The title of this paper, we hope., will be most fitting and apropos to identify a few thoughts which we have held pertinent to the relationship of the Hahnemannian medical held pertinent to the relationship of the Hahnemannian medical practice in comparison to a surgical. The subject has been revived recently by a surprising amount of publicity, and our newspapers and publications point out, first, the fact that there is needless surgery being down and whether good, or bad!.
Those of us dedicated to a homoeopathic life, and I use that word advisedly, find little or no temptation either to advise surgery or attempt to perform it. We learned early in our career, while enjoying the advantages of a hospital residency, wherein one of our duties supervision of any and all surgical treatment, where the question of ethics, customary procedure and the like came into question.
I assure you it did not take very long to find that out of 200 staff members of this institution we could only recommend a small handful able to meet the requirements needed to perform not only good surgery, but needed surgery. We formed the opinion them, and hold to it now, that surgeons, like philosophers, are more likely born than made.
It seems to us that it is high time that the entire medical profession take cognizance of the fact that basically we should practice as Doctors of Medicine first, and secondarily, as surgeons. The tradition of medicine points in that direction, and while I do not in any way belittle or decry the advances made in this remarkable mechanical science in treating the sick, I deplore the careless, judgment leading to its applications, to its use, and at times, the heartless decision which have led to surgery that is hardly defensible and in many cases unneeded.
The Director of The American College of Surgeons, a man certainly qualified to speak on the subject, finds that only a very small percentage of appendices should have been removed. The female body contains a number of movable organs and parts together with a certain feminine degree of curiosity, which makes her a ready collaborator with the-we won’t say unethical-surgeon, but rather one who acts on the spur of the moment in formulating his advice and opinion. This same authority does not hesitate to be quoted and opinion. This same authority does not hesitate to be quoted in public print that much surgery is done for financial reasons only and that certainly much more is attempted by the poorly qualified operator.
It is a wonderful thing when as honorable a group as The American College of Surgeons admits human errors in judgment and decisions made by its membership and is motivated solely to bring about integrity among themselves and promote better relationships with public. It well behooves all other branches of the healing arts to take stock and do likewise. I say, “More power to them!”.
For the purpose of this paper, and instead of theoretically attempting some surgery, as our good chairman hinted in inviting me to participate in this Bureau, I would lie to present to you an idea which I trust will have practical value.
First of all, I think we should do everything we can to encourage our patients to consult with us about their health problems, especially those of a non-medical nature, thereby giving us an opportunity to protect our patients against unnecessary surgery. We have found it useful on a number of occasions to suggest that we call in a surgeon for consultation, which, in our opinion, will doubly protect against poor surgery, ghost surgery, unfair fees and unethical practices.
Don’t hesitate to charge for your consulting service, but a be careful to remain on the ethical side in not being connected with the resultant surgical treatment. You will find it far better not even to volunteer to give an anesthetic. And certainly do not severe as a surgical assistant unless you possess those qualifications which would make it possible for you to render the best service obtainable. Thereby your conscience is clear and your judgment will be free in protecting your patient at all times.
In this day of free and easy publicity, the patient is, as you well know, often either too well informed or too scantily so, which often amounts of the same thing. So I beg of you to remain at all times the Hahnemannian homoeopath, an accomplishment which I feel you have dedicated the best years of your life to perfecting, and you very likely will wind up a career, if not completely, yet honorably, Non-Surgically Yours!.
1709 WEST EIGHTH STREET
LOS ANGELES 17 CALIFORNIA.
DISCUSSION.
DR. A.C. NEISWANDER (Alhambra, California): I enjoyed the paper very much, Carl. I think we are heaving a movement, at lest on the West Coast, that is rather interesting. We have in most of the hospitals a movement toward setting up tissue committees, committees for a lot of honest surgery. If a surgeon turns in a perfectly normal uterus, or normal ovary, or normal appendix, or too many normal stomachs, he is called on the carpet and asked not to do any more surgery in the hospital unless he mends is ways. It is a good movement though it creates a lot of bad feeling among the boys in the habit of ding that sort of thing.
DR. CHARLES A. DIXON (Akron, Ohio): I am heartily in accord with all that Dr.Enstam has said in the paper, and I want to stand up and announce that my patients are always drilled in fundamentals: action and reaction must be equal and there is always something prior to any pathology. They find our that effects are preceded by causes, and that surgery deals with the effects exclusively, never goes back to goes. Even if you put your head through the windshield, all they do is take care of an effect, and I think it has kept people who depend on me form a lot of unnecessary surgery.
DR. VIRGINIA JOHNSON (Chicago, Ill.): We are fortunate in Chicago in having a few good homoeopathic surgeons. For general surgery we have Dr. Knapp, and when I send a case to him, he puts my name on the register and I prescribe the remedies. I had quite a serious case a little while back; in fact, two serious cases, one a child with a ruptured appendix. The appendix had ruptured and that was the first case I ever had like that, and I gave Abdominal Abscess 50M. After the operation he didn’t have any hopes case, you probably remember Dr. Rinnenger used to belong to the International.
His sister had a fractured hip and developed pneumonia. During the night I passed by the hospital at twelve- thirty and I thought I would stop in to be safe, and she had developed this from the afternoon call. I let Arsenicum, about 200. when I came in the morning, about ten of the nurses said, “doctor, what did you give? We never saw such a remarkably quick action in pneumonia”.
Then we have a set of plastic surgeons and I give the remedies and they allow me to, or I wouldn’t send the cases to them.
In 1917 I spent week at Mayo Clinic. My father had spent part of his early childhood near Stewartville, in High Forest, about eighteen miles from Rochester. Old Dr.Mayo at the time was a doctor of the neighborhood. His chief interest was obstetrics and bone fractures. We went to a conference one day there-just about seven or eight of us-with Dr. Will Mayo. Probably some of you have been to some of those conferences up there. This was on surgery. Dr. Will Mayo asked if there was a homoeopath in the room, and I put up my hand.
He said he had great respect for homoeopaths. He said lots o surgery was unnecessary, and, probably not in his generation, but in two or three generations, he thought that the public would be aware of the wonderful results of homoeopathic prescribing in the elimination of unnecessary surgery. He also stated that if the women’s clubs ever were educated to the appalling amount of unnecessary surgery among women would take it up some day.
DR. ALLAN D. SUTHERLAND (Brattleboro, Vt.): I was very much interested in Dr.Enstam’s paper,. particularly in his suggestion that we maintain ourselves as Hahnemannian homoeopaths and eschew any connection with surgery. In the main I agree; however, in the town in which practice, it has been customary for the referring physician to be the assistant to the surgeon. My patients feel better before the operation and subconsciously during the operation, if they know I am on the other side of the table. They have confidence in me.
Also it is traditional in our town that the referring physician takes care of the patient postoperatively, with the cooperation of the surgeon. That is more or less demanded of the referring physicians by his own clientele. They also feel better if they are under his care during the operation, to a degree, and more or less completely postoperatively. If I, as a Hahnemannian homoeopath, were to refuse to be the assistant surgeon at an operation, the surgeon would bring in someone else, who would be no more competent surgically than I am, to be an assistant. We have to be there on the chance that if anything happens, we will complete the operation. It is too bad that is so, but that is the is the way it works in our town.
