ART OF MEDICINE

Hokitika Guardian, 9 August 1932, Page 7

ART OF MEDICINE

CANDID CRITICISM. PAPERS READ AT CONFERENCELONDON, July 27. Candid criticism of members of their own profession marked som 6 of the papers read by -doctors at the opening session of the British Medical Association’s centenary conference. Dr Campbell, director of the Boston Psychopathic Hospital, „ urging a modernisation of 'the bedside manner, .declared that a physician’s first tank was to listen to complaints, grasp, the difficulty as it appears to the patient, and then account for the symptom’s ori. gin and exploitation, and not merely register as delusions any statements conflicting with ,ihis experience. The conference is divided into 24 sec. tions, and 2000 doctors will discuss papers containing a total of more than 1,000,000 words. > \ , Lord Dawson, of 'Penn, in his presidebiiad'address; insisted -on- tile..nieces-, sity fbr. doctors considering mental conditions wlieii diagnosing. art of medicine,” he said, "embraces an understanding of illness, We need to take count of the whole man.’ He urged the formation of health hostels for "people with fat bodies and fat heads,” who were clogged with their own metabolic products. The kit. Chens of the hostels should be under trained dietitians. REMARKABLE cases.

Hr Campbell instanced remarkable oases, notably that, of a Russian schoolboy who developed convulsions on hearing a fly buzzing on a. window-pane, 01 on seeing a sunlight wall or deal table, which recalled memories of th 6 „ home ■where he had been reared by an oversolicitous mother, and also a women who suffered fioin indigestion ow”.ng to her husband’s intoxication causing emotional mobilisation. that resulted in £ cessation of digestion. Referring to tUe effects of worry, Dr Campbell said: vYhen stocks go op, diabetes- goes down.”

- Ur James Mennel,- of St. Tho-mes Hospital, attributed the immense reputation of unqualified osteopaths for curing .-a variety of .ailments to doctors errors in diagnosis. He added that the claims of manipulative success ought to be te'-'ted, blind , unij;.lh>f beinq mere pigheadedness. While doctors refused patients the relief they sought, which could be obtained elsewhere, they were, only ploying into the hands of the unqualifk 1 practitioner. ■•'<