Arguments For and Against the Use of Automobiles.

Progress, Volume III, Issue 4, 1 February 1908, Page 137

Arguments For and Against the Use of Automobiles.

The use of automobiles by surgeons has been condemned by numerous persons for two principal reasons, first, that if the surgeon drives the car himself the vibrations are likely to make his hands unsteady ; and second, that the car must surely be a means of collecting germs from the street which would be transmitted to the person of the physician. Both of these arguments have recently been attacked by Dr. Fieux of Bordeaux, France, who claims that the trembling of the hands will only be developed in persons of such high strung nervous temperament r las to/make them unfit for professional service at all. ~|ln regard to the second cricitism, he

says that the tests of the dust ;found under the hood of an automobile showed an utter absence of microorganisms of any form. His explanation of this fact is that the heat given off by the motor destroys the germs which would otherwise be found there. For this reason it will be seen that instead of spreading germs the automobile is really a disinfecting agent. A prominent French physician, Dr. Legendre, has been giving his views on the hygienic effects of motoring. " Auto-exercise," he says, " has improved cases of emphysema, nervous asthma, chlorosis, certain alimentary affections, including gastralgia, anorexia, and chronic constipation. I would urge the avoidance of automobile journeys by patients suffering from varicose veins, epilepsy, alcoholism, and obesity. In certain forms of heart disease, too, auto-exercise is to 1 ! be avoided, as with such ''jpatients"the results! may prove serious."