156 



POPULAR SCIENCE J^EWS. 



[October, 1888. 



;^rli(tint anH Pdarmatp. 



THE AMENITIES OF THE DOCTOR'S LIFE. 



The life of a physician in active practice is 

 a hard one at the best. There is no time 

 that he can call his own. His morning meal 

 is interrupted by a call to some ease of sudden 

 illness ; and, after a day of exhausting labor, 

 he may be awakened just as he has fallen 

 asleep, and obliged to spend the remainder of 

 the night with some suffering patient who fails 

 both to appreciate the value of his services or 

 the necessity for the payment of his well-earned 

 fee. 



The constant association with scenes of 

 sorrow, suffering, and death is wearying and 

 disheartening in the highest degree. The 

 physician sees, in the sick-room, human nature 

 as it really is, devoid of all mask or conceal- 

 ment ; and it is safe to say that those cases are 

 few in which the true nature is not greatly in- 

 ferior to that usually presented to the world. 

 If his patient succumbs to the disease, the 

 doctor is too often unjustly blamed ; while if 

 he recovers, he finds that appreciation and 

 gratitude are developed in inverse proportion 

 to the progress of convalescence. 



"Three faces hath the doctor: when first sought, 

 An angel's; then a god's, the cure halt wrought; 

 But when, complete, he comes to seek his fee, 

 The Devil's then less terrible than he." 



Notwithstanding all these drawbacks, the 

 life of a successful and skilful physician is a 

 most satisfying one to those who really love 

 their profession, and none other should enter 

 it. No calling is more noble or more useful. 

 There is a satisfaction and delight in relieving 

 pain, and restoring health and strength, which 

 the physician experiences in all its fulness, 

 even when the patient himself is unapprecia- 

 tive. The practice of medicine furnishes a 

 wide field for the exercise of the scientific 

 faculty, whether it be in the direction of the 

 manipulative dexterity of practical surgery or 

 the more purely intellectual work of the treat- 

 ment of functional and organic disease. A 

 large proix>rtion of those most eminent in 

 natural and physical science have been men 

 who began their career as students of medicine, 

 and only at a later period of their life aban- 

 doned the hospital and dissecting-room for 

 the chemist's laboratory or the naturalist's 

 8tudJ^ 



The social position of the physician is in 

 this country a remarkably high one. In 

 other countries, notably in England, the 

 case is different. He is there considered as 

 rather belonging to a lower class of society, 

 and only worthy to be ranked with tradesmen. 

 A prominent London physician once remarked 

 to us, that some of his noble patients would 

 refuse to recognize him upon the street, not 

 considering him worthy of the honor of their 

 acquaintance, except in a purely " professional " 

 waj'. With us, however, the case is very 

 different. The physician is usually a promi- 

 nent man in the community*, and the trusted 

 friend and counsellor of families and individ- 

 uals, in many cases for generations. It has 



been said, and we think truly, that in New 

 England the family physician now fills the 

 place formerly occupied by the minister as a 

 familj' friend and confidant. From a more prac- 

 tical point of view it may be remarked that a 

 man of average sense and skill is usually certain 

 of obtaining at least a comfortable living in the 

 practice of his profession, although the in- 

 stances where phj'sicians have amassed great 

 wealth are few and far between. 



It is in the consciousness of his power and 

 usefulness, however, that the physician ex- 

 periences his highest satisfaction. From the 

 hour of birth to that of death he watches over 

 his fellow-beings, relieves their pain, and pre- 

 serves and prolongs their existence. Fortu- 

 nate is he who has for his medical adviser a 

 wise, skilful, and conscientious man, such as 

 is so often found in the profession ; and happy 

 is such a physician in the consciousness of a 

 useful, honorable, and noble life. 



[Original in Papular Science News.] 

 OTITIS. 



During the summer season of the year, when 

 multitudes are plunging into the surf and rolling 

 in the sand at the seashore, earaches are quite 

 common, and unrelenting pain is suffered for many 

 long hours by those whose tender aural membranes 

 are unable to withstand the excessive irritation of 

 the sand, and the acrid, gritty waves, which dash, 

 not only into the eai's, but into the eyes, the 

 mouth, and the nose as well. It is now fully 

 recognized that cold bathing, either in fresh or 

 salt water, as indulged in so freely in the open air 

 during the summer months, involves some danger 

 to the ears. Upon prolonged swimming, with an 

 occasional ducking of the head, inflammation may 

 ensue from the entrance of the water through the 

 auditory canal to the membrana tympani, and, if 

 this be perforated, from its lodgement in the tym- 

 panum ; while in those who dive head foremost, or 

 strangle from any cause, inflammation is likely to 

 be caused by the passage of water through the 

 nares into the Eustachian tube and the middle ear. 

