WHEN DOCTORS DINE OUT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 255, 25 September 1933, Page 7

WHEN DOCTORS DINE OUT.

PRECEPT AND PRACTICE. DUBLIN, -V'S- 7 - What do doctors eat and drink? Do they restrict themselves to foods and drinks that they recommend to clients? Do they, in fact, practise what they preach? . . To-night’s annual dinner of tlie British Medical Association furnished some light on these interesting questions. Though the repast would doubtless have met with the general approval of Brillat-Savarin, the great French authority on gastronomy, it was comparatively modest. It was certainly on infinitely more delicate lines than the association’s dinner at Cork in 1879, when, according to the records, the festivities were prodigious. The wisdom of opening as the association did with grape fruit was emphasised by a medical neighbour, who pointed to the large quantities of vitamins “A” and “C” contained in this fruit. The clear turtle soup was followed by boiled salmon, which, by reason of "its generous content of vitamins “A” and “B,” has much to recommend it. The whole story of human philosophy was epitomised by an expert on dietetics, to whom a guest ventured to suggest that salmon is somewhat indigestible. “That is undoubtedly so,” he replied, “but it is nice.” He declined to answer the question whether he would recommend his patients to indulge in the accompanying cucumber, which he himself so obviously relished. “These lamb cutlets are rich in proteins,” he observed when the next course came along. ON SAFE GROUND. Nothing need lie said about the succeeding roast chicken, for here the appreciative doctors were giving effect to one of their common recommendations. With the cliicekn were potatoes and cauliflower, so rich in vitamin “B” The chicken had a companion in Limerick ham, and one of the most graceful of many graceful compliments that members of the association have paid to Ireland was the unanimous verdict that Limerick pigs have nothing to learn from their highbrow fellows of York. Then came Richelieu pudding. It was delicious and would unquestionably have met with the benediction of the great cardinal who was so fine a connoisseur of the material delights of life. During dessert a layman maliciously attributed a doctor’s refusal of grapes to an allegation that “they get all the grapes they want when visiting patients to whom they have recommended them.” As for the drinks with which the excellent fare was washed down, it is to be feared that few of them would commend themselves to the medical members of the National Temperance League who had held their annual breakfast in Dublin that morning. A gesture of courtesy was indicated in the demand for Irish whisky. “It is,” observed a medical neighbour, “a wise rule of conduct to do in Rome as Rome does. Anyhow, whisky, whether Irish or Scotch, is very easily digestible, and among all alcoholic drinks is the least liable to cause stomachic derangement.”