THE DIARY OF A DOCTOR WHO TELLS

Evening Star, Issue 22685, 26 June 1937, Page 2

THE DIARY OF A DOCTOR WHO TELLS

SPORTS FOR GIRLS Monday, June 21. “ These strenuous sports- may be all very well for boys, but I fail to see how they can be good for girls,” said one of, the honoraries, at tho hospital afternoon tea table to-day. Mind you ” ho added hastily, “ I believe that it is essential for girls to get active outdoor exercise. It’s just the superstrenuous competitive sport i object to The remark was apropos of an operation he had just performed on a onetime well-known sportswoman. “ You see,” be we re only iust beginning to reap tho fruits of "this modern competitive sport tor “ I think they’re all the healthier for it,” put in a junior physician. ;; “ They are if they tako it sensibly, retorted the surgeon, “ but it would be interesting to trace the subsequent history of the world’s champion sportswomen.” , , In general, I behove that women who intend marrying are not suited to the strenuous sports like football, though the milder exercise of hiking is excellent for them. Tennis is excellent up to a point. It is worth considering that health figures are improving less rapidly for females between 16 and 25 than in any other decade, male or female. * * * * Tuesday, June 22. “He will eat the skins of apples, though I tell him you never know who’s been handling them. No wonder he gets stomach-aches,” said Mrs Yallen, speaking reprovingly of her 14-year-old William. “He must be full of germs.” “Skins won’t hurt him,” I said. It turned out that William actually had a chronic appendicitis, not at all an uncommon ailment in those who suffer from continual severe stomach-ache, a circumstance which always needs expert examination. Apple-skins have, it is said, about six times as much vitamin C as has the pulp near the core. They are quite harmless to eat, but it is as well to wash them beforehand. • e * Wednesday, June 23. The professional man’s particular digestive ailment is tho duodenal ulcer, the duodenum ,being that part of the alimentary caiial immediately following the stomach. Doctors, school teachers, and others with similar worrying jobs contribute a large share of the sufferers. .... .; “ You said I shouldn’t smoko till it cleared up,” said Harry Ganze, sadly, this evening, when he called to report progress. “ Surely tobacco can’t do any harm in the stomach. If it gets into the system at all I should say it would be through the lungs. But, anyhow. I don’t inhale.” “Doesn’t matter,” I replied. “We don’t exactly know why, but we are pretty certain that smoking has soma sort of an effect on a duodenal ulcer, though, strangely enough, not on a gastric ono.” “ Does that mean that smoking causes the ulcer?” asked Harry. “No, it,doesn’t,” I replied. “The point is that when the ulcer is present, tobacco in some way seems to tickle it up a bit. But no one need fear smoking because it might give them an ulcer.”

Thursday, June 24. When I reached tho Larley household to-day in response to a frantic telephone call I found Frederick’s burnt arm in a pretty horrid mess. It wasn’t so much tho burn as the treatment. His enthusiastic relations had smeared on a paste of flour and water after having attempted to pull off the clothing for fear it might infect it.” The modern homo treatment of burns is different from the old-fashioned one. Useful points in it are (1) to remember to cut the clothing away and to refrain at all costs from dragging it off; (2) not to smear on grease, flour, or bicarbonate of soda (none of which probably do any good); (3) to use plain cold water rather than anything else until the doctor’s urgent attention has been sought. All this, of course, applies to tho smaller burns. Anything extensive calls for the patient being kept warmly wrapped and perhaps given hot drinks till the doctor conies Tannic acid has come to the forefront in tho modern treatment of burns. Especially in America, it is not uncommon for tho home medicine chest to have a little powdered tannic acid. Three or four teaspoonsful dissolved in a pint of cold water is used for dipping in it a clean soft cloth, which then is placed over the area and kept wet.

* # # ♦ Friday, June 25. It is quite common for a patient to come ostensibly about one condition, but actually about another. Such as Mrs Yarrel, who this afternoon about an alleged neuritis. As she rose to go, she said, “Oh, by the way, doctor, it may be a very silly question, but do you know anything- that will stop those rumblings of the stomach which sometimes occur at meals? ”

And she laughed nervously. “It sometimes happens to me when I’m dining out, and/ of course, it’s most embarrassing.” “A little attention _ to the general health and no drinking with meals might be worth trying,” I told her. Reminds mo of the lady similarly afflicted, who dined out in a party where her immediate neighbours were a Frenchman, a German, and an Englishman. The rumbles began. “ Pardon,” said the Frenchman, valiantly, taking complete blame. Three more occurred, and for each tho Frenchman apologised. With the meat course tho attack began again, and the German, not to he outdone in chivalry, stood up, clicked his heels, and uttered the very polite zeihung”; this, again, three times in all. With the coffee, came another attack. “ Gentlemen,” said the Englishman, genially, “ have this ono on mo.”

Names in this Diary are fictitious, (Copyright).