THE DOCTOR'S MAGIC

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LVI, Issue 89, 26 November 1935, Page 4

THE DOCTOR'S MAGIC

Sir Kingsley Wood, British Minister of Health, in delivering the opening address for the 1935-36 session at Guy's Hospital, London, last month, said that health in its wider aspects was not a matter for the followers of Hippocrates and the priesthood of Aesculapius alone. To ! strive to achieve the ideal, on a 'nation-wide basis, of a healthy mind lin a healthy body, was a task calling for the best and the co-ordinated efforts not only of doctors, but of statesmen, administrators, scientists, technicians, and indeed of everyone. The health of a nation was the basis of its well-being. A low standard of public health meant waste and burden. In the fight for better health the general practitioner was in the front line. It was not so very long since Parliament in an Act intended "for the avoiding of sorceries, witchcrafts and other inconveniences," entrusted medical registration in London to the Bishop and to the Dean of St. Paul's. To-day, however, the doctor was no longer a priest or a magician. But an element of magic was

still present, and blessed alike in works and in pocket was he who possessed it most. That remnant of magic was what had been described as the "bedside manner." He would prefer to phrase it as the human sympathy of the doctor. A patient was a man and not a machine—a fact which it was easy to forget. The patient's illness was intimately related to the conditions of his life, his work, his games, his diet, his friends, his mode of thought, and his upbringing. To treat his illnesses they must be capable of understanding the whole complex which was the man.