Physician and patient

by Worthington Hooker

The path is now an easy one for some distance, but soon they are confronted by a high crag, up which they must clamber. It looks gloomy and formidable in the dim and fitful light of the partially-obscured moon. The sick man’s heart almost dies within him, as his companion eyes narrowly the small footholds which are notched up its steep side. Some of them he sees but faintly; but soon the full light of the moon, through the breaking clouds, shows him every notch with distinctness. He calculates their distances in a moment, and as his eye runs upward to the top, he plans out the whole of his ascent. In an instant he seizes his friend; and, again bidding him be of good cheer, tells him to place his foot in the first notch, then raises him gently, but firmly, to the second, and so on to the summit.

It is thus that the sick man, aided and cheered by his friend, after going through with many narrow escapes, at length reaches his home.

The points of resemblance between this journey and the journey of sickness, are sufficiently obvious to suggest themselves at once to the minds of my readers. The journey of sickness has sometimes the same variety of peril, and demands of the physician the same variety of assistance, to suit its various stages and conditions. His efforts, in rendering this assistance, must sometimes be strong and sometimes gentle; sometimes bold and sometimes cautious; always careful and never precipitate. The uncertain and varying light, shining upon the path of the traveller, has its counterpart in the journey of sickness; and sometimes the darkness is so great, that the physician must stop short, and not move at a venture amid such perils. There are times, too, when the light breaks through the clouds of uncertainty that hang over his path, and his eye must be open and ready, as was the traveller’s, to discern all that the light may reveal of that which lies before him.

Often, in most of the journey of sickness, a gentle, but firm support and guidance are needed, on the part of the physician, just as it was in the case of the traveller, when the path lay along the edge of a precipice; and here, in the one journey as well as in the other, an officious and hurrying assistance might prove ruinous. Then there are times (and fearful times they are) when the physician sees, as did the sick man’s companion, that while mighty efforts are required of him, even a slight error in regard to the right proportion in those efforts, may prove fatal. And, as the traveller found occasionally some broad and sure resting-place, where his friend could recruit his wasted energies after a severe effort; so in the journey of sickness there are such resting-places, and the physician must take care to give his patient the benefit of them, and not run the risk of an entire exhaustion of his powers, from too much anxiety to hasten to the journey’s end.

One more point of resemblance, and one which I deem of no small importance, I will barely notice. As the sick man, in all the way through the mountain-pass, was encouraged by his friend, so should the physician cheer his patient with his hopeful voice and manner, amid all the gloom and peril of the journey of sickness; and should hold out to him, in all seasons of despondency, so far as truth will allow him to do so, the hope that he will at length reach the end of that journey in safety.

CHAPTER III.
POPULAR ERRORS.

My intention in this chapter is to notice some of the popular errors, which have resulted from the uncertainty of medicine.

One of the most common of these errors is a false estimate of the importance of positive medication. This error appears in a great variety of forms. I will notice a few of them.

A patient once avowed to me the opinion, that in all cases of recovery from sickness, the recovery is to be attributed to medicine, and that nature never cured anybody of anything that could properly be called disease. Though this error is seldom carried to such a point of ultraism as this, it does exist, to a great extent, even in the medical profession, and it is exceedingly prevalent in the community at large. It therefore exerts a great influence upon the popular modes of the treatment of disease.

One of the most common examples of this false reference of a curative result to the agency of medicine, is to be seen in the prevalent popular notion in regard to the healing of wounds. The cure in this case, is usually attributed to some healing property in the applications made to the wounds. But the truth is, that the union of the divided parts is effected entirely by a natural process; and the only use of any applications, is to put the lips of the wound in apposition, so that this process may be effectual in securing this union. The popular error on this subject, is not as prevalent now, as it once was, and the array of salves and ointments for the healing of wounds, is fast passing away. At a time when this error was in full favor with the people, some one broached the idea, that the medicaments ought to be applied to the instrument that inflicted the wound, instead of being applied to the wound itself. This new mode of practice proved successful in comparison with the old, for the plain reason, that the wounds thus treated were not subjected to applications, which would irritate them, and thus interfere with nature’s process of healing. It acquired a great reputation all over England, and I believe, in other countries also; and the results of the practice were triumphantly referred to as proofs of its success, that were not to be gainsayed. It is related that in one case, in which the wound became very painful, it was suggested that something might have happened to the axe with which the wound was made, and which had therefore been duly anointed with a healing salve; and as the axe happened to be at some distance, a messenger was sent in great haste, who found that it had fallen down from its place, and the dressings were consequently deranged. Here was certainly the cause of all the pain, and accordingly it was ascertained, that at the very time that the messenger re-applied the salve to the axe, and set it up in its place, the patient became perfectly easy![4]