Evening star., 1938-07-31
By Marv.C0rfer Roberts.

Harper g. Bros.
AS LONG as books are published,
the reviewer is winning to predict,
there will appear every few seasons,
a volume given over to the memoirs
Of a doctor. For such works have
perennial appeal People love to read
about, even as they love to talk about.
illnesses. Reading of illness, they
crafty number Of very deep-seated
inclinations; they indulge in vicarious
pity, they revel in horrors and they
come in touch with the miraculous.
And all in such terms as they can
easily understand, and even apply
to themselves or their neighbors. A
little operation makes the whole world
kin And so does little diabetes.
a little stomachache. little chill, a
little migraine. or little fever Even
the healthiest person has relative
in whose uncertain health he can
take family pride. There is hardly
any one who does not like to hear
about a really narrowing case of sick
ness.
And so these works by doctors seem
likely to come more or less Continu-
ously from the presses and to find
large and eager publics for themselves.
Given so ready-made, so almost auto
matte a market it is tribute to
the medical profession that its men,
bers, when they write. seldom turn
out shoddy or sensational volumes
For they do not produce such work
The present book is the story, self-told.
of a country physician. and it is only
one of a number of the kind to come
out in the last few seasons. None
Of them, as far as the reviewer knows,
has been anything but solid, good
works.
Certainly Dr. Hertzler's volume can
be so described 1t is solid and good,
and it is even better. 1t is caustically
witty and 1t is full of the ginger of
its authors lively personality. More,
it deals with the basic matter of
human arrangement in fashion that
is brilliantly sane. 1t is the story
of country practitioner who began
his career in medicine so years ago
and carried on for a long time in
loneliness and hardship, in an en-
vironment which could easily make
weak or humorless man subject
for medical attention himself. But
DR. Hertzler only thrived on his diff
culties. He was hard to begin with
and he got harder with experience.
He developed a cheerful contempt for
the human species. and that seems to
have become his philosophy. At the
same time he kept his professional
ethics as bright and brave as any
idealist could wish. In his present
book, impossible as it may sound. he
contrives to tell of his life in medicine
from the two points of view-that of
the philosopher without vestige of
illusion and that of the meticulously
selfess healer. s-ss
He began his practice in rural
Kansas, in time when part of his
necessary equipment was, as he puts
1t. Colt "peacemaker." He had had
no more than the required training
which was not much. AS far as
externals went, he was the family
doctor of the old engraving in perfec-
ton, the doctor who would drive 20
miles through raging blizzard to sit
by the bedside of poor patient and
fight death all night long single-hand-
ed and with little aid from science
and all that. He did such things
too. They were expected of doctors
then. But within that benevolent
guise, he was very different fellow,
unsentimental to the point of astrin-
gency, aware that folly and self-pity lie
behind much illness, and that human
beings love nothing better than to
delude themselves.
And so. while he played the Vic
torian medico in fording swollen
streams and driving frozen roads and
doing kitchen surgery" in his patients
service. he also drew some pretty keen
modern conclusions about the nature
OF illness and the nature of the human
creature. Naturally, with such an
attitude, he kept abreast of his pro-
fession. After he had built up a
sufficent rural practice. he took further
training and finally directed his own
hospital. His horse buggy days
went into the past. His patients
now came to him. But they were
the same kind of patients, which is
to say, they were human beings
Speaking, for example. of women
who use fancied illnesses to gain points
with their husbands, he says: They
can be diagnosed at a glance by an
experienced practitioner. They
have faces that would CONCEAL boiling
oil in August. Their faces have as
much expression as Chinaman S.
When one is confronted by a $500
necklace encircling a Accent face
he may know that he is up against
q real problem. These cases belong
to the neurologist and the wise doctor
will suggest specialist at the first
meeting"
And again, writing of men who
complain of stomach trouble, he says:
zone can sense the business condition
of the country by these cases. I'M
medistely after the war it was the
csttlemen. They were big -fisted men
from the plains with stomachs that
had laughed at sowbelly and beans
from childhood-until the depression
came Then came the bankers with
Wobbly notecases representing frozen
assets reflected by their faces. Then
came the millers :. A willy stomach
specialist told me of patient of his
whose stomach condition would be
foretold by watching the cotton market.
If there was big drop the patient
would most assuredly appear for treat
ment. These patients respond to
nerve sedatives and understanding.
But. as we'll as being commentary
on human folly as it is seen by our
medicine men, the book is also first
rate popular history of the practice
OF medicine in rural districts over
the past so years. When Dr. Hertzler
went out to work, he tells us. The
typical doctors room contained
desk Uttered with advertising, except
one corner reserved for the doctors
feet Since he wore no snllrs II had