 The presence of sand or of any other foreign sub- 

 stance in the external meatus is a common cause 

 of aural inflammation, while it is not unfrequently 

 induced by prolonged cold-water bathing in a bath- 

 tub, or from allowing a stream of cold water to 

 pour upon the head. Most bathers are unmindful 

 of the liability to injury to whicli their ears are 

 injudiciously exposed; and while it is admitted 

 that many of them escape injury of their ears, it 

 is also probable, on account of the numerous other 

 causes of aural inflammation than those already 

 mentioned, that when induced, the malady is likely 

 to be explained in some other way. 



Whether it is caused by an accumulation of 

 cerumen, or excited by currents of cold air or 

 irritation of decayed teeth, whether it be attend- 

 ant upon fever or other debilitating disease, or due 

 to any of the causes previously mentioned, or any 

 cause whatever, otitis is an exceedingly painful, and 

 may prove a very serious, malady. Ulceration may 

 ensue, and destroy the membrana tympani, and even 

 the ossicula, causing deafness; while the inflam- 

 mation may extend from the internal ear to the 

 membranes of the brain. The necessity of careful 

 examination and careful treatment is at once 

 obvious. The inflamed part swells; and, although 

 the swelling is slow, it often causes complete 

 occlusion of the meatus, and affects the parts 

 around the ear, which are always exquisitely ten- 



der, and intolerant of the slightest pressure. 

 When the disease is at its height, the sufferer is 

 unable to masticate, or to lie on the affected side. 

 There is generally more or less fever, and some- 

 times delirium, in giving the treatment of this 

 malady, the writer has not only the benefit of 

 having treated numerous cases, but of having 

 experienced the unpleasant symptoms of the affec- 

 tion in their severity, — the result of bathing in 

 salt water with the ears unprotected. 



The most rational plan of treatment would be 

 to protect the external ear when about to take a 

 cold bath, for indeed, in such a circumstance, " an 

 ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" 

 If cotton or wool stuck into the meatus can be 

 made to answer the purpose, it will be all that can 

 be required ; but in all probability it will be 

 washed out, consequently the best way is to tie 

 protecting pads or plugs over the external ear. A 

 very efficient protection is gained by tying an ear- 

 muff made of oiled silk over the entire auricle. 

 But when the drum membrane is perforated, not a 

 drop of cold water should enter the external ear, 

 since its admission into the tympanum is sufficient 

 to rekindle the old inflammation with redoubled 

 vigor. Consequently I know of no protection 

 that will render surf-bathing perfectly safe for any 

 one who has had an aural disease, especially if that 

 disease has left a perforation of the membrana 

 tympani. Moreover, in such cases the head should 

 be screened from any cold or current of air, and 

 should be covered at night, and a pledget of cotton 

 or wool applied in the meatus. 



Wheif inflammation of the ear does result from 

 bathing or any other cause, the first step is to 

 cleanse the ear by gentle syringing with warm 

 water. This will remove any sand or other sub- 

 stance which may have collected in the meatus, and 

 open the way to a speedy recovery. The water used 

 should be neither hot nor cold, as both of these 

 extremes are to be avoided, and should be free 

 from all substances that might irritate the inflamed 

 parts. This irrigation, which is to be repeated at 

 least three times a day, is best effected by the 

 aural douche. When this is ^not at hand, the 

 family syringe makes a good substitute, and is to 

 be converted into a siphon. To accomplish this, 

 the syringe is filled by compressing the bulb a few 

 times, and the vessel containing the water is raised 

 a short distance above the patient's head, when, by 

 lowering the nozzle, the water will flow in a gentle 

 stream, which is to be turned on the inflamed 

 parts. An ear-spout should be fastened under the 

 ear, down which the water returning from the ear 

 may run into a vessel provided to receive it. An 

 ear-syringe is not entirely objectionable, but it 

 must be used with care. 



The patient should be cautioned against intro- 

 ducing any thing into the ear, as the temptation to 

 do so will be great ou account of the pain and 

 itching occasioned by the inflammation. The 

 application of oils and fats is unnecessary, and, 

 when put into the ear, generally prove a source of 

 irritation and disease, on account of their liability 

 to become rancid. If the pain is severe, a pledget 

 of cotton dipped in a solution of atropine, — forty 

 grains to the ounce, — and placed in the meatus, 

 will generally afford immediate relief, while tobacco- 

 smoke blown into the ear through the stem of a 

 pipe, or ether injected by means of an atomizer, 

 will often prove very effective. When there is great 

 heat and tenderness, or if the auditory canal be 

 completely clo.sed, a leech or two below the meatus, 

 or a small portion of blistering paper worn over 

 the mastoid process for a short time, will generally 

 subdue the immediate symptoms. 



If necessarj', the bowels should be I'egulated by 

 some mild cathartic, — an occasional Seidlitz pow- 



