, 1910

, Vol. V., No.

will be increased, and the public will be benefitted, for no man in the community needs a more liberal education than the man of medicine. His work leads him into the realm of science not bounded by drugs, bacteria and surgical instruments and to attain the success which is his due, he must be qualified to successfully meet every situation.

While the physician is being perfected educationally his patient is becoming better grounded in things medical. Some of his knowledge comes from the physician, some from the teacher in the schools, some from everyday reading, and some, unfortunately, from imbibing the untruths appearing in patent medicine and quack advertisements and the distorted quasi medical stories in the public press.

This information, in many instances misinformation, is a decided detriment to the patient, and imbues him with false conceptions, induces self medication, and is likely to destroy that feeling of faith and confidence in the medical profession which is so necessary, if the physician is to bring about curative results.

Therefore, it becomes an essential that the public in its thirst for a wider knowledge of medicine be properly instructed. Who shall the instructor be? The physician.

What shall his mediums be? The newspaper, the magazine and public lectures.

Recognizing the necessity of educating the people along these lines, the writer some four years ago, advocated the formation. by the American Medical Association of a medical publicity1 bureau which should act as a national clearing house of medical topics. This article, which was most favorably noticed by the medical press, suggested in detail the many advantages of such an organization. The editors of sev

eral metropolitan newspapers and of some of the popular magazines were pleased to say that a bureau, properly managed, would be of great assistance to the press of the country.

Since the publication of the article in question, the subject has been taken up rather generally, and physicians have spoken and written at length upon the necessity of the education of the public.

Dr. Herbert L. Burrell, of Boston, in the presidential address before the American Medical Association in 1908,2 speaking of "The Education of the Public in Scientific Medicine” said:

"Judicious publicity is, I believe, a new duty of the medical profession to the laity. How can this be accomplished? There has already been established a Board of Public Instruction in this Association. This board, as well as all committees, should be answerable to the Board of Trustees; it should be representative and eminently judicial in character and should have as advisers the experts in the profession.

"In what medical subjects should the public be educated? It will be better to teach thoroughly a few important subjects than to attempt to cover too large a field. Let us not be blind to the fact that our scope of usefulness as physicians in dealing with the large disease problems depends in great measure on the co-operation. of the public. We must have intelligent co-operation to make our work as effective as may be. Tuberculosis is still the most pertinent subject on which information should be given.

"The public should be informed that at present an early, thorough operation is the most certain way of curing cancer. The work already accomplished by the public in co-operation with physicians in controlling tuberculosis, ophthalmia neonatorum and

MEDICINE

Series,

scarlet fever comes to my mind. The work that has been done in controlling yellow fever in Louisiana by the public and the medical profession is a striking example of educating the people as to the facts concerning disease. The various infectious diseases are obviously ones concerning which the public should be informed. The people should be educated as to the necessity of pure air, pure water and pure food; they should know the hygienic value of bathing. They should know that hospitals are provided not alone for the care of the sick poor but that knowledge of disease may be advanced.

"Who among the public should first be educated? Those who are leaders in the community; those who are in positions of responsibility, national, state, city and town authorities, trustees trustees of hospitals and schools. Experience has shown that the lay public takes a keen interest in everything concerning medicine and its progress. The success of nostrum vendors has demonstrated their skill in appealing to the sentiment of the public.

"What are the means by which we may reach the public? Newspaper articles on selected subjects giving facts concerning a given disease, but not the treatment of the disease, should be furnished the press.

"Another means of reaching the public might be by magazine articles. The facts concerning diseases might well be given to skilled lay writers, who should be paid for their services. A lay writer has the art of presenting a subject to the public in an attractive manner. For example, let the subject of animal experimentation be investigated by one of the magazine writers of this country. Open wide the sources of information to such a writer. Then let a series of articles be published in order that the public may know the truths as to the

inestimable benefits that have come from animal experimentation, not to men alone but to animals as well. Reprints of such articles, pamphlets, and circulars of information would be a powerful means of educating the public. Let circulars of information regarding the subject of animal experimentation and of vaccination be placed in the hands of every legislator in this country; in fact, in the hands of every citizen who is misinformed as to the truth. "The medical profession and many of the public are afraid of the press. Whether this position on the part of the public is justified or not need not be discussed. have never had occasion to appeal to the press for assistance and co-operation in any public measure without receiving hearty, but at times, to my mind, indiscreet assistance. The position of the press, as I understand it, is that it is the judge as to what constitutes news. Newspapers will publish what they think the public wants to know, but not what we think the public ought to know. They assume, quite properly, the right of decision. The greatest power that we can have to diffuse information, is the public press."

