THE LADY WHO WAS A CANNIBAL

Evening Star, Issue 22975, 4 June 1938, Page 3

THE LADY WHO WAS A CANNIBAL

The Diary of a Doctor Who Tells

Monday, May 30. Mrs Tonytdn is a cannibal. She eats her children. The meal is a spiritual one, but none the less real. She never leaves their . side, never lets them think for themselves, answers all the questions anyone asks them,.orders everything from their menu to their clothes. She arranges all their sets at their tennis parties, picks their partners at the little dances she holds in her home, and generally does everything possible to take from them every ounce of' initiative and selfrespect. Cannibal parents are not uncommon. They do not so much love their children as devour them. They consider their unflagging interference to be a testimony to i their -.unfailing devotion. Actually, it is founded more in selfish yearning for power over others. 7 These thoughts San through my mind to-day as I examined young Barbara' Tonyton. The mother answered every question ! asked the child, even to an intimate detailed description of every ache and pain. Tuesday, May 31. “ I’m keeping him on an invalid diet,” said Mrs Harold, speaking of her husband, who i» just recovering from pneumonia; “ just a little fish, with an occasional piece of chicken. No red meat*, of course.” I suggested that it wouldn’t matter very much whether Mr Harold had a grill or two, at which the wife seemed yery surprised. Invalid diet is sometimes far from sufficient for, an invalid. The chief thing is to get the patient to eat something goodj be it chicken or chop, milk or ice cream. As an experienced physician put it the other day; “ The first .rule in an invalid diet is to ask them what they want, and give it to_them.” If the axiom is pretty broad, its very breadth enables it to cover a variety , of difficult circumstances. The same physician chides his colleagues with confusing colour with chemistry, so that they regard 'the white meat of chicken as the essence ojf the light diet, but look on the dark meat as something to be forbidden. Wednesday, June 1. It is surprising the number of women who are afraid to put soap on their skins. Such a one came to me to-day to ask me to do something for her complexion, which was spotted, sallow, and rough, partly due to the fact that it was rarely cleaned. The skin is full of pores that need to be open. If they are clogged up'the greasy material they hold is dammed back, and causes inflammation, pimples, and so on. Keep the pores thoroughly clean, and the skin is given a better chance to be healthy. For years 1 have been telling my patients that the average man of 40 who rubs soap into his face each morning when he shaves has a better complexion than the average woman of the same age. The retort is sometimes given that ceitain skins react adversely

to certain soaps. This is admitted, but it is a fairly safe bet that not more than _ one or two people in every hundred- (if so many) would come to any. harm through the use of mild soap and hot water. Someone said recently that if hot water and soap had just been invented as a new tonic for the akin it would wipe the' floor with anything else on the market. At the same time, it must be remembered that diet has an influence in the matter of complexion and pimples. Excess of carbohydrates (sweets, etc.) may be harmful to certain skins, and it is this, more than the absence of fruit and vegetables, which must be watched in this particular respect, Thursday, June 2. A mild ’flu is going round the suburb. It is important to remember, however, that a mild ’flu, if it is genuine ’flu, i* worse than a very bad cold. Harry Edwards is in rather a bad way because he has insisted on going to the office all through his attack. I have just advised him to take a week off so that he may try to recover from his exhaustion. Probably the most, outstanding symptom of ’flu, as the Irishman said, is the nervous and physical exhaustion you get when the symptoms have gone. It’s a much worse hangover than that resulting from alcoholic excess. People who return to work in this condition let their enthusiasm run away with their common sense. And, , incidentally, experience with what is now petting to be a not inconsiderable number of patients in general has convinced me beyond all doubt that the average employee, especially if he is married, is always eager to get back to work before his doctor thinks it wise. Employers may rest assured that malingering is a very rare condition in the average employee. "• * • * ♦ And, of course, as the doctor said, a bad cold is not just to he sneezed at. Friday, June 3. Young Arthur Layman set out with a friend in the family car to-night to collect some decorations for his twentyfirst birthday party to-morrow night. _ Arthur will never celebate His twenty-first birthday, and 1 have just left his grief-distracted parents and girl chum. The latter told me that a swerve at 40 miles an hour was the cause of the accident. We do a great deal about preventing accidents, but we don’t seem to have realised that the chief problem is one of psychology. There are the accidentprone, to begin with. Psychology could sort these out. Then there is the psychology of age. Recent American figures show that the most dangerous of driving ages are from 19 to 21. These young people, unfortunately, are also the best drivers, and it is this very excellence which tempts them to unworthy risks. These who think that mental decay sets in after the thirties will

he interested to know that the safest car drivers are those between the ages of 45 and 50. Petiole over 60 have fewer accidents than the youngsters. (Name in this diarv are fictitious. Copyright.)