THE DIARY OF A DOCTOR WHO TELLS

Evening Star, Issue 25577, 1 September 1945, Page 10

THE DIARY OF A DOCTOR WHO TELLS

THE BANK OF LIFE

Monday, August 27. "Most people who want you to give* them a pick-me-up should be given a lay-me-down," I retorted to James Caswell, who had just asked for one such after complaining of chronic tiredness and inability to concentrate. " How much rest a night do you get," I asked. ''Oh, well, you know what it is these days," said Caswell. " There's always more than you can comfortably manage at the office, and, after all, you wan't a bit of relaxation at the end of the day." "Relaxation is. the right word, I said, "but I don't think you and 1 define it the same way. "I'd call it the state of being relaxed, and I think you'd think of it more as the state of being stimulated." Maybe you'.e got something there," grinned Caswell. "T. think you'll'hare to take a tumble, you know," I said.. '"Your blood pressure's a bit higher than it ought to be, and you look very pastyfaced. The best treatment I know for that sort of thing isn't found inside.a bottle.

" Frankly, you want more real relaxation in the form of sleep and quietness." ."',..-■ " A. man needs a bit of fun now and again." countered Caswell.. " Okay," I replied., " but try and it other ways than being always out with the boys. " And; for the time, being, don't stand if you can sit, and don't sit if you can lie down. "Average at least eight hours and preferably nine in bed in every 24. If you go out one night a week, go to bed at 9 o'clock the next night." "Here, what's the matter? " asked Caswell indignantly. " I'm not going to be an invalid, am I? " " Not if I can help it." I said. " That's the whole idea." ' " And how about a bottle of medicine? "said Caswell. _ " I suppose you'll ■write me a, prescription." " As you will," I said, "though 1 ■warnyou in advance that it'll be merely afrill ah your real treatment." I wrote him a containing some bromide, and told him to come and see me in a fortnight. "The world is too much with us," said Wordsworth, "late and soon, getting and spending, we lay waste .our ipowers." Tt has been suggested that all healthily-born people have approximately the same sum deposited _ for them in the Bank ; of Life on birth. According to their expenditure and the health, bills they have 1 to pay, so does their-balance tun out. When we,are resting we are'expending practically nothing. • ■.'•'.' ■:■'■;■[

Tuesday, August 28. " Jimmy's gotthe yellow jaundice," said his mother, Mrs Raymon, in an extremely worried voice on the telephone- this morning. ." Do come at once." " He's been off his food for .three days, and we thought be might be sickening for something, but we never ' dreamt it would be this bad," she added. "Is it very serious?" '•',.■" Not necessarily serious at all," 1 said. " But I'll come_andhave_a loot -ati-him right away."—. -—■■ : "Jimmy had a slight temperature, had been sick once or twice, and was having r bowel difficulty. ■He was a little tender just under the liver, but said: " It wasn't as sore -.is yesterday." His mother admitted he was much better in himself to-day. ].. told Mrs Raymon that I thought the little'chap had a condition called i catarrhal jaundice, explaining it was of infective origin and would clear up in a couple of weeks or so. " Will he be that horrid yellow colour all the time? " she asked. '"'.. . : "No," I said. "It should start to fade in three or four days' time." "What is it exactly?".asked Mrs Raymon. ,_ "Mechanically speaking," I said, "it's due to an obstruction, probably due to some inflammation, around the opening of the bile duct." I told his mother to keep Jimmy in '. bed' for a while, gave her some dietary instructions, and said 'when he recovered he was to be careful, about limiting his intake of fatty foods. . Jaundice is a symptom, not a disease. The .word':implies " yellow," so there is no need "to say " yellow jaundice." Wednesday, August 29. "I wish I could get more butter." said Mrs Frankton this morning. " The children are very fond of it." " Why not try cheese?" I replied'. " and, of course, all the milk you can get." " Isn't-"cheese indigestible? " she asked, adding, " for children, I mean." "Not that I know," 1 replied. "Cheese is really solid milk in concentrated form. " Half a pound of cheese has as much protein as half a pound of steak or 10 eggs." " What does it represent in terms of milk? "asked Mrs Frankton.. "Half a pound of cheese has as much protein as three pints of milk," I said. Thursday, August 30, Some things are" harder for doctors. I ran into a colleague of my own medical year in town to-day. and was shocked to note a sign of a certain incurable disease. "How are you getting on?" 1 asked, uncomfortably. " No need to ask, Peter." he replied simply. " You generally had an eye for signs and symptoms." He made a gesture which accentuated the obvious. "Oh, T say," I said in genuine shocked sympathy. "I'm terribly sorry. Have you. seen anyone about it? After all it might only be . . ." " There's only one thing it can be," he replied firmly. "Yes, I've seen the senior physician of your hospital. He was sympathetic. " However, let's talk about something more cheerful. " I've decided to carry on work, of course, till it really gets me down. And then I hope the end won't be too long. " By the way, I've got my car over there. Can I give you a lift any- j where P " ! Perhaps the story can now be told of a professor at an Australian medical I school where my friend and I studied. He began to look ill. and the rumour went round that he bad an internal cancer. The professor, not a very old man as professors go, lectured on to the end of the year, going downhill so fast at the end that it was obvious lie would not be lecturing when the new year began. The day of his filial lecture of the year the students got tow ropes and j tow-il his car from the medical school, ] through the university grounds to the j

outside road, where they unleashed it and cheered.

With a twinkle in his eye and a gallant wave of his hand, the professor nodded to his chauffeur to start up the engine. '

And so he said good-bye to his university.

A new professor lectured the following term. Friday, August 31. Four-year-old John Brown died from diphtheria in the early hours of this morning, an unnecessary death that has left his parents inconsolable. He was an only child.

It has just been revealed that during the war in Britain more children died from diphtheria than from bombs. Diphtheria killed 9.000, bombs 8,000. Sad and all as the figures are, it is comfortable to realise that they are now only one-third the number of average deaths before the immunisation campaign in Britain. If all the children under 15 years of age were immunised and every new baby protected as a matter of course, diphtheria would disappear just as smallpox has practically disappeared where there is protection from it. 1 am often asked about alleged aftereffect* and alleged association of joint trouble with f immunisation. T can only reply 'that 1 have never seen such a case nor ever heard of one. (Names ir this diary fictitious.) ..Copyright.)