The Diary of a Doctor Who Tells MEAT IS GOOD FOOD

Evening Star, Issue 23059, 10 September 1938, Page 3

The Diary of a Doctor Who Tells MEAT IS GOOD FOOD

Monday, September 5, I have lio quarrel with vegetarians, as such, despite the allegation that some of them may find that their diet tends to fill them with gas and selfrighteousness. They are entitled to their views so long as they stay well. What they are not entitled to, however, is the conviction that all nonvegetarians are ignorant fools.The vegetarian brother of Henry Markwell to-day told me that Henry’s present illness affecting his kidney was solely due to eating meat, “ You’ve as much as acknowledged it yourself by taking him off meat.’’ “Not at all,” I said, “Such a restriction only acknowledges that his kidneys in their present unhealthy state are not capable of dealing adequately with the waste products from meat.”. “ Well, what does cause unhealthy kidneys if it’s not meat? ” said his brother, triumphantly. “ I've no idea,” I said. “ It might be telegraph wires, bad temper, rose bushes, or shop windows with just as much reason as meat. Millions of people eat meat and never get a sign of a bad kidney. I have never found it proven that meat in a wholesome condition ever caused anybody any harm, and, on the contrary, have every reason to believe that it has done many people a lot of good,; eaten once or twice a day. Eskimos live on it three times a day, and have no particular tendency to develop kidney disease.” New Zealanders needn’t worry about the amount of meat they eat. Crankdom in general is produced by loose thinking, _ or more probably insufficient thinking. You start off by having a fixed idea, and proceed to fit everything into its pattern. Evidence that doesn’t fit is rejected. As someone said the other day, “ life’s greatest tragedy is the murder of a beautiful theory by a gang of brutal facts.” Which reminds me that it is alleged that lifelong vegetarian Bernard Shaw is now eating liver extract for anaemia. Tuesday, September 8. “ Thank goodness he was probably dead before he reached the ground,” said someone to-night in speaking of a regrettable aviation accident that had happened to the son of a friend. If there is one thing aviation has done it is to dispel the old myth that human beings die if they tail a few hundred or so feet. Modem parachute jumping has proven that a man can comfortably fall thousands of feet at terrific speed without suffering in the slightest. „ . , A Frenchman is officially reported this year as having made a jump of over 30.000 ft, opening his parachute only 1,200 ft from the ground. He remembered clearly everything that happened during his lightning descent, and later made another jump from 34,260 ft. Wednesday, September 7. Old Peter Grandon passed on this evening. I was with, him for the last hour or two. This morning he smiled at me and said he was all right. After tea I dropped in, and -it was obvious he was sinking His end was peace. “ I’m so glad he didn’t suffer much at the last,” said his wife between her 9 Actually, they rarely do. The body doesn’t die all at the same time, and fate seems to ordain it that the brain is put out of action first. The heartbeat becomes feebler and feebler, and the brain is deprived of the necessary oxygen, thus rendering it unconscious. Literallv, the patient “ falls asleep in that sleep from which there is no awakening.” Death agonies and rattles are in the vast majority of cases mere figments of imagination. With the

brain dies the liver, after which the heart. Which explains why life‘ Can sometimes be coaxed back even after the heart steps beating. Thursday, September 8. One of the most planted of all myths is. that a. bad cough is the firSfsymptom of tuberculosis.. On the contrary, I have seen cases of tuberculosis where there was no sign of any cough at all. Harriett Blonton, aged 23, and never suffering a day’s illness in her life, decided some days ago to be a nurse; She applied to a large city hospital, on a of those modern ones where intending nurses are X-rayed before being accepted as trainees. The X-ray showed tubercular - trouble in one lung, and Harriet and her broken-hearted parents . visited me this morning to see if anything could be done about it._ “ I’m no specialist,” I said, “ but I’m prepared to, guarantee that, having ■ caught the trouble this early, you frill fix it up comparatively quickly. Has Harriett felt at all off-colour lately?”. Harriett herself replied that she was quite well, except that she had noticed of late that she had tired easily and had been “a bit off her appetite.” “ But I’ve thought nothing of it,” she said, “. because I’ve had a pretty hectic winter . . . plenty of dances and late nights. You always begin to feel a bit tired at the end of the season.” Further inquiry showed that she had lost a little weight. “I’ve had a sort of husky feeling.in the throat, too.”, she added. . . , A mouth or so in bed, a diet of plenty of milk, ood-liver oil, fresh fruits, and good plain foods may work wonder* with Harriett. After that it will be a case of a year’s rest, and perhaps an artificially collapsed lung, the latter being in the hands of the specialist I shall send her to. Modern business concerns must, face up to the fact that an X-ray of the chest is essential for a complete exanimation of young folk. Such ,an examination not infrequently reveals definite infection in those who suffer from such “ mild ” symptoms as chroniq tiredness and loss of weight, symptoms much more important in youth than age. Friday, September 9. Wendy grows, mentally and physically. • , ■ At seven years of age her intelligence is at the cross-roads adulthood and , infancy. The former is indicated by the fact that her character is now! pretty well established. (How often is it realised that the most important years of life are those before our ago reaches double figures P ' In this time wo set an almost fixed course of personality along which we sail for the rest of our days. It is a commonplace to hear the expression, “ He was just tho same sort of chap at school. ) Just to show she was not quit# grown-up, my daughter told me at tea this evening' that she was going to marry a millionaire when she was a “ And.” she said, significantly, “ £ shall have four children, and give them 10 pounds a week each, just threepence, like so.rae fathers.” (Names in this Diary ara fictitious.); (Copyright.)