GOING TO THE DOCTOR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3835, 23 August 1928, Page 2

GOING TO THE DOCTOR.

PERIODICAL EXAMINATIONS. * Sydney, August 10. One of the Sydney newspapers has put to a number of leading citizens, with piquant results, the question whether the average man is acting fairly to himself, to his dependants, and to society, by calling in a doctor only when he is ill, and often, alas, when it is too late, instead of submitting himself to a regular periodical overhaul by a medical man, to see if any of the bearings in the human machine want tightening up. Is the average man, in short, game to undergo a regular overhaul, even when in apparently normal health, and to hear the worst, or does he prefer to blind himself to the facts on the principle that “where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise?” Of those interviewed, only one admitted that he underwent a periodical overhaul, which is perhaps natural since his son is a doctor. The investigation suggests that, while the average man takes every precaution to ensure that his mo-tor-car shall always be in perfect or at least, good running order, he gives little or no attention to the tenre of his body. Medical opinion .is that, financially, intellectually, and morally, it is wrong for a man to disregard the human machine until he is faced with a costly and often financially crippling illness. The Federal Minister for Health, Sir Neville Ilowse, V.C., who in private life has a lucrative medical practice, contends that every man between the ages of, say, 50 and 70, should go to a doctor at regular intervals for a thorough overhaul.