Some incidents in the life of a country doctor / [by T. Wilson Parry].

  • Parry, Thomas Wilson, 1866-1945.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Some incidents in the life of a country doctor / [by T. Wilson Parry]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    undoubtedl}^ being to drive away evil spirits from the sacred edifice. It was a small attic room in which the operation had to take place, and the top of the window actually came no higher than the lower part of our bodies. My assistant and I had to stand in our own light to get what light we could upon the affected part. Miss Gargoyle took up her position opposite. As soon as we had “ drawn blood” this quaint lady, who was not indeed unlike one of those antique figure-heads referred to above, closed her eyes tightly and began pouring forth intercessions to the Almighty on behalf of the patient lying on the kitchen-table before us. Looking back upon that scene, which I cannot well forget, the combination of circumstances gave an almost mystical spirit to the proceedings. It seemed almost Druidical. There was the life-blood of the victim which might, or might not, be sacrificial, her cries of distress which were to be replaced by groans and eventually by stertorous breath- ing as the ether took progressive effect, the knife of the surgeon, and accompanying all this were the prayers of the priestess, which seemed like incantations to a heathen deity and imparted an almost anaesthetic effect, as they doubtless did of old, by reason of their persistent monotony with occasional outbursts of almost fanatical frenzy. When she became a little exhausted by these proceedings her voice would quieten down and she would temporarily cease. At these times I could see from the corner of my eye that she allowed her eyelids to part and took a private peep at what was going on. If, by chance, at that time an artery spurted she speedily brought her lids together again with an almost audible snap, and began once more to vociferously invoke aid for the well-being of the woman whose cause she so courageously championed. This went on till the patient was placed in her bed, and the words, “ Lord help the woman ! ” with their peculiar intonation, still ring in my ears with its old-world quaintness, and its human touch of genuine sincerity and sympathy. The village in which I did this operation was five miles distant from my own, and there was no residential doctor there. About the same time another patient in the village, afflicted with the same malady, was operated upon by another doctor from a different district. My patient was a hardy daughter of the soil and made an excellent recovery, while, unfortunately, the other patient, although a much younger woman, was extremely delicate and neurotic, and although the wound healed perfectly, did not make a good recovery, as she was, for some reason or another, unable to regain the full use of her arm. As soon as my patient was able to get on her feet the first thing she did —partly, no doubt, to show her gratitude for a successful recovery and partly perhaps for more human reasons—was to walk up to Patient No. 2’s house, take up a prominent position on the road exactly in front of her window and swing her arm round a dozen times or more with all her might. This, I am told, she did daily for some considerable time. It was evidently her way of not only paying a compliment to herself and her surgeon, but also of paying her fee, as I have received no