On slight ailments : and on treating disease / by Lionel S. Beale.
- Lionel Smith Beale
- Date:
- MDCCCXC [1890]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On slight ailments : and on treating disease / by Lionel S. Beale. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.
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![/ INTEREST IN THE PATIENT. thoroughly disgusted with practical professional work. It has been said that the physician should be a consolation to the patient, but many a a physician fresh from the study of severe forms of disease would, I fear, afford poor comfort to a dyspeptic, or to a person suffering, say, from functional nervous disturbance, and would hardly know what to say to a patient in whose body he could discover no actual degeneration or disease of tissues or organs. The patient might describe many unpleasant and even alarming sensations and symptoms, which to him were of course of grave consequence, and all the comfort that he would get from such a medical adviser would be that, as there was no organic disease, he might go away and bear his complaints as best he could. Medical advisers of purely anatomical and pathological habits of mind are certainly apt to disappoint or even offend unscientific patients, and, without deserving it, gain for themselves the unenviable reputation of being thoughtless and unkind, of being regardless of others’ suffering, and, if not objectionable, very far from agreeable ministers of relief. People do strongly object to follow the advice of such advisers, however correct it may be ; and perhaps the least unfriendly among the patients of such a doctor would, out of kindness to him and in the most quiet and confidential way, recommend him as soon as possible to change his vocation. You ought, therefore, to learn how to investigate the nature of slight ailments and how to relieve them, and, if the conditions which give rise to them are beyond our means of control, how to reduce the severity of the patient’s sufferings. If the patient’s malady is, unfor- tunately, ever so intractable or incurable, he will be much more grateful to you for your attention, and for doing what you can to relieve him, than he would be if you favoured him with the most learned and elaborate disquisition concerning his case, even if it was accompanied with th§ demonstration that his illness was profoundly interesting and afforded an exceptionally perfect illustration of very remarkable patho- logical phenomena. You will generally find that if a man has pain in his stomach, especially if accompanied with excruciating spasm, he will not be satisfied with the assurance that he will be better when the wind is dispersed. However interested we may be in studying the natural history of disease, the ])atient desires our assistance to disperse wind that torments him, and wants remedies which will relieve his sufferings as soon as possible. I think you will agree in the opinion that such a patient is not more unreasonable than most doctors themselves would be under similar circumstances. If you know your work you can be of use both in getting rid of the flatus and in relieving the pain. If from ignorance of the use of simple remedies you tell the patient that nothing can be done, the chances are that he will go to some intelligent person, professional or non-professional, who may, perhaps, give him a](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2130340x_0016.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