I

Dr. E. J. Goodwin, editor of the Journal of the Missouri State Medical Association, lays emphasis on the necessity of some form of professional supervision of medical topics, as set forth by the writer of this article, in a paper recently read before the Association of State Secretaries and Editors. He says:

"The time is fast approaching when newspapers will welcome a system of censorship on all medical advertisements and news matter of a medical nature, and this Association can and should assume the duty of hastening this time by formulating some method of supervision which would be ac

, 1910

, Vol. V.,

ceptable to the owners and editors of the

daily papers.

"Unaided by a properly trained medical assistant, newspaper men cannot discern a scientific discovery of real value as a medicinal measure from the blatant boasting of some far-away quack; hence they publish all medical items without scrutinizing their source or the probable object of their authors. We believe there is a disposition on the part of the editors of the better class of newspapers to adopt such a system, if it can be made plain to them that they are too often purveyors of false and unscientific matter, prepared solely for advertising some humbug disguised as a respectable doctor or institution."

Another physician, Dr. E. E. Munger, of Spencer. Ia., deplores the fact that "fraud can thrive and prosper with the press for its hotbed" and pertinently asks if "instead of being so very chary about newspapers might it not be advisable to use a little of their space for the education of the people and thereby counteract for the present, and ultimately wipe entirely out the columns of rot with which so many papers are filled, setting forth the great efficiency of some nostrum?"

Dr. Munger asks how we shall make use of the newpaper and answers it himself.

"Let the American Medical Association establish a Bureau of Education for the dissemination of such knowledge and advice as will enable the people of this country to act intelligently in matters pertaining to their own health and lives, thereby making it possible for them to assist the medical profession in their efforts to prevent disease, relieve suffering and prolong human life. Organized as this powerful association now is, this bureau would be in affiliation with each state and county so

ciety, and there could be such a division and subdivision of the labor incident to the writing, editing and distributing of suitable articles for publication as would make a systematic campaign of education practicable."

Dr. J. Madison Taylor, of Philadelphia, in a paper entitled "Wanted, a Medical Bureau of Publicity, Especially for County Medical Societies" read before the Philadelphia County Medical Society, January 22, 1908, ardently advocated the formation of such bureaus by the different county organizations. In suggesting the use of the public press, Dr. Taylor said:

"It is necessary to meet modern conditions by adopting modern methods. Every form and kind of opponent to the purposes and efforts of the profession make use of the newspapers to reach the attention of the people. The whole crew of fakirs, grafters, panderers to evil amusements, vendors of disguised poisons, and all the disseminators of hurtful influences, employ vast sums of money through press agents of one kind or another. Conscientious editors deplore these facts, but assert their inability to differentiate. The one available means of combating these destructive agencies is for organized medical bodies to establish bureaus of publicity, safeguarded by competent committees, through which suitable information, opinions, acts or happenings shall be accurately and systematically supplied to the papers.

"All these interests which are diametrically opposed to medical ethics do employ press agents. With them it is a question of business. Good business methods demand that the public shall be made acutely aware of the more attractive phases of the proposition offered. These fakirs have goods. to sell, advice, or whatever they wish to barter for money.

The chief avenue of

Series, Vol. XVI.

diffusion of knowledge is the daily press, through the ordinary channels of advertisements or shrewdly placed news items.

"No organized medical body in the world. spends one cent for popular education 'to put the people wise' on questions it is their desire and duty to have correctly understood. Yet a large and increasing group of irregulars do spend vast sums to mislead the unwary, thereby causing incalculable damage to mortality and health."

The editor of the Medical Standard® is not certain that the attitude of the profession warrants the establishment of a "medical censorship of the lay press in its publication of matters pertaining to medicine and surgery." He is indeed a trifle pessimistic about the matter, observing that he is "disposed to believe that any extensive or really effective enlightenment of the public in medical matters can be brought about by a direct or deliberate attempt to educate them in such matters."

