TIMELY TOPICS

Northern Advocate, 21 October 1935, Page 4

TIMELY TOPICS

THE FAMILY DOCTOR “These are the days of publicity, and the work done at hospitals is so much more sensational and dramatic that the quiet day-to-day work of the family doctor is in danger of being overlooked. He’ makes no appeal in the newspapers and gets no limelight. But without him the hospital and the specialist would be far less useful, than they are. I. reckon that a patient who can be seen in consultation by his family doctor arid the surgeon who is going to operate, starts his operation, wiith at least a 20 per cent advantage. And remember that for, once that, a, person needs to go into hospital he is likely to need his family doctor ten times. With a long experience, both as a general practitioner and as an organiser of the medical profession, I say that a family which has a reliable and trusted home doctor are much less likely to require home treatment, than one which has no, such adviser, and when they do require it are likely to get more benefit from it.—Dr. Alfred Cox, late medical secretary of, the British Medical Association. ' . <s> «> <£ <s> PRACTICAL BOTANY. I -

’ It might be ,assumed that an Im-, - perial Botanical Conference is caviare, . so to speak, to the general; that its s message is confined to the scientific--1 ally minded. Nothing could be fury. 1 ther from the truth, asserts the “Morh- - ing Post.” Like the gifted but impatient moon men in Mr H, G. Wells’ story, a Botanical Conference' .strikes ' at fundamentals. Can the. yield of ■ our pasturages be increased and the ; supply of British beef be thereby i. augmented? ' Can fruit' be made to L keep longer by packing it in carbonic 5 acid gas? Can pur lives be brighteni ed by the application to our putting i greens of some Astringent lotion that , kills the wireworms without remov- ‘ ing the hair? Can we be assured, in r fact as well as on the packet, that l our spring cabbages will all be mam- ? moths and our e&rly peas proof . against the slings and arrows of out-. , rageously misleading meteorology? - To all such matters the botanist lends r his mind, and when a Botanical ConI ference comes along he tells the world ; what he has done and what he hopes to do. ► <s> <s> Q ’ THE HARD OF HEARING. Blind people call forth the immedi- . ate sympathy of their fellow-men; but ’ jfor some curious psychological reason the deaf received much less consideration, notes the “Listener,” They even arouse in people a largely un-' , reasonable feeling of irritation, which is a great aggravation of their misfortune. Hitherto most of what has been done 1 to mitigate their handicap has taken „the form of instruction in lip-reading and teaching the deaf people to speak. Of recent years, however, the development of wireless has greatly stimulated the scientific investigation of sound and hearing, and provided new instruments, both for testing and for Helping the deaf to hear. It is possible now to detect impaired hearing in school children at an early stage; and so to start treatment soon enough fbr a reasonable chance of success. Interesting work has also been done with children in special schools for the deaf and 'hard of hearing. Here the new electric? instruments can be used to amplify sound in such a way as to make it audible even to very imperfect ears. Children, and occasionally adults, who up to the time of testing were considered stone deaf, have been able to hear for the first time. All this work is a beginning, still largely experimental; but the next few years should see a campaign to lower the incidence in the community of an affliction which is more isolating and in some ways sadder even than blindness. <» <*> <S> Words of Wisdom. Yes, Insolence, Injustice, evefy crime, . Rapine and Wrong, may prosper for ; a time; Yet shall they travel on to swift ; decay, Who tread the crooked path and hoi- ; low way. —Theognis. ! <s><♦><»><» Tale of the Day. Mother: “You are at the foot of the spelling class again, are you?” Boy: “Yes’m.” Mother: “How did that happen?” Boy: “Got too many ‘zs f in scissors.”