The Doctors Dilemma | Page 9

of
these interesting little creatures has an imitator. Just as men imitate
each other, germs imitate each other. There is the genuine diphtheria

bacillus discovered by Loeffler; and there is the pseudo-bacillus,
exactly like it, which you could find, as you say, in my own throat.
SIR PATRICK. And how do you tell one from the other?
B. B. Well, obviously, if the bacillus is the genuine Loeffler, you have
diphtheria; and if it's the pseudobacillus, youre quite well. Nothing
simpler. Science is always simple and always profound. It is only the
half-truths that are dangerous. Ignorant faddists pick up some
superficial information about germs; and they write to the papers and
try to discredit science. They dupe and mislead many honest and
worthy people. But science has a perfect answer to them on every
point.
A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep; or taste not the
Pierian spring.
I mean no disrespect to your generation, Sir Patrick: some of you old
stagers did marvels through sheer professional intuition and clinical
experience; but when I think of the average men of your day, ignorantly
bleeding and cupping and purging, and scattering germs over their
patients from their clothes and instruments, and contrast all that with
the scientific certainty and simplicity of my treatment of the little
prince the other day, I cant help being proud of my own generation: the
men who were trained on the germ theory, the veterans of the great
struggle over Evolution in the seventies. We may have our faults; but at
least we are men of science. That is why I am taking up your treatment,
Ridgeon, and pushing it. It's scientific. [He sits down on the chair near
the couch].
EMMY [at the door, announcing] Dr Blenkinsop.
Dr Blenkinsop is a very different case from the others. He is clearly not
a prosperous man. He is flabby and shabby, cheaply fed and cheaply
clothed. He has the lines made by a conscience between his eyes, and
the lines made by continual money worries all over his face, cut all the
deeper as he has seen better days, and hails his well-to-do colleagues as
their contemporary and old hospital friend, though even in this he has
to struggle with the diffidence of poverty and relegation to the poorer
middle class.
RIDGEON. How are you, Blenkinsop?
BLENKINSOP. Ive come to offer my humble congratulations. Oh dear!
all the great guns are before me.

B. B. [patronizing, but charming] How d'ye do Blenkinsop? How d'ye
do?
BLENKINSOP. And Sir Patrick, too [Sir Patrick grunts].
RIDGEON. Youve met Walpole, of course?
WALPOLE. How d'ye do?
BLENKINSOP. It's the first time Ive had that honor. In my poor little
practice there are no chances of meeting you great men. I know nobody
but the St Anne's men of my own day. [To Ridgeon] And so youre Sir
Colenso. How does it feel?
RIDGEON. Foolish at first. Dont take any notice of it.
BLENKINSOP. I'm ashamed to say I havnt a notion what your great
discovery is; but I congratulate you all the same for the sake of old
times.
B. B. [shocked] But, my dear Blenkinsop, you used to be rather keen
on science.
BLENKINSOP. Ah, I used to be a lot of things. I used to have two or
three decent suits of clothes, and flannels to go up the river on Sundays.
Look at me now: this is my best; and it must last till Christmas. What
can I do? Ive never opened a book since I was qualified thirty years ago.
I used to read the medical papers at first; but you know how soon a
man drops that; besides, I cant afford them; and what are they after all
but trade papers, full of advertisements? Ive forgotten all my science:
whats the use of my pretending I havnt? But I have great experience:
clinical experience; and bedside experience is the main thing, isn't it?
B. B. No doubt; always provided, mind you, that you have a sound
scientific theory to correlate your observations at the bedside. Mere
experience by itself is nothing. If I take my dog to the bedside with me,
he sees what I see. But he learns nothing from it. Why? Because he's
not a scientific dog.
WALPOLE. It amuses me to hear you physicians and general
practitioners talking about clinical experience. What do you see at the
bedside but the outside of the patient? Well: it isnt his outside thats
wrong, except perhaps in skin cases. What you want is a daily
familiarity with people's insides; and that you can only get at the
operating table. I know what I'm talking about: Ive been a surgeon and
a consultant for twenty years; and Ive never known a general
practitioner right in