We cannot refrain, before closing this chapter, from saying a word
or two about the incompetency of the large majority of "general
practitioners" and "family physicians," and their evident carelessness,
and in some instances, even disgust, in the diagnosis and treatment of
this class of cases.
The readers of this may be among that class who think the "family
physician" the embodiment of medical wisdom, and that if he has failed
to cure the case or pooh-poohed it away, there is no hope. But no one
M.D., however learned, knows all about the ills of flesh. In this, as in
the legal and other learned professions, a man may practice a score of
years, and still know little or nothing about various peculiar cases,
because they don't come under his notice; he has no opportunity to study
them practically, and little inducement to theorize. And the class of
cases we are now considering, it may surprise the sufferer to know,
are deemed by many "regular" physicians beneath their attention. The
physician's calling is a noble one, and he justly takes a high ground
regarding his duties. We honor the scruples of our medical friends, but
we do not understand nor approve the spirit which leads them to meet
these cases with ridicule or evasive answers.
That they do thus meet this class of cases, and that their course
is censured by the most eminent of the profession, we have abundant
evidence.
One of the best known medical writers of England, F. B. Courtnay, member
of the Royal College of Surgeons, etc., says in one of his works ("True
and False Spermatorrhoea" pp. 20-21):
"Again, some medical men * * * * affect to consider these cases
'objectionable,' and on these grounds seek to avoid them. Others boldly
declare, that as most of such cases are the result of unnatural and
immoral habits, the sufferers are justly punished for their conduct,
and are unworthy of the attention and sympathy of any one.
"Now I conceive this to be a monstrous fallacy; for surely it is
entirely beyond the scope of any medical man's duty to sit in judgment
on the applicants for his professional services. According to my idea of
professional duty, every man is bound to do all in his power to afford
relief to every sufferer who seeks it at his hands, without question as
to the causes and nature of the malady."
Speaking of one of his patients the same writer says:
"He had consulted one of the most eminent members of the medical
profession; and this gentleman evidently listened to his narration of
his case with great impatience and indifference, and upon the conclusion
of his history handed him a prescription, saying: 'There, take that for
six weeks, and if it does not do you any good, I don't know what will.'
The interpretation the patient put on his conduct and the remarks was,
that he need not trouble himself to call again.
"Now, I have the pleasure of personally knowing the professional
gentleman here referred to, and during the last twenty years have been
in the constant habit of meeting him in consultation, and I am sure,
from my knowledge of him, that his behavior resulted from no intentional
unkindness on his part, but solely from the unfortunate feeling of
reluctance to attend to such cases, which, both from my own observations
and from information obtained from patients, I know to be entertained by
too many members of the profession. * * * I am well aware that patients
of this class are often most tedious in the narration of their cases;
that the details they conceive themselves bound to enter upon are most
painful, not to say disgusting, to hear; nevertheless we must, as in
many other instances in the discharge of our duties, submit with
patience, taking the rough and smooth with the same equanimity, and
in the special cases in question, we should endeavor to forget the
patient's vices in his woes."
Another distinguished physician writes:
"I cannot disregard the appeals of unhappy and humiliated people. Men
have come to me who were ashamed to show their organs because of their
diminutiveness, and who practiced masturbation and lived in celibacy
rather than bear the humiliation of exposure of the parts. Nothing can
be more pitiable than such a condition."
If these very moral and dainty practitioners, who, as Dr. Courtnay
says, affect to consider these cases "objectionable" and the sufferers
"unworthy of the attention or sympathy of any one"--if these moralists
could sit at our desk, and day after day, week after week, read the
affecting stories of enforced celibacy, shattered health, broken family
ties, the anguish of jealousy, despair, misanthropy, the consciousness
of physical, mental and moral inferiority begotten by this sad
condition--we think that then these gentlemen would agree with us that
medical science and philanthropy can have no higher object than the
saving of these wrecks.