Faith in Medicine

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 78, 20 December 1940, Page 5

Faith in Medicine

"[ HE greatest care is taken by medical science to obtain an absolutely pure drug; exhaustive experiments upon animals are conducted to test its action and to ascertain the correct dose, so that all risks are removed before it is used for the cure or relief of human ailments. All this pharmacological work. has resulted in the elimination of many oldfashioned drugs which were proven to be useless if not harmful, and to-day, the actions of the remainder are well understood. There does, however, persist in the minds of the public a very exaggerated belief in the value of "the bottle of medicine." In earlier days, the physician was little more than a dispenser of exceedingly unpleasant concoctions, the value of which was often assessed by its taste. To-day the function of the physician is to examine his patient carefully,’so as to obtain a thorough knowledge of his physical condition. Then comes the question of treatment, This may require the use of drugs, and the doctor very properly prescribes a medicine, but very often the only treatment necessary is some adjustment of habits, diet, exercise, etc,, and no medication by drugs is either necessary or useful. Gradually the public are recognising this, but there still remains a quite unjustifiable faith in "the bottle of medicine" and the idea that unless one is given or ordered, there is something lacking in return for the physician’s fee.-("Fashions, Ancient and Modern: Medicine," by a member of the medical staff of the Dunedin Hospital, 4YA, November 26).