The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1943-10-26
By Logan elsrasnnlna. N. o.

his column.
rswest inferno in the medical
ward soon finds out that II IS Just
a important to know what the pa
tient thinks about his disease as
what disease he has. And, as some
pundit said long ago, it is just as
important to know what kind of
a patient the disease has as what
kind of a disease the patient has.
| gather from many letters
get from my medical friends in the
armed forces that the problem is
even more acute in military prac-
tlce than in civil life. A soldier in
the army can always make re-
quest to see a doctor,-it doesn't
cost anything and the doctor is
near at hand at all times. And
great deal of the time the doctor
has a hard time determining
whether the psychic part Of the
soldier or the somatic part Is really
making the trouble.
Weighing Evidence
Here is a soldier with a pain in
the stomach. The doctor can't see
anything, and he can't feel any
thing. and the N-ray doesn't show
anything. There is no way on
earth to prove that fellow hasn't
got a pain, but the evidence is
against it. Maybe his pain is just
that he would like to get back to
Ottumna, Iowa again. Wei, that's
all very natural and reasonable,
but We have war on our hands
and we have to win it. and We
need men to do it with.
OF course some of the chronic
complainers are easy to spot. You
can cure them by putting them in
the toughest and most hazardous
post when a skrmish comes along.
Recurrent stomach aches have a .
way of cleaning up II the patient
knows he will be under gunfre
every time he has one. Some also
are so physically sick that they
are not fit for duty at all and
might as well be sent home at once.
But the point is that the duties OF
the medical officer are not all sim
pie and do not entirely consist OF
handing out sulfa drugs and doing
operations.
There is another feature of the
case which is that fundamentally
soldiers of different nationality
are trained in different psycbolo-
gles. The Americans as a rule are
given to overstatement, which
fiabbergasts an English soldier
about half the time, and the Eng
lish soldiers are given to under
statement, which makes the Amer
lean think he is a cold nose.
There is need for a great deal
of anthropological psychology in
the army among both officers and
men. American parents push their
children forward, encouraging
them to do stunts that often they
are unable to do, while the English
parents repress their children and
assign them the role of quiet spec
tatorship while their elders show
of-say at cricket.
The problem is going to be even
more complicated when and if they
get up against the japanese. The
japanese boy has been taught that
airy kind Of boasting, or, display
Of pain is contemptuous, feminine
and weak. Studies of the japanese
soldier when he is drunk show that
he forgets all this family disci-
pline easily and is underneath a
show off.
While we all belong to the same
species we are quite a varied
bunch Of animals.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
T. Y.:-What are the causes OF
cystitis? Do varicose veins have
any connection with it?
Answer: Cystitis is infiamma-
ton of the bladder. The common
est cause is probably secondary
to enlargement OF the prostate.
Other causes are spinal paralysis,
stone in the bladder and relaxed
perineum. Varicose veins have no
necessary connection with it.