The Menace, an Exposition of Quackery Nostrum Exploitation and Reminiscences of a Country Doctor Page: 100
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The Menace
deceive me. Too many patients are willing to believe every-
thing the doctor tells them, when all the doctor wants is to
hide the real truth from them.
"The doctor rubbed his hands awkardly. I had him
cornered. 'In its incipient form it did look like that,' he
apologized. 'We would rather give some simple explanation
until the case has developed far enough for us to know defi-
nitely just what it is. I must put you on a diet.'
"'Isn't it more serious than that?' I asked pointedly.
'The treatment is more dietetic than medicinal. There is
a deficiency of lactic and hydrochloric acids which makes
it necessary to withdray from you nitrogenous foods, in
order to prevent parenchymatous degeneration. You can
see how that is yourself, can't you?'
"Certainly I had thought as much at first, although I
hadn't said anything. 'Medical science has such a disease
under better control than it use to have hasn't it?' 'Yes,'
smiled the doctor, when he explained that I had a touch of
pyrosis with a trace of cardialgia, a well developed case of
gastrodynia, and a touch of inflamatus mentalitus, I knew
that he was making a painstaking analysis and that he real-
ly understood his business, if a person could pin him down;
so I told him that I had confidence in him and would follow
every instruction.
"So he told me not to eat anything I wanted to eat and to
eat as much as I wanted of everything that I didn't want.
He told me to take skimmed milk, boiled rice, arrow root,
and lime water regularly. How he had ever found out
that I didn't like them, I don't know.
"When I went back to the office and told them what was
really the matter with me, explaining to them that I had a
combination of pyrosis, cardialgia, gastrodynia and inflama-
tus mentalitus, they began to look upon me with more re-
spect. Before they had thought that it was trivial, but
when I explained to them that I wouldn't give in too any-
thing trivial, and that I was not the kind of person to com-
plain or to talk about my ailments unless they were danger-
ous, they changed their minds about me and began to ad-
mire the strong manly fight that I had made against the
affliction.100
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Dixon, Chas. D. (Charles D.). The Menace, an Exposition of Quackery Nostrum Exploitation and Reminiscences of a Country Doctor, book, 1914; San Antonio, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth143569/m1/118/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting University of Texas Health Science Center Libraries.