- Defect of appetite in patient.
Yet all these are generally comprehended in the one sweeping assertion that the patient has "no appetite."
Surely many lives might be saved by drawing closer distinction; for the remedies are as diverse as the causes. The remedy for the first is to cook better; for the second, to choose other articles of diet; for the third, to watch for the hours when the patient is in want of food; for the fourth, to show him what he likes and sometimes unexpectedly. But no one of these remedies will do for any other of the defects not corresponding with it.
I cannot too often repeat that patients are generally either too languid to observe these things, or too shy to speak about them; nor is it well that they should be made to observe them, it fixes their attention upon themselves.
Again, I say, what is the nurse or friend there for except to take note of these things, instead of the patient doing so?[1]
Again, the question is sometimes put. Is there diarrhœa? And the answer will be the same, whether it is just merging into cholera, whether it is a trifling degree brought on by some trifling indiscretion, which will cease the moment the cause is removed, or whether there is no diarrhœa at all but simply relaxed bowels.
It is useless to multiply instances of this kind. As long as observation is so little cultivated as it is now, I do believe that it is better for the physician not to see the friends of the patient at all. They will oftener mislead him than not. And as often by making the patient out worse as better than he really is.
In the case of infants, everything must depend upon the accurate observation of the nurse or mother who has to report. And how seldom is this condition of accuracy fulfilled.
A celebrated man, though celebrated only for foolish
- ↑ It is commonly supposed that the nurse is there to spare the patient from making physical exertion for himself — I would rather say that she ought to be there to spare him from taking thought for himself. And I am quite sure, that if the patient were spared all thought for himself, and not spared all physical exertion, he would be infinitely the gainer. The reverse is generally the case in the private house. In the hospital it is the relief from all anxiety, afforded by the rules of a well-regulated institution, which has often such a beneficial effect upon the patient.
