This Makes Confirmed Invalids.—It is only necessary for a woman to complain of discomfort in the back, a bearing-down pain, or some unnatural discharge, when some physician says that local treatment, and local treatment only, must be taken.
Women so thoroughly understand what their physician is going to say that they do not consult him, but go on suffering more and more until they become almost confirmed invalids. Others, after they are told what must be done, return home and become gloomy and melancholy over the outlook.
Specialists Are Crazy for Work.—The specialists are so crazy for this kind of work that it seems as though they would gladly scrape and burn the inside of the stomach for dyspepsia, if they could do so! Or, they would take a long probe and go down into the interior of the lungs and apply strong caustics, if such a thing were possible!
The Patient Is Deceived.—If the ache, or the pain, or the discharge was on the back of the hand where it could be seen, and where these "treatments" could be watched, the specialists would have a hard showing indeed, for the patient herself would then see that little good came from these local applications.
But being situated within the body, so that only the physician himself can examine the parts, the patient has to rest content, not knowing whether a little pure water is applied (and the fee collected), or whether the strongest acids which burn deep into the tissues are used (and the fee collected).
Local Treatment Unnecessary.—Now all of this is almost invariably unnecessary. It is not showing ordinary common-sense, not in accord with nature, and not in keeping with the best medical science of to-day.
Yet thousands upon thousands of women are undergoing the worst kind of mental and physical torture in taking these local treatments, while all the savings of the household have to go toward paying the enormous bills of the specialist.
The True Doctor Not Blamed.—Do not misunderstand me, please. I am not talking against doctors, not against the real, true, genuine, noble physicians and surgeons.
There is no nobler profession than that of the physician, none practiced more faithfully than the good old family physician of this country practice theirs. The best of them are glad to help their patients in any way they can, and in spite of professional prejudice, many have tried Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound upon their patients and have been delighted at the wonderful success of the trial.
Nature the Best Teacher.—The trouble with so many of these physicians who call themselves "Specialists on Diseases of Women" is that they get it into their head that they know more than nature. They map out a course of their own, and pay no attention whatever to the laws of health. Just as if a dog barking at the moon would make it shine less brightly!