The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1929 PUZZLES FOR DOCTORS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 768, 14 September 1929, Page 10

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1929 PUZZLES FOR DOCTORS

ONE of the slim consolations for any person afflicted with a real or an imaginary malady that baffles even the ablest diagnosticians is to see the elusive cleverness stamped like a brand on his doctor’s face. There is a flicker of momentary bewilderment, then a wise inscrutability. And an observant patient eiljoys a moment’s distinctive triumph. His doctor does not know! Many first-elass physicians, however, do not hesitate to confess frankly that they cannot tell what is wrong with an assertive sick seeker of medical advice. Others, wiser still, and often quite rightly, too, declare bluntly that there is nothing wrong at all, and thereby effect a eure more rapid and effectual than anything ever achieved by any drug in the whole pharmacopoeia. Still, in spite of informative medical congresses and patient, sacrificial research, the best of doctors and surgeons have more puzzles or problems to solve than those which make politics a byword. A bright essayist in a recent issue of “The Spectator” (London) discussed in an entertaining way “puzzles for the doctor.” Many of these puzzles do not (one hopes) confront the medical profession in New Zealand. Why, for example, are so many women bridge-players in England apt to mistake spades for clubs when glancing at cards thrown flat on the table? This trouble has become known as “bridge eye,” and is so real and prevalent that special spectacles, adapted to the requisite angle of vision are in brisk demand among members of the West End women’s bridge clubs. So far, there has been ho talk in New Zealand about the prevalence of this puzzle for doctors, but many laymen have observed at least that, among both feminine and masculine players of bridge, confused vision is not exclusively confined to the. difference between spades and clubs. Then there is the puzzle as to why Rudolph Valentino and other film stars should have died in the flush of manhood and at the peak of fortune. It is believed by several eminent physicians in the United States that such prominent deaths “have been, in reality, due to over-exposure to actinic rays, aggravated by intense studio arc lights.” And the same medical experts also have declared that the nervous irritability characteristic of many popular screen actors and actresses represents the cumulative result of their exposure to the strong sunshine of the Californian hills, where most outdoor scenes are “shot,” and tp the ultraviolet rays of studio lamps. Also, it is asserted, that the same trying glare, of sunshine is responsible for the liability to dangerous explosions of uncontrolled anger among Spaniards, Portuguese, Southern French, Italians, and other Mediterranean peoples. Perhaps this indicates the cause of all the trouble in Palestine and Western Samoa. But an Irish lad in County Tyrone has the honour of providing the hardest puzzle for doctors in recent times. A year ago he mystified the whole medical faculty for some weeks. Every Thursday his temperature, without any visible provocation, which used to be so common in Ireland, rose to 104 and 105 degrees. On other .days he was a normal, cool Irish boy. What caused this mysterious and regulated fever? Doctors' did not *n°w but were keen to learn the cause. It was not a puzzle at all.. Belfast pathologists made microscopic examinations of the boy s blood and discovered that, in consequence of a slight bite on the foot from a rat in a trap months before, he was suffering from the rare disease called rat-bite fever. It is common iii Japan, but nowhere else, except during war-time in Western Europe. T°o much time and space would be required to summarise all the modern puzzles for doctors, but mention may be made of my rash and tulip fever,” which are common enough among flower farm workers in the Scilly Isles. And it should not be overlooked that another. sort of the same puzzling disease may develop from washing dishes with too much soda in the water Bo wonder so many men instinctively hate the chivalrous service of washing-up” after a good dinner. There need be little “\°r rr if ’’ ow „ a .l 3o ; Jt contracting the irritating disease known as Mali dong itch caused by handling boxes and trays finished until lacquer in which. was a highly-poisonous extract of a plant; the craze for the tedious game has passed. But many people may be interested to note that another puzzle for doctors has appeared in America. Many radio fans there have developed ° n ‘n® 6arS ’ ® aused h y to ° frequent clamping on of tight radio earphones. There are occasions when wireless Tl-™V r ° Üble than r° rnS ° n the ears ’ but do etors have not language ** & Laymen fl «ingly describe it in plain