DOCTORS AND PATIENTS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1248, 30 January 1896, Page 11

DOCTORS AND PATIENTS.

"NATURE NEVER FORGETS." From, Our Special Correspondent. London, December 13. In the current Nineteenth Century Dr Burney Yeo has an excellent paper on " Medicine and Society," which is full of good anecdotes and sound common sense. In his opinion the three qualities most useful to a medical man are tact, gravity, and good temper, aud the greatest of these is tact, which is necessary not only in dealing wich patients, but especially in dealings between doctor and doctor. The jealousy in the profession is, he says, acute enough, and patients have a most inconvenient habit of regarding themselves first, and the possible professional scruples of rival doctorß aa matters of no moment whatever. THE "TOO HONEST" PHYSICIAN. Is It tact or gravity which enables the successful doctor to make up his mind : about your case after about a quarter of I

an hour ? That was the limit of time* within which an eminent doctor said thatif a man had not decided what was the matter with a patient he never would. Dr Yeo gives an- illustration of the practical results of being too determined not to decide too hastily J—» "There was once a very eminent surgeon whom I can remember. I was examined bjr'him at the College of Surgeons, and he became, I think, president of that college*, but he nsver had a I large practice, and the reasor? always given was that he Was ' too honest,' for he would 3om6times, after seeing a patient; in his consulting room in the morning* drive to the patient's house in the afternoon, and leave a note or a. .message to the effect that since seeing the patient he had altered his opinion, and therefor© the advice he had to give. This, although very honest, showed a want of • tact,' and must have been very embarrassing to the patient. Not very unlike this story is one told of a very distinguished and honest physician well known in this city. A lady consulted him. about a certain troublesome malady for which she wanted to find some relief. After examining her, he handed her a prescription with these words, *lf that does you any good, I should be much obliged if you would kindly let me know, for I suffer much from the same complaint myself !' " SIR X. Y. As instances of gravity Dr Yeo tell© some amusing stories of "one of the* greatest of our modern physicians, thee late Sic X. Y."- though why the name,, which is apparent, should not be given i© not so clear:— "He was consulted by a medical man from the country, who brought a young farmer wi*h him, as to the cause of whose Joss of health it was desired to have Sir X. Y.'s opinion. The country doctor had good reason to know that a too free consumption of sherry was at the root of the malady ; but he had been unable to convince his patient of the fact. Sir X. Y. had examined the case very deliberately, and was standing pensively before hia ' fire as if in doubt what to conclude. The country doctor, who was pacing up and down the room somewhat impatiently, contrived to get close to Sir X. Y., and, unnoticed by the patient, whispered, behind his pookethandkerchief, the word 'Sherry.' Sir X. apparently took not the least notice of the hint; but, after a moment or two, he walked slowly towards a glass balcony which looked from his consulting room into a small garden, and g;«zed up into the sky ; then he returned and faced the patient. 'Sir,* | said he very gravely, 'you are keeping something J. rum us. I have reflected 1 carefully over your case and lam satisfied 1 there i« but one explanation of it. You 1 have acquired some evil habit which you are concealing from us, and if I were left to guess what that habit ia, I it ia sherry.V The patient was amav J convinced, and cured." OVERDOING IT. But even gravity can be overdone, as this story about "Sir A. B." sho<vs. It was " Sir A. B.'a" pride that he made an' impression upon his patients"; and, being! somewhat of a preacher, he used t<l "impress" them by convincing them of what he styled " a departure from physiological righteousness " : "It was noticed latterly that in these efforts to impress he fell into a habit of somewhat tiresome repetition ; perhaps it was that his invention was overtaxed, and it is told of him that a well-known journalist, who had not lived the life of an anchorite, consulted him for the first time about his failing health. Sir A. B. looked him over, accurately realised the situation, and made, as usual,, his impression by oracularly uttering the words, 'Nature rarely forgives and never forgets.' The journalist, deeply impressed-, with the weightiness of this axiom, urged another friend, in much the same state of ' physiological unrighteousness,' to consult thi3 wonderful oracle ; he did so with the same result, and he sent a third"' friend. They all met subsequently and compared notes. * What did he say to you ?' said one. ' Oh, he said a wonderfully clever thing to me, which impressed me very much,' was the reply; ' he said, "Nature rarely forgives and never forgets." ' ' Why, those were the very words he said to me !' exclaimed simultaneously the other two, and they thought the oracle was making too free use of old material."

In concluding his paper Dr Yeo refers to some grave criticisms advanced, notably in a recent French romance, against; modern operators ; and he declares that; there is a substratum of reality in the charges of extortion, immorality, sharing profits with chemists and instrumentmakers, taking bribes, and performing surgical operations in hopeless cases for their own pecuniary benefit. These are grave charges indeed, which in the public interest might well be made more definite.