII VIII
 have the name and address at hand when some customer gets into conversation. @s' It is chiefly the surgeons who complain most
 about the fee-splitting evil. That seems natural enough, to me- Of all pretentious specialsts- and majority of specialists are all pretense- the surgeons the most selfish in the raid on the patients wherewithal. The majority of specialsts l think, exploit po puar creduty and capitalize the popular awe
 tor. and for this do not blame them. Nor do ! | blame the ordinary doctor. the plodding general practitioner. if under the stress of hard times and a hard deal from the general public he de- mands q break and corlpels the grasping spe- cialist to hand over small fraction of what IS
 the family doctor's fair share of the fec Indeed, in the present state of public opinion the gen. eral practitioner who holds the bag while the surgeon or specialist walks away with the credit
 and all the dough in sight is just too guileless.
 The surgeon specialist is taking advantage of
 pretense. Why should not the family doctor share the spos?
 stock argument of the operators who get theirs and then undertake to make the rank and
 is that if the fee-splitting "evil" Git is sad for
 the fellow with the poodle to contemplate) is
 countenanced 1t inevitably leads to shopping around and hence choice of surgeons deter
 mined by the percentage offered. But so far as
 human nature can be relied upon at all. that diff
 hculty is readily disposed of; let the split be fifty fifty, and everybody (not excepting the patient) will be satisfied
 A fifty fifty plan will not boost fees at all. It
 will simply assure fairer division of the fee
 among the doctors who earn it. At present ths surgeons and specialists enjoy an unair advan- tage over family and general practitioners. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Water the Knee From an accident which bruised my foot and
 knee now have water on the knee. have used hot applications of Epson salts but 1t seems to
 make slow progress. (W. C.)
 Answer--Diathermy treatments and massage if you are not using tho leg, diathermy and ad- hesive plaster strappng If you using the leg Mysterious Gender Please advise how removal of ovares afYccts characteristics of one SO operated on. (F. ID. J.)
 on say SO. and mention your age well your
 sex never mind inclosng a lock of your hair. but be sure to send a stamped envelope bearing your address. No indiscrmnate morbid information given here or by letter. but am glad to advise any correspondent who writes about his or her own trouble if there Is any advice or information can give.
 Likes 'Em Long, Strong. Thick and Plenty Is excessive use of tobacco cause of cataract? We should like to hear you comment the news item tncIoscd. (M. C. F.)
 Answer--Tbe item Is about q distinguished au- thor who recently successfully operated on
 for cataract. the operation restoring useful vision
 after the man had virtually gone blind. It says I". as he sat on q .ony hospital bed, smoked cgaret after cgaret and talked of literature and life. His monogrammed cigarcts are twice long the ordinary kind. three times as thick and many times strong" I do not know whether tobaccoism is factor of cataract. but 1t Is a common cause of amblyopia or great weakening of eyesight, and railway men often
 develop partial color blindness from excessive use of tobacco.
 Doctor Versus Friends Six months ago had rectal absccss, which healed kindly. Tine doctor said I needed no
 operation But some friends say that 1t k likely to turn tO cancer uncss whatever Is there Is re-
 moved am worried (Mrs w. H.) Answer-Tell your friends "Oh, yeah-sez you" In such circumstances your doctor Is your best friend. Naturally he doesn't know as much about diagnosis and treatment of disease as the ladies of the neighborhocd. yet