14 



POPULAR aClENCE JSfEWS. 



[Jam'arv, 18S9. 



small-pox, when the chairman of the Board of 

 Health took possession of a buiklin-^ in the north 

 end of the citv. to be used as a pest-house, notwith- 

 standinj; sharp local opposition. 



The laws of different countries have lieen quite 

 lenient towards the physician in protecting him 

 against the disclosure of professional secrets, and 

 seldom, excepting in ca.ses of a highly criminal 

 character, is he forced so to dou. This phase of the 

 subject has been ablv discussed bv Beauardel in his 

 interesting essay. "• Medical Secrets," published in 

 the Xoiirenii Diiiioniiaire de Medicine etde Chinii'ffie. 

 The doctrine of professional secrets has been more 

 fully discussed in France, than has been usual in 

 our country, and the incidents cited bv Beauardel 

 are full of novel interest. The patient, on the one 

 hand, is to be protected against the wanton disclos- 

 ures of professional secrets on the part of the at- 

 tending physician; and on the other hand, the phy- 

 sician is not to be forced to compromise himself or 

 his patient, except in rare instances, by the disclos- 

 ures of the confidences imparted to him in the prac- 

 tice of his profession. It has been decided by high 

 authority in New York, that it is the purpose of the 

 law to give to the relation of the physician, or sur- 

 geon to the patient, the same privilege as has been 

 from the earliest times accorded to that of attorney 

 to client; and this privilege, as is well known, ex- 

 tends to admissions of guilt. This has been tested 

 over and over again in the courts all over the civil- 

 ized world. The laws are also benignant in pro- 

 tecting medical men from slander.. Odgus lays it 

 down as good law. that 'Any words imputing to 

 a practising medical man misconduct or incapacity 

 in the discharge of his professional duties, are ac- 

 tionable." Examples coming under this law would 

 be, to accuse a practitioner of having caused the 

 death of a patient by ignorance or culpajile negli- 

 gence; to call such a physician by opprobrious 

 names as ■•quack." •■ mountebank." or •empiric." 



Several years since a regular physician was ad- 

 judged guilty, and cost in damages, for calling a 

 homoeopath a quack. The decision was rendered 

 on the ground that a lawfully qualified or licensed 

 practitioner is entitled to respect as such, whatever 

 his school may be. 



By the nature of his relations to his patients, the 

 physician is frequently called upon to draw up a 

 will, and although a will is a simple kind of a docu- 

 ment, yet there is no legal instrument about which 

 there is so nnich confusion and blundering. It is 

 well for the physician to be familiar with the legal 

 form and requirements of a will so as to be able in 

 an emergency to lend important aid where the dis- 

 position of a large estate is involved. The laws of 

 the several states differ. If personal property is to 

 be given away it must be. done in accordance with 

 the laws of the state in which the property lies. 

 Thus, if a physician is called to attend a patient 

 taken sick on a journey, his will must follow the 

 law of his own state. Massachusetts allows a will 

 made out of the state, and valid by the laws of that 

 state, to hold the same as if made in Massachusetts, 

 but this is an exceptional rule. Massachusetts and 

 about a dozen other states, including Florida, where 

 real estate is involved, require three witnesses ; in 

 other states two witnesses are enough. In New 

 York the residences of the witnesses are required, 

 and an cnnission to do this subjects the witness to a 

 penalty. In signing a will, the testator should say 

 to the witnesses, ■■ This is my last will." and the ti- 

 tle of the will should also be affixed to the docu- 

 ment. In sparsely populated regions, where a mag- 

 istrate is not easily obtainable, it is often essential 

 that the physician be competent to draw up a will. 

 It is simpiv adding another duty to the responsi- 

 bilities incident In an exacting profession. 



THE DOCTOR AT HOME. 



A doltor'.s wife was not long since overheard 

 telling her husband that he was pleasant every- 

 where save in his own family; and the doctor ad- 

 nn'tted that his good nature was .so exhausted in his 

 daily visits to his patients that he was irritable when 

 he reached home. Exactly how true the doctor's 

 admission was in that particular instance it is im- 

 possible to say, but it seems as though in the ordi- 

 nary course of a doctor's existence such a condition 

 might often occur. Physicians certainly meet with 

 many things in their daily rounds that try their 

 tempers. Life is for most of them a constant study 

 how to coax or compel obstinate or ignorant, 

 perhaps silly or even insane, patients to follow the 

 course thought to be for their good. All these 

 troublesome "ndividuals must be reasoned with, or 

 inHuenced by some means to do as they ought. To 

 carry his point the doctor must keep his temper. 

 He usually preserves an outward calm, but if he is 

 naturally quick tempered it is often at the cost of an 

 effort which is exhausting. After such a struggle 

 he reaches home in a state of irritability combined 

 with mental and physical weariness, and under such 

 circumstances it is not easy to meet little home 

 trials with patience. 



