THE DIARY OF A DOCTOR WHO TELLS

Evening Star, Issue 25849, 20 July 1946, Page 10

THE DIARY OF A DOCTOR WHO TELLS

GETTING FAT Monday, July 15. il Peter," said the wife of my friend, the local solicitor, to-night when 1 was visiting the House, "for Heaven's sake will .you do something about John's weight!,. ' "Just look at him. He gets more like a barrel every day." Sne.pointed accusingly at her husband. ''l've told her.she'd ;have to get resigned to it because it's a family trend," said John complacently. " After all, she. saw my fa the* and mother before we married, and she only, had to use her imagination to discover what I'd be like in middle age.Her people are all skinny. That's why she is, but she thinks it's dieting-" "Dieting can do a lot to help you keep, your weight down," said his wife, spiritedly. " But; of .course, if that's how you want to look •; . . ." "I see no reason■ to' lose any sleep over it," said John. "You eat as much as I do if you count morning and afternoon tea, which I never have —doesn't she, Peter?" " Stop arguing, you two," I said. "I've got no intention of being umpire, anyway." "Well, I'm not skinny, am 1, Peter," asked his wife. " I'm quite well covered." "Should be," said John, "seeing I've just paid for some new dresses and coats to cover you." " You can't pull that one, now We've all: got to observe coupon limits." checkmated his wife. While it is true that a certain degree of grossness can be controlled by temperance in food and drink; it is also true that familial influences are important in determining our size and shape. Even the Sentimental Bloke realised that Doreen might grow up to be " a fat old weepin ' wilier, like her ma" (though, of course, there was equal chance she might grow up, like her pa). Someone has worked'out that there are three main types of human figures and most of us lean more to one than the others. • First, there, is. the lean :and. hungry —anU often small-boiled—kind immortalised by Shakespeare in describing Cassius. They tend to have nervous ailments and be tight lipped and tenseminded. Then there's the type whose abdomen eventually outgrows his chest. He smiles more readily than other types, finds life reasonably pleasant, is smooth of skin and soft, of voice. He must watch diabetes, fatty-heart, and • his female counterpart must watch gall bladder Third, there's the Big Muscle Boy, glorying in the physical as befits his square body, big shoulders, and thick hands He's been called the Tarzan type and is _ aggressive—having no physical opposition to worry an'd bursting with energy. He is often famed for his bravery—physical. His proud disregard for the sanities of physical life in the middle yea'rs may be brought' to account by apoplexy. Then his. frieiids say to one another: " You'd never have dreamt it bf : him; he looked so well." Medically,'the skinny ones are called Ectomorphs. the fattv ones Endomdrphs, the third type "Mesomorphs. .The'miracle of humanity is that no two people are exactly alike. There is a large, proportion of humans who could not be fitted into any one of the three divisions. Tuesday, July 16. " fan you do anything, about these cracked fingers of mine?" askol elderly James Ingle this morning. " ; Because if you can't I'll just have to give up gardening in the.winter months." " Trv filing away any hardskin with an ordinary nail file;" I "and then paint the cracks with friar's balsam Get some elastic bandage and splint the tip cif the finger with it." "How long shall I leave it on?" asked Inple . He was told to .put.on so"ie fresh stuff after about four days. " Tf they don't heal in a fortnight eome : baok and see me But I think thev will." I added Wednesday, July 17. Bill Ryan's team mates think, he's a ureat scout. He fractured a rib or two when practising early last week, and. after strapping him up, I warned him against playing on Saturday last.

The papers gave him a headline: " ltyan defies medical advice." Ttie game was a rough-and-tumble affair, and Bill eventually had a piece of the broken rib pushed into his lung. Bill's wife doesn't think he's such a great scout this week. He is in bed, has to be given somewhat strenuous nursing attention, and is, of course, off work. Football is a good game for boys and men, despite natural feminine ideas to the contrary. It teaches—or should teach—the taking of hard knocks and the keeping of tempers. Concussion is perhaps the greatest risk. Jf a player has been knocked or dumped on his head, so that he shows definite' symptoms of concussion in a practice or game, he shouldn't play again till given an acquittance by his medical adviser. The same rule holds good in boxing, and. death has been known to result from ignoring it. Thursday, July 18. Grandpa Anton is very angry with me. He's a new patient, the family with whom lie lives having ■ recently come to our suburb. Early this week he sent for me to give him something for his chronic bronchitis. A medical examination, plus some cross-examining, seemed to indicate a sputum test The answer came in, this morning's post, and I had to break the news to grandpa that what he. really had was a mild form of chronic tuberculosis. "What nonsense, sir," said Grandpa angrily. " I'm 70 this year, and no man with T.B. lives to my age. It's no good you talking of putting me in one of those sanatoria what-d'-you-call-its, because I just won't go! I'm a perfectly healthy man except for this damn winter cough, and it's "nothing really. Had it half me life without it doing me much harm." "Do you have it in summer?" I asked. " Oh.. . . just a little, just a little," said, Grandpa, .and then added suspiciously, but what's that got to do with it, sir? What's that got to do with-it?'.''. '•' . ; " It shows that you've had a continuous cough for a verylong time, now," I said. "Well, so did my father," thundered Grandpa, "and he lived long enough." ' , "How long?" 1 asked. " Oh, I don't know," said Grandpa vaguely. "In his fifties I suppose, and that was a big age in those days." "Sure it wasn't his forties? " 1 asked. . " It's a . long time ago," said Grandpa, defensively. " You can't always remember to the exact year." ■ Special precautions were laid down for this elderly victim of tuberculosis. He was, of course, to have his own crockery and cutlery, buy a sputummug, always put a handkerchief in front of his face when coughing, and be particularly careful not to have any of the children on his knee or even very, near him. Children are more susceptible to-infection than adults, and the comparatively rare, undiagnosed elderly tubercular patient can be an unfortunate source of it. Grandpa Anton is fortunate that he has a stationary, and only very mildly active, tubercular infection. . Friday, July 19. One of the students at the hospital to-day asked me, with that dead-pan voice for which. 'students are ■ noted, whether, in view of various epidemics, I didn't think that kissing should be considerably restricted. Equally dead-pan, I told him that I thought that people should be careful when kissing strangers: Kissing, a Western' world practice, is unlikely to be hindered, should anyone be-foolish enough to try to introduce legislation against it. As the verse says:— They say there's a Cocci in a kiss; . This rumour is most rife. Come, lady, dear, and make of me An invalid for life. (Names in this Diary or fictitious.) /(Copyright.)