THE DIARY OF A DOCTOR WHO TELLS

Evening Star, Issue 22578, 20 February 1937, Page 2

THE DIARY OF A DOCTOR WHO TELLS

MYTHS ABOUT INDIGESTION Monday, February 15, Gerald Hynes, accompanied by his 18-year-olrt son George, strode in the surgery as a man with a purpose. “ Good evening, doctor,” he said briskly. “Wo won’t detain you long. George here has decided that he wants to start smoking. I’m not a narrowminded father who objects to my son doing what I do myself, so I thought the best thing to do was to see that ho began the right way. Naturally ho lyants to start on cigarettes. I’ve told him I think they’re bad for him, and am trying to persuade him to begin right away with a pipe;, Now, if you’ll just give him scientific ins and outs of the case, he’s promised to abide by your opinion.” “ The opinion won’t be a definite one,” I warned him, “ because quite a number of varying factors are involved.’ ‘.‘For instance?” asked Hynes.

“ Inhaling smoke is undesirable, according to many authorities,” I replied, “ and cigarette smokers are rather keen on inhaling. I think that a pipe smoker who doesn’t inhale probably has an advantage from that point of view over an inhaling cigarette smoker.” “ On the other hand,” I continued, “ pipe smokers who smoke their pipes to the wet, bitter end and even relight the dregs at the bottom of their pipe are, in ray opinion, behaving unwisely from the health viewpoint. The same applies to cigar smokers wRo insist on playing about with the wet end of an over-smoked stump. Economy can run to unpleasant lengths in wanting to get the last whiff out of the last speck of tobacco. These people had much better smoke cigarettes.” “ What harm can it all do, anyway?” put in George. “ They tell you all sorts of frightening things about smoking, but I’ve never heard of anyone who had actually suffered any harm from smoking.” “ If smoking is done moderately and sensibly I don’t think it could cause any harm to anyone,” I agreed. “If used immoderately and unwisely, however,” i answered, “ there is no doubt at all, according to text-books, that things like indigestion, palpitation, dimness of vision, and sore mouths can result.”

Despite warnings by anti-smoking leagues, 1 am quite convinced that practical experience has shown that moderate smoking is harmless. It is interesting to remember that when tobacco first came to Europe the church opposed it bitterly, many edicts and bulls being issued against it. Civil authorities also fought it, and in Turkey smoking was punishable by death, in Russia by flogging. English' law forbade it at one time.

Tuesday, February 16. A sign of the times. Mrs Holdsworth, aged 30, called on me to-day to submit her family diet sheet. She explained that she had been reading a book on the matter, and just wanted to know whether she had got it right. As a matter of fact, her diet sheet was an excellent one, each child having almost a quart of milk a day, and the parents having about a pint, plus cheese and plenty of butter. There was an abundance of fruit and salads, eggs for breakfsfc, and meat once a day. I’m willing to bet that the family doctor _of_ 50 years hence will be a specialist in preventive, medicine. His chief function will be to keep his patients healthy, not just cure them when they are ill. Regular examinations will be a commonplace, and no one will go longer than six months without an overhaul in the year 2,000. Actually a few of my patients already form an advance’ guard in this new movement of modern medicine.

Wednesday, February 17. “ He’s getting on nicely now, doctor,” said a patient in speaking of the progress of ner husband. “ He was able to take beef tea yesterday. A few cups of that and he’ll begin to build up.” There is still a firm belief in beef tea as a body-building food for invalids. It certainly has its value, but it is a stimulant rather than a food. An authoritative writer recently said that ‘‘ six large_ cups of beef tea have much less nourishment than one slice of bread.”

Another use of beef tea is that it helps the gastric juices flow more abundantly, and so aids digestion.

Thursday, February 18. “ He’s aways getting earache,’’ explained Mrs Yoully about her eight-year-old son. “ I think he’s just thoroughly run down. He doesn’t sleep well at all, and often has quite alarming nightmares.” The combination of earache and nightmares instantly focussed my at tention on the child’s throat. An examination revealed large tonsils and obvious signs of adenoids. I recommended a course of cod-liyer oil, open-air sleeping and breathing exercises, plus very early hours, and asked her to report back in a month for a decision regarding operation. “ If the ear trouble develops at all meanwhile-let me know,” I added. It is not generally known that adenoids are one of the causes of ear trouble and subsequent deafness. The old-fashioned dismissal of earache as an everyday unimportant discomfiture of childhood cannot bo too strongly condemned. Earache always needs close observation. Friday, February 19.

At an evening I attended to-night there was an arduous debate at supper between a vegetarian and a confirmed meat-eater. Though invited to join in the fun I begged to be excused. Actually everything we eat is primarily vegetarian. In the long run wo only eat grass. Milk comes from cows who make it from the grass they eat. Beef and mutton come from grass. Bread is made from wheat, a specialised grass. And oven fish feed on smaller fish who live on the green grasses of the sea. This thought is not new. It was the Bible that first said, “ All flesh is as grass.” Names in this diary are fictitious. Copyright.