If he is met with the story that Jack will not mind 

 his mother, and that Jane is in disgrace because she 

 did not come directly home from school, and, per- 

 haps, in addition, with the demand that he take 

 some means to discover the cause of a disagreeable 

 odor that has manifested itself somewhere about the 

 house, what wonder if his temper proves inadequate 

 for the moment to meet the strain that conies just 

 at the time when he thought the vexations of the 

 day were over and he might eat his belated and 

 overdone dinner in peace. The family cannot know 

 what the husband and father may have been through 

 during the forenoon. His dearest patient may be 

 slowly sinking and he is filled with bitter thoughts 

 at the limitations of his art; he has just discovered 

 that a patient whose sense of business honor he 

 knows to be of the very highest has deceived him ; 

 or the pathologist has sho\vn his diagnosis to be 

 wrong and all the theories he has built up have 

 come to naught; or, most exhausting of all, he has 

 spent an hour with some half-hysterical and wholly 

 sick woman, listening to her complaints and trying 

 to set her right. The ever-recurring annoyances 

 cannot be enumerated. Perhaps the doctor's family 

 needs especial grace to so order the household that 

 the home vexations shall not be allowed to obtrude 

 themselves until after such a time as shall allow the 

 strained temper to recover. 



Doctors are sometimes reviled by ascetics because 

 they indulge in an occasional cigar after the day's 

 work is over. To what class of beings can the ci- 

 gar be better adapted than to the doctors '. The 

 load of their patient's ills grows light when lifted 

 bv the smoke, and their minds recover their wonted 

 buoyancy. Perhaps if the woman whose reproach 

 gave rise to these refiections had waited until the 

 cigar was half smoked before she told of the short- 

 comings of Jack and Jane, she might have had less 

 occasion to complain of her hnsband's temper. 

 The patients surely are also benefited by the doc- 

 tor's cigar: he is able to judge of their ills more 

 philo.sophically when his over-excited nerves are 

 quieted by the gentle sedative. 



There is an idea prevalent in some doctors' fami- 

 lies, more particularly among his wife's relatives, 

 perhaps, that the doctor is lazy. Unless he is pos- 

 sessed of a superabundant vitality he is apt to be 

 very quiet when at home. Not knowing what feat 

 of endurance he may be next called upon to perform 

 be learns lo husliaiul his slrenglh for emergencies, 



and when not in action professionally he very likely 

 presents the appearance of laziness to a casual ob- 

 server. 



If he is ambitious, or dependent lipun his prac- 

 tice, it takes the doctor some time to learn to defend 

 himself against encroachments, as. for instance, to 

 send word that he is at dinner to a caller, so Unit an 

 uninterrupted meal is an exception, ll is seldom 

 that a doctor is able to chat pleasantly with a strange 

 visitor out of ofiice hours about what may be done 

 during office hours and the size of his fee, 

 while still positively refusing to advise him profes- 

 sionally except during the hours appropriated to of- 

 fice consultations. 



The doctor is apt to de\clop some sort of a hol>i)\ 

 in the way of recreation, lie is often specially fond 

 of novels. Such a taste is seldom so catholic as 

 that said to have been possessed by Macaulay, who 

 found .some amusement in any novel. The doctor 

 is more fastidious, and much more apt to know well 

 some particular author whom he reads over and 

 overagain. Occasionally he rides a tricycle, though 

 if he be much of a surgeon he will probably be shy 

 of the less stable bicycle. He is very likely to cul- 

 tivate a small flower garden if he lives in the coun- 

 try, or he becomes an authority on mushrooms, or 

 in some other circumscribed field of natural history. 



His office is a favorite spot for the little ones of 

 his family, and he is subject to unlooked-for inva- 

 sions occasionally, against which he has learned to 

 close his door as though he were closeted with a pa- 

 tient, a proceeding which Jack and Jane resent 

 when they find that no patient was there. Visitors, 

 as they enter out of office hours, can often hear the 

 retiring scuffle of little feet. At such times Hans 

 Andersen, the Tanglewood Tales, or Alice in Won- 

 derland, and Water Babies usurp the place on the 

 office table that one expects to see occupied by more 

 strictly professional volumes, and not seldom traces 

 of feminine occupation, in crochet needles and un- 

 finished embroidery, or even a stocking with the 

 darning-ball and needle, show that the office is vis- 

 ited by others than the junior members of the fam- 

 ily. — Boston Med. and Surg. Jouriidl. 



THE SCHOOL AGE AND SCHOOL HOURS. 



Dr. C. W. Ch.\nckllor, of the Maryland board 

 of health, has recently given an interesting summa- 

 ry of those sanitary requirements which relate to 

 our school system and the public education of chil- 

 dren. 



After taking up the smbject of school-house con- 

 struction and site, the writer discusses the question 

 of the age at which education should begin. He 

 cites a number of authorities, from Aristotle to 

 Hufeland, all tending to show that the school work 

 should not begin until the eighth year. The au- 

 thority of Spurzheim is quoted in support of the 

 view that '• precocity is almost always a disea.se; " 

 ••an envious frost, which nips the blossoms because 

 they appear quickly." 



Mental and physical training may begin, as Qiiin- 

 tilian recommends, at the third or fourth vear. But 

 while our schools are arranged as at present, it may 

 be wise to accept the modern view, that the school 

 age should begin at seven or eight. 



Ribot has shown that capacity to fix the attention 

 is a characteristic of more civilized and intellectual 

 people. So it is of more mature minds. The in- 

 fant has no such power; the child of three wearies 

 after a few minutes' effort at I'ollowing some train of 

 thought or memorizing process. 



According to Dr. Newell, ■•for children of ten <jr 

 twelve years the capacity -for bright and voluntary 

 attention is exhausted by four varied lessons requir- 

 ing mental effort of half an hour each, with intcr- 

 \als of relief in llie forenoon. In llie .■il'lernoiiii the 



