“But suppose the injury is in the stomach, where it can’t be got at?” asked a member.
“Why can’t it be got at?” demanded Dr. Strong.
“How can it be got at?” retorted the questioner.
“By opening up the stomach and examining it.”
“Well, I don’t want anybody to open up my stomach just to see what is inside it!” declared Mrs. Sharpless vigorously.
“Very likely not. Perhaps you’d feel different if you’d had steady pain or indigestion for two or three years.”
“Does that mean cancer?” asked a tall, sallow woman anxiously.
“Not by any means necessarily. But it may well mean gastric ulcer, and that may develop into cancer. Three fourths of the cases of carcinoma of the stomach which come into the surgeon’s hands have developed from gastric ulcer.”
“Is there no cure but the knife?” inquired Mrs. Clyde.
“Not for the cancer. For the gastric ulcer, yes. Careful medical care and diet often cure it. The trouble is that patients insist on diet and drugs in cases where they have proved themselves ineffectual. Those cases should come to the surgeon. But it will take long to educate the public to the significance of long-continued abdominal pain or indigestion. The knife is the last thing they are willing to think of.”