New Zealand Truth The Wealth of Good Health

NZ Truth, Issue 1152, 29 December 1927, Page 4

New Zealand Truth

The Wealth of Good Health

_TTI-lE3 PEOPLES 3E>Al>Ein_^

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1927,

WITH. aII the notable advances in medical science, there is still a sneaking suspicion on the part of the public that physicians Hail to do enough for their patients. "Doctors never do anything, " is a complaint so often I heard. In considering the broad general question of health and disease, the fact is commonly overlooked that treatment and diagnosis depend to a large extent upon the intelligence of the patient. In the consulting room, character, or its absence, is revealed ; and no physician yet pretends to treat for lack of character. Scarlet fever and -other children's complaints are said to lead to heart disease in middle life. If all children with a suspicious cold, and later on a rash, were kept at home and away from playmates, the dread toll would be less. There are many drivers of motor-cars who rail against thoughtless drivers in other machines, but are quite complacent when they themselves take more than their share of the road. Tn the- same way many a mother cannot understand why other mothers allow children "with a rash to go to school, but when their own children are ailing — why, that's another story. In no small degree the conquest of disease and the spread of health depend upon the spread of unselfishness, which is slow. Also it is partly a question of values. There are people who will not spend enough money to be well. There are women who would spend five guineas on a new hat and baulk at half that amount for a new pair of glasses. There are many men as well as women who would rather look well than feel well. In any case the maintenance of health and the prevention of disease are more than functions of the doctor. They require more than ever medical science can provide.