Evening star., 1948-03-21
A APursuosive
Case Against
State Medicine

49, - bH~
BODIES AND SOULS
BY Maxence van der Meersch.
(Pellegrtni & Cudahy; $375.)
Reviewed by
CARTER BROOKE JONES.
A French novelist of great real
istic power has described the strug-
gle of a young doctor to keep his
ideals and his integrity in modern
medical world filled with individual
venality and with the political in
trigues spawned by government
control OF public hospitals.
There is deep pathos in his de-
scriptions of the destitute sick and
their dependence on whatever a
paternal government allows them.
Emile Zola couldn't have done a
better job. It's not so much that
the doctors who donate time to the
poor are Indifferent as that the
hospitals and clinics devoted to
those who can't pay-or won't-tend
to become mills, too crowded, too
routinized. not quite human. The
family doctor has almost disap-
peared.
Medical Factories.
AS picture of the medical fac
tory which has replaced the indi-
vidual study of patients-as an ar
gument, if you like, against state
Y,1a%iniy3n tho hanH &c ciUa
In another respect, it fails. Michel
Doutreval, the young man whom
we first meet as a medical student,
comes early In his career under the
influence, of DR.. Domberle. This
elderly physician condemns the at
titude of what he calls orthodox
medicine toward the treatment of
all diseases. He contends that most
diseases are caused by wrong living,
especially by rich diets, alcohol, to-
bacco and tension. Doctors, with
their drugs, treat symptoms, ignor-
ing the cause. People should live
mostly on fruits and green vege-
tables.
DR.. Domberle even says "the leg
islator will be able to give enor-
nous help to a medicine that I'M
derstands all the laws Of individual
harmony, to encourage the health
lest form of life for all and guide
everybody's work, leisure, diet and
thinking for peoples own good. ="
Michel is won over to Domberle's
philosophy. Perhaps some readers
will be. But only those who would
like to have everything, including
their diet and thinking, controlled
by the government. This. after all,
has been tried, in one way or an
other, with dim results. On the
medical side, the author aligns
himself with faddists and puritans
and belittles the miracle drugs
which have saved so many lives.
Michel's father, a noted psychiatrist,
experiments with shock therapy for
schizophrenics and later abandons
it as dangerous and unworthy of
him. But such experiments are still
going on, with encouraging, if not
yet definite, results.
Confused Theories.
II Is saddening to see a writer
who is a first-rate realist, who has
a gift for Characterization and sus-
pense which can hold the interest
for nearly TOO pages, lead his mar
rative into a labrynth of confused
theories. II he had been content
to point out the obvious evils of
overspecialization and mass med
ical practice and the difficulties
confronting a sincere young doctor
he might have written a great
novel.
Mr.. Van Der Meersch won the
Goncourt Prize in 1886. The trans
lation by Eithne wilkins is ade-
quate.
NO TRUMPET BEFORE HIM
BY Nelia Gardner White. west
minister Press, So
More than one conclusion might
be drawn from this appealing novel
of young Methodist minister.
The most obvious is that an ab-
sorbing story is to be found in the
life Of a sincere clergyman who does
nothing more sensational than try
to teach the word of God as he
sees it, Such a mission involves
him in conflict enough. And preach
ers like Paul Phillips are. I'm will
ing to affirm, in the majority, the
Elmer Gantrys a thin minority
Which makes Paul's story closer to
the average and the everyday,
though Paul has more quiet cour-
age, probably, than most of his
clerical colleagues.
You also may decide that mod
ern novel with real characters and
unt1agging interest can be written
without any clinical studies of sex
or any excursions into abnormal
psychology. This, at least, may
startle you II you've read any con-
siderable number of novels lately.
You may even conclude that per-
sons who live what used to be
called wholesome life are literary
material.
The Rev. Mr.. Phillips was pastor
in a country town. He didn't fit
into the parish too well. People
thought him standoffish. His young
wife was attractive, shallow and dis
satisfied with her lot. But the bishop
believed in Paul and gave him, to
every ones amazement. the most i'm
portant charge in the diocese. the
university church in the bishops
city. Here, Paul had more serious
troubles, because he was deeply
spirited and believed church was a
place of worship, not combination
of social center and lyceum. Then a
personal storm even more vital to
his career began gathering.
mo Trumpet Before Him" won
the annual fiction award of the
Westminster Press. It Is a well-knit