The Third Great Plague: A Discussion of Syphilis for Everyday PeopleStokes, John H. (John Hinchman)
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The Third Great Plague: A Discussion of Syphilis for Everyday People
Stokes, John H. (John Hinchman)
Syphilis
+The Conscientious Type.+--Conscientious patients, speaking from the
physician's standpoint, are the product of intelligence and character
combined. Though distinctly in the minority, and usually met in the
better grades of private practice, one is often surprised how many there
are, considering the treacherous and deceptive features of the disease,
which leave so much excuse for laxity and misunderstanding on the part
of the laymen. A conscientious patient is one who is not content with
any ideal short of that of radical cure. It takes unselfishness and
self-control to go without those things which make the patient in the
infectious stage dangerous to others. For a time life seems pretty well
stripped of its pleasures for the man who may not smoke, must always
think beforehand whether any contact which he makes with persons or
things about him may subject others to risk of infection, and perhaps
must meet the misunderstanding and condemnation of others whom he has to
take into his confidence for the same purpose. An element of moral
courage and a keen sense of personal responsibility help to make the
ideal patient in this disease. To meet a treatment appointment promptly
at the same day and hour week after week, to go through the drudgery of
rubbing mercurial ointment, for example, to say nothing of the
unpleasantness of the method to a cleanly person, night after night for
weeks, takes unmistakable grit and a well-developed sense of moral
obligation. The man who has been cured of syphilis has passed through a
discipline which calls for the best in him, and repays him in terms of
better manhood as well as better health.
The physician's cooeperation in the development of the necessary sense of
responsibility and the requisite character basis for a successful
treatment is invaluable. To the large majority of the victims of the
disease it is a severe shock to find out what ails them. Many of them,
without saying much about it, give up all hope for a worth-while life
from the moment they learn of their condition. Just as in the old days
the belief that consumption was incurable cost nearly as many lives as
the disease itself, by leading victims to give up the fight when a
little persistence would have won it, so among many who acquire
syphilis, especially when it is contracted under distressing
circumstances, there is a lowering of the victims' fighting strength, a
sapping of their courage which makes them an easy prey to the
indifference to cure that is so fatal in this disease. The person with
syphilis should have the benefit of all the friendly counsel,
reassurance, and moral support that his physician can give, and such
time and labor on the latter's part are richly repaid.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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