THE DUTIES OF A DOCTOR

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 55, 27 November 1937, Page 14

THE DUTIES OF A DOCTOR

rAn Actor Gives His jViews

CIB SEYMOUR HICKS, the wellknown actor, gave the address tc the students at t&e opening of the Medical School at Westminster Hospital. We quote a sectiou of his speecli which is printed in full in the Lancet. Sir Seymour Hicks said: — is the duty of you who embark ea this wonderful professiou to elimiaate fear.. It is fear which opens foT ug the door of your consulting-room. A smjdl number of patients rnay be callouS| or appear so, but most are con- . oealing, or attemptiug to coneeal, fear. you cannot imagine what a tremeudous thing it is t> find your doctor creating fpr you a eheerful atmosphere, when J le says 'Sit down, my dear fellow, and tell me all about it . . .' So, I beg oi you young men, go out and buy a smile, fojr .our jgnorance is frightful - * n "Will you be very definite when ex amming and diagnosing, even if you aie wrong? And small-talk in the con-sulting-xoom jp dreadful for us. We go there very worried, and we are not there from choice, however attractive the doctor may he. And when you beeome great surgeons aud great physicians do not impress upon us that you are sttending Lady So-and-So or Lord So-and-So. ,We come to you for your brains, and we do not want to hear ahout your patients who obviously have none. . . . "We would Jiko gentle straightforjrardness, the truth wrapped up in hope. It ia awful to go with a stomacliache and he told you have some dread disease with a long name. "Optimism is a thing which we love ; be even as optimistic as the cat who «ab on the dome of St. Paul's waiting fpr a lark* "If you are going in for general practice, do not get a name for having a pet disease you are always looking for, even if a patient comes with a broken leg. There was a celebrated 3oc€or in New York who made a speeial practice of taking hones out of

noses, and a boy ran over to him one day and said 'Doctor, my mother sent me over to say— — ' 'Sit down,' said the doctor, and when the boy had duly had the bone taken out, he saia 'Mother sent me to remind you that you are dining with us this evening.' "Among us there are a lot of lying patients, who tell the doctor of thiugs which are nothing to do with them. To oue such young lady the doctor said ■Now, let Us Eegin at the beginning ; do you suffer from cold feet?' 'Yes, 1 do, but not my own.' "And , there are oue or two tiny things I want to meution. Never let ahybody talk scandal about anybody; shut both your ears and point to somebody and say 'Go and tell him'. . . . If you do hear scandal, forget it. Concentrate on maklng your opportunities, and then avail yourselves of them. If you look upon everybody as worth exploring you may occasionally fiud diainonds in the dust-bin. "Never quarrel with anybody. And don't get into the fcrick of saying 'Every thing has gone wro'ng to-day.1 Ask, rather, 'Has one thing gone right to-day?' If it has, thank God. "And I beg you, too, never go to .raoney-lenders; you are not borrowing from one man but from a ring; they are a soulless lot and would play clockgolf round the Cenotaph. "I have made up my mind that this world is made up of 60 per cent. natural people, 30 per cent. shy people, 10 per cent. idiots. I ask you young gentlemen to be extremely nice to the natural people, to be tolerant to the shy people, give the snobs a quiek kick in the pants, and thank God for the idiots, because they will, never find you out! "And may I ask you never to talk medica] 'shop' in mixed company? Once, at a famous cluh, I heard a distinguished gentleman academically describing those diseases, and at last someone said 'Oh, please shut up, this eonversation is getting like a Christmas number of The Lancet.' "