Helen felt there was no answer: Doctor Westerling was interested in no answer. She kept silent.
“Well, we do need doctors,” contributed Mrs. Daindrie. “Fortunately, not all doctors refuse to help the world, like you, Doctor Westerling.”
A faint sneer crept over the young man’s features. It covered a hurt. David alone saw the hurt. Mr. Daindrie answered the sneer.
“Yes,” he said, “we must get on with the drugs, while you have yet to prove we can get on without them.”
“Don’t you believe in any of our curative or preventive service?” asked Helen Daindrie.
“Honestly, it is all nonsense.”
“All of it?” She was withdrawing. But Westerling had a truth and he must pursue it first.
“I am sure modern practice has done more harm than good. Operations clean up appendicitis. We know that. What we scarcely guess, is how many nervous systems, kinetic systems, circulatory systems are wrecked by successful operations.”
“I had always thought the American surgeons were great scientists.”
“They are great virtuosi,” declared Westerling.