If the time is ripe for such a movement the editor is of the opinion that "the lay press is the only agency by which any extensive education can be achieved. If it is the sense of the medical profession that the people are not yet prepared for such a partnership in its truths, then it had better refrain from all association with the lay press, and have it generally understood that all medical information disseminated by the latter is unauthorized and irresponsible, and confine itself to public lectures, pamphlets, and the like, by which it must not expect to accomplish any great results. But if, on the other hand, the profession regards the time as ripe for taking the public into its confidence, and for enlisting the co-operation of the lay press in the propaganda, then it can no longer expect to exercise a paternal censorship over the medical news to be disseminated, but only an

editorial censorship, i. e., a selection of what is interesting to the public and a resonable care of its truthfulness."

At the last meeting of the Minnesota State Medical Association, Mr. H. V. Jones, editor of the Minneapolis Journal, one of the leading newspapers of the West, addressed the Association on The Lay Press," He believes in a closer connection between the public and the medical profession, as evidenced by these words:

"I think the medical profession has been. standing too long on ethics. It has a right to be heard and should speak out. Physicians would be surprised to learn how little people know of what is going on regarding the care of the health of the people. The newspaper men and the railroad men have always gotten along very well together, because the railroad man is generally ready to give results with real enthusiasm; but when we come to the doctor we find it difficult to make much progress, but I think if we could come together a little more we could soon reach an understanding. I am sure newspaper men would be glad to cooperate along the right lines with physicians and official bodies. That work to my mind would be educational rather than in the line of news. The press has been too commercial, there has been a letting down of standards, and too much desire to make money at the expense of standard and principle, but I think a reaction has set in. I think the time has come for the medical association of this state to take up in some way a broad educational work, and I am sure it would have the hearty co-operation of the press in this state. I do not know just how a movement of this sort should be organized, but it occurs to me that the people should be told what physicians are doing and what they are going to do. I want to leave this thought with you, that the press

of the state would be glad to co-operate in establishing a newspaper educational policy along the lines of what physicians are doing, omitting names, by studying the lines of work along which they are moving."

The writer, in common with thousands of physicians in this country, believes the public would appreciate a better knowledge of medical matters, and he also believes the lay editors of the country, in their effort to put nothing but facts before their readers would be glad to have some fountain head of medical information to which they could turn and on which they could depend.

Is there necessity for accurate information on medical topics on the part of editors? If any one is in doubt, let him read the subjoined items taken from various newspapers.

The Wisconsin Medical Journal of September, 1909, credits the Associated Press with having sent out this startling information concerning the illness of the late E. H. Harriman:

"Last year there developed a difficulty at the point where the stomach connects with the intestines. This is sometimes called a rheumatic knot, sometimes rheumatism, and sometimes indigestion. It is at the point which is known in anatomy as the caecum."

"Of all the musical curiosities that Nature has produced lately, one of the oddest is a man with a piano in his lungs. In a small Washington town is a man named Pearson, who can, without any undue effort, send forth remarkable melodies which sound like the music of a piano with a melodium accompaniment. This lung piano, as it is termed by the owner, is partly a gift of Nature, but Pearson has cultivated the use of the extraordinary instrument very carefully and thoroughly, until now

....

was operated on for gallstones and twelve stones of odd shapes and sizes were successfully removed. Many people have had gallstones removed but few if any one before Mrs.

ever had as many as twelve removed at one time."

(Fredonia (Kan.) Herald).
Boston, Feb. 5.

Mrs. G. C. Lee, grandmother of Mrs. Alice Roosevelt Longworth, is seriously ill at her home in Chestnut Hill. Necrosis of the arteries is said to be the ailment from which Mrs. Lee is suffering.

(New York Evening Sun). Berlin, June 8th. will succeed the late The new chief sur

Professor Professor geon .... is the inventor of the artificial steaming of the circulation of the blood as a cure for prurient abscesses.

(Los Angeles Examiner).

J. B., Marysville, for twenty years the wonder of medical science, is dead. Twenty years ago in a cutting affray B. was entirely. disemboweled. His intestines fell out and were entirely buried in sawdust. Bystanders picked him up and stuffed them back several hours before medical aid arrived. He recovered and later . . . . died a natural death.

(Lima (Ohio) Gazette).