THE LITTLE HEALTH OF LADIES. 



365 



enlarged, in others it was atrophied," ' and so on. | 

 Do the male doctors, who behold these and other 

 hideous sights continually, go out to warn the 

 mothers who encourage girls to this ghastly self- 

 destruction, as they do denounce the poor, mis- 

 guided, peculiar people and anti-vaeeinators who 

 cheat Science of her dues ? 



At last, after the follies of luxury and fashion 

 have gone on in a sort of crescendo like the de- 

 scent of Vathek into the hall of Eblis, till we seem 

 nearly to have reached the bottom, a voice of 

 warning is heard ! It has pealed across the At- 

 lantic, and been reechoed on the shores of Eng- 

 land with a cordiality of response which our men 

 of science do not often give to American " no- 

 tions." "Women, beware!" it cries. "Be- 

 ware ! you are on the brink of destruction ! You 

 have hitherto been engaged only in crushing your 

 waists ; now you are attempting to cultivate your 

 minds ! You have been merely dancing all night 

 in the foul air of ballrooms; now you are begin- 

 ning to speud your mornings in study ! You 

 have been incessantly stimulating your emotions 

 with concerts and operas, with French plays and 

 French novels ; now you are exerting your under- 

 standing to learn Greek and solve propositions in 

 Euclid ! Beware — oh, beware ! Science pro- 

 nounces that the woman who — studies — is lost ! " 



Perhaps there are some women, now alive, 

 who did study a little in youth, who even spent 

 their nights occasionally over their books while 

 their contemporaries were running from one 

 evening party to another — who now in middle 

 and advanced life enjoy a vigor which it would 

 be very well for their old companions if they 

 could share. These women know precisely d quoi 

 s'cn tenir concerning these terrific denunciations. 



There is another point on which it seems to 

 me that a suspicion of blame must attach to the 

 medical profession. We all believe that our doc- 

 tors do the utmost in their power to cure acute 

 diseases. When any patient has scarlet fever, or 

 small-pox, or bronchitis, he may be sure that 

 his medical attendant will exert all his skill and 

 care to pull him through. But is it equally cer- 

 tain that out of the 20,000 men, or thereabouts, 

 who are qualified to practise medicine and sur- 

 gery in thi3 kingdom, there are not a few who 

 feel only a modified interest in the perfect re- 

 covery of chronic sufferers who represent to them 

 an annual income of £50 or perhaps £200 ? A 

 few months ago there appeared an article in one 

 of the magazines expounding the way in which 

 legal business was made to grow in hydra-fashion, 

 i " Dress and Health," p. 20. 



We have all heard similar accusations against 

 slaters and plumbers, who mend one hole in a 

 roof and leave another. In short, we unhesitat- 

 ingly suspect almost every other trade and pro- 

 fession of making work for itself. Is it clearly 

 proved that doctors are in this respect quite dif- 

 ferent from lawyers and other men, or that the 

 temptation to keep a wealthy patient coddling 

 comfortably with an occasional placebo for twenty 

 years is invariably resisted ? The question is 

 not easy to answer unhesitatingly in the affirma- 

 tive: "Suppose a really radical cure were dis- 

 covered whereby all the neuralgic, and dyspeptic, 

 and gouty patients could be made in an hour as 

 sound as so many trevets, do we believe implicitly 

 and au fond du cceur that that Heaven-sent rem- 

 edy would be rapturously welcomed by the whole 

 medical profession ? " Is there no truth at all 

 in the familiar legend of the elderly lady whose 

 physician, after many years of not unprofitable 

 attendance, advised her to go to Bath, promising 

 to give her a letter to the most eminent local 

 doctor, his intimate friend, to whom he would 

 thoroughly explain her case ? The lady, armed 

 with the introductory letter, it is said, proceeded 

 on her way ; but the curiosity of a daughter of 

 Eve unhappily overcame her discretion. " It is 

 only about myself after all," she said, to pacify 

 her scruples ; " and once for all I will learn what 



dear Dr. D does think is my complaint. If I 



am doomed to die, it is better than this pro- 

 longed uncertainty." The seal was broken, and 

 the lady read : " Keep the old fool for six weeks, 

 and be sure to send her back to me at the end. 

 Yours truly." 



There are at this day, in Mayfair and Belgra- 

 via, in Bayswater and South Kensington, a dozen 

 houses in every street and square at the doors of 

 which the doctor's carriage stops as regularly as 

 the milkman's cart ; and apparently there is just 

 as little likelihood that either should cease to 

 stop. If the old Chinese custom were introduced 

 among us, and patients were to pay their physi- 

 cians a salary so long as they were in health, and 

 ceased to pay whenever they required medical 

 attendance, I very much question whether we 

 should see quite so many of those broughams 

 about those doors. I cannot help fancying that 

 if the clock-makers who undertake to wind up our 

 domestic timepieces were to keep them in the 

 same unsatisfactory and perpetually running- 

 down condition as the inner machineries of these 

 doctors' patients, we should in most cases bring 

 our contract with the clock-maker to a close, and 

 wind up our timepieces in future for ourselves. 



