DR. TACT AND DR. FACT.

Clutha Leader, Volume XL, Issue 44, 2 December 1913, Page 9

DR. TACT AND DR. FACT.

■ ■».» * THE OLD FASHIUN. DearoM %, Tact is dead (writes A.B.C. m 'The Daily Mail'). And in Ins shoes there stands the new, Vomit; energetic-Dr Fact, whose motto is" "Remove the' cause and Nature does the rest." Up till recently, if a patient suffered from twinges of pain and swollen joints in came the doctor, the friend of the family, and called the trouble "vW,,. matism'; or "gout" or "rheumatic gout, iust as Tact decreed. To the Nonconformist it was "rheumatism." Kheumatism is so eminently respectable, lo the Anglican it was "gout." J here is something aristocratic and dis reputable about gout. It takes a "regular dog" to.have the real thing. 'To the Aughcan climber it was "inhoriKl gout/' It was almost as good as a pedigree It spoke of the three-bottle da £? aml t,lose £° (xl °ld times. then there were those oatients whose convictions and aspirations were less obvious. Br Tact, with the wisdom of Soomon, diagnosed their troubles as •rheumatic gout," and left them to put the accent on which word thev liked. Following the diagnosis came the treatment Tt was the. same for all hut laet described it differently to each Rheumatism must be kent awav from draughts and damn. The" diet must be light and nourishing. Warmth and comfort are essential. The Nonconformist loves solid )>omfort. Gout, too, must be kent awav from damp and draughts—only' the oldest of port is allowed. "Good wine never does any harm," says Tact to his rich patient, Lord Dnnsanpie. Then the menu must he delicate to tempt the jaded' appetite. Oysters, asparagus mid everything out of season is advised The Anglican likes good living. ."Inherited gout" is an exDensive\ii!mcnt It lias all these things and more. The pill is gilded as well as the hill. The nouveau riche must be made a fus« <£ Dr Tact encourages him to talk o?"the gnarled and twisted family tree whose very sap is gouty. Rheumatic gout has a judicious mixture of these palliative 'measures, according to the leanings of the patient After a little while, when the pan;:; and joints and temner arc a!] a little worse. Tact, with his usual insight, ciders a change of air. In fact it is essential. Carlsbad, Homhurg, or one of those places so well called Aix are suggested. There, as Sir James Barrio nuts'it the patient "is washed out an'd scraped down." Then, limp and flabby, like a ] shirt without stiffening, he is sent to be braced up by an after-cure. Balconies the sufferer, temporarily a little better. Some of the poisons have been | removed. Some of the nains have been brought out. But the'trouMe is still there. Its cause has not been removed. And, like a militant Suffragette, it lurks ready to spring forth ""on the j slightest provocation or less. Now the cause of these promiscuous pains and big, sometimes chalky, joints is interesting. There is rich man's gout from over- i feeding. There is poor man's gout from j underfeeding. It is the same thing. There is teetotaller's gout and drinker's gout. It is the same gout. Rheumatism, as of course we all; bow. is caused bv damn weather. Some neople's joints, they tell you, are as I useful as barometers in forecasting the j clouds. But the rheumatism comes before the rain ! And it would be iust as i logical then to say that the rain was i omsed by rheumatism! So much for DrTact. He advised what was expedient and his day is done. This, is a scientific ago. And science tells us that in a large percentage of cases gout and rheumatism are due to teeth. If the teeth are nut right, if the cause is removed, gout and rheumatism vanish for good" Nature does the rest. It is better than Homburg and half the price. Let us enter the consulting room of the modern scientific doctor and watch, i A charming patient enters leanino- on a stick. "I injured my knee at hockey as a schoolgirl," she explains. "It has always given me trouble.-but it is trotting » much worse that now I can scarcely walk." "Let me look at your teeth," the physician says. "Is that your polite way of asking my age-'' the pretty lady drawls. "No," smiles the doctor. "I reallv want to see them." "I go to the best dentist," she explains. ''l don't care you go to." He carefully examines Iter' teeth with +he west of probes. "There is a tiny P°cket of mis here which is quite wough to have caused all the mischief.. Go to your dentist and get him w inject peroxide tinder pressure and to giyp you a peroxide dentifrice." "And if I don't?" the patient asks. "If you don't you may expect to have a musical set'of joints all soueaks •id creaks in a very short time!" ' . "You mean I shall be a sort of walktog concertina!" !|Yes—but in a bath-chair." 'And aren't you going to do any"Nothing except take mv fee. two guineas." Oth er patients follow on the heels of mb first. There is a lady who after years of , cn Ppled'oni comes to show herself as 3 cure. ( ,'You see, we gave up our house on . That was not what I ordered," the ■*« tor says. "And I ate only white meat," she tontmues, ."N'or that. That was a little fad D *y<mv own." j P[». well, I had all mv teeth out last bef ore we moved," she owns, i Then 1 think you need scarcely We moved. You may with impunitv ui) *° tiie clay soil and red meat." But why should the teeth be reWsible for the joints:-'" she asks. ■ Because pus round the teeth poisons J your food and poisons your system. causes headaches and neuralgia and ««i attacks your weakest joint. . If ■3 have sprained your elbow at tennis 6IL tiiat. and you call it tennis w Jf you ], avo knocked vour knee •hockey it attacks that. Tf' you have J '"lured joint, them it «fteii attacks }*J lan< ls or the feet, because, beintr •ffwest from the heart there, the circuIM*«n is weakest." |*t sounds very simple," said the pas3ll ps6r tllan >' mlr olaT soil allcl red "•«» th enry .» agrees the doctor, think of the seasons I spent at uS 6 " yon might have been cured at T the price." &T k y /?" e tlle B°vtj and rheumatic lJ«\ 0n« hy one they have their E? t u *wcted. And then th«y' &»