Evening star., 1932-01-21

IT wish some one could tell me-" he
said plaintively, how to get out OF the
doctors clutches"
Of course, he did not mean word of
what he said He wanted no one to tell
him anything. A firm believer In the
expert, in any line. he merely bemoaned
the money which his implicit faith cost
him.
Any one who has thought at all about
such matters could have told him In
stantly ''how to get out Of the clutches
Of the doctors" II that had been an ad-
visable thing for any one to do.
The medical men would be the first
to applaud, because 1t would give them
more time for people who really need
their services.
What Is needed In such q case is that
one replace perhaps too great faith
In human beings with faith in the
healing power of nature"
The trouble with all those who run
to the doctor at the least provocation
and who bow down to his dictates with
out putting them to the scrutiny of
common sense and experience is that
they are men of little faith in the power
OF One who made us and who keeps us
all alive.
The greatest faith Of all perhaps is
shown by those who believe too devout-
edly In boring and scraping. A full
fiedged believer would no more admit
that nature might cure his maladies
than that the world might come to an
end tomorrow night.
These people love to talk about their
ailments, to recount the horrible pains
they have gone through, and to tell of
the misery they expect as the result of
the next operation.
Especially do they delight in detail
ing the gross and net cost to them of 1t
all. We sat not long ago at lunch with
gentleman who said, not without ap-
parent pride, that doctors bills in his
family during recent years had cost him
some 100000 1t goes without saying
that he made more money than most
human beings.
One small daughter, 1t seemed, was
the pocketbook stumbling block. For
years he had been using her, as far as
we could make out, as a sort of offering
on the altar of science. She had been
the victim, according to his picture, of
pure science and, wonders to relate,
nao not seemed to be getting much bet
ter.
The father, at last, was on the point
~ Wdo w UC SSCIl, lIOHl
the look in his eye, that he had come
both to the end of his pocketbook and
OF his patience. He was about to make
heroic resolve He was going to give
nature a chance.
We heard recently OF lady whose
small boy was suffering from nasal
troubles. She went to the family phv-
sician, who solemnly advised her that
there were only two things to do: To
take the child South for the Winter, or
to have an expensive operation.
The mother was in despair. The al
ternativeS seemed far too expensive. the
timeG being what they are, and, besides.
she feared the operation What struck
one of her friends, when she told
about 1t all, was that she never doubted
the doctor at all, nor once had any
idea that II she had been too poor
the child might have got we'll, any
way.
She had no faith in the healing
power Of nature" In other words. It
was only when the friend told his own
experience, as child, that she con-
sented to believe that even If the little
one did not go South, and even II 1t did
not have an operation, it still might
and in all probability would come out
all right.
The one who gave this advice tried