Family physician

“ Parents can provide medical and psychological data, refer the physician to other sources of medical history, such as family physicians, and authorize family physicians to give relevant data." 450 U.S., at 411, 101 S.Ct., at 1172 (footnote omitted) . ”

“ Judicious limitation of birth for reasons of health, the whole health of the parents, in behalf of the best possible grade of offspring has therefore become a routine part of the physician's service to his patients. Every married couple should put themselves in the hands of a physician whom they respect and admire, making him an indispensable third partner to their family planning. This crucial role of the doctor in eugenics is one of the few really deeply encouraging signs of our times. ”

“ Such persons will seldom submit their condition to the family physician, for it is a delicate subject, involving personal considerations, and, therefor, they prefer to consult with one who cannot connect their unfortunate situation with any of the incidents which enter into the history of their lives. ”

“ I believe that the department of medicine in which the great and beneficent influence of women may be especially exerted, is that of the family physician, and that not as specialists, but as the trusted guides and wise counsellors in all that concerns the physical welfare of the family, they will find their most congenial field of labour. ”

“ We shall not advise treatment for these more grave disorders which should always, for the safety of the patient, be attended by the family physician, except to recommend some simple means which may be employed in the initial stage of the disease, or when a physician's services cannot be promptly secured. ”

“ The family physician may, with the concurrence of other medical counselors, be justified, in rare cases, in advising means for the prevention of conception, but he should exercise this professional duty only when the responsibility is shared by other members of the profession, and the circumstances fully and clearly warrant such a practice. ”

“ For example, a family may go on for some time, even for years, without asking for the services of a physician, and, though they may have some sickness occasionally, they get along apparently very well by their own domestic management, with now and then the use of some patent medicine, or the advice of some popular empiric. All the cases of disease, which occur in this family during this period, are of such a character, that nature herself could cure them unassisted, or even when injudiciously meddled with. ”

“ The veil of mystery which has so long surrounded the practice of medicine is gradually being lifted by physicians themselves, who talk freely to mothers about the use of simple medicines, and advise them how to act in an emergency before the arrival of the family physician. ”

“ Oh, it is far, far away, but already the most progressive minds have ceased to regard the family physician as an infallible being.
Medicine has made the least progress of any of the sciences in the last few centuries. ”

“ Directions in severe Sickness.—Whenever any one of your family is taken violently ill, send as soon as possible for the most skilful physician—and follow, carefully, his orders. But, many times, the mother is the best physician, and the only one needed for her children, if she has been trained to take proper care of her own health, as every woman should be. ”

“ Again, the health of a family is especially a responsibility that rests upon woman. There is no such wise and needed physician as a well-instructed mother and housekeeper; not to cure—for that is [25] the physician's part, but to prevent—disease, or stop it at the starting. Our gravest illnesses come from neglected colds, indigestion, and headaches. ”

“ I would, therefore, beseech young mothers who are conscious of their own ignorance to see a lady doctor, if they do not like to consult their own family physician, and ask her to tell them plainly what they have to guard against and the best methods to pursue. ”

“ He is ever present with them to share their sorrows and their joys, and in his position of family friend and family confessor it is his place to bind and salve wounds more deadly than those made by the hand of man. It is a popular impression that this close relationship between the physician and his people is one evolved by the brain of the novelist or one possessed by that most beloved, but now extinct, old family physician. ”

“ Often enough, when the mother is lacking in intelligence or sympathy, it will be the duty of the physician to give this enlightenment to the young girl. The interpreter of such tidings at the time of love’s dawning will be the family doctor, to whom the girl and her family have been confidently accustomed to turn for information regarding the bodily state and well-being. He is accustomed to remove many a veil without any offense to maidenly modesty. ”

“ When the children are sick, there is nothing so good as the advice of the trusted family [Pg 246] physician and the unwearied care of the mother. Yet when the physician has done his work and gone his way, and when the mother is worn out by days of anxiety and nights of watching, we deem it a great blessing, if there is a kind neighbor who will come in, not to assume the work, but to help it on a little. ”

“ My husband fully realized that the care would fall upon me; his professional duties so fully occupy his time at home. Then the influence upon our children, we felt it to be our duty to consider. I frankly confessed to the Doctor that I had never seen a young man whom I could more readily take to my heart as a son; and that I knew Pauline and Nelly, as well as Frank, would be delighted with this addition to our family. ”

“ A physician can bring out facts, relating to the personal and family history, and habits, of the prospective mother, which will enable him to formulate advice which will prove of the highest value from the very beginning of pregnancy. Instructions carried into effect at this early date, as to personal conduct, exercise, diet, etc., will have a distinctly beneficial influence, not only on the patient's health and the character of her confinement, but on the physical vitality of the coming baby. ”

“ The doctor who will be in attendance should be chosen early in the period of pregnancy and consulted whenever the expectant mother feels any anxiety about herself. In this matter the wishes of the woman should be supreme, for her dread of confinement will be greatly lessened if she feels confidence in her physician. I have known women to become extremely nervous because, for reasons [Pg 21] of expediency, they were forced to accept the services of a physician desired by husband or family. No one has a right to dictate in this matter to her who must pass through the ordeal of labor. ”

“ There is no really efficacious mode of preparing a woman to take a rational care of the health of a family, except by communicating that knowledge in regard to the construction of the body and the laws of health which is the basis of the medical profession. Not that a woman should undertake the minute and extensive investigation requisite for a physician ”

“ Her Health, Education, and Wedlock. Homely Suggestions to Mothers and Daughters.
By William M. Capp, M.D., Philadelphia. This is just such a book as a family physician would advise his lady patients to obtain and read. It answers many questions which every busy practitioner of medicine has put to him in the sick-room at a time when it is neither expedient nor wise to impart the information sought.
It will not mar the most proper womanly modesty or refined feelings, and may wisely be put into the hands of any woman or girl; is a book for the family ”

“ If there are94 daily or semi-daily calls made by the physician, a member of the family may be trained to care for the mother with proper cleanliness and asepsis; but it is far better for the mother, if possible, to secure the services of a trained nurse, or the visiting nurse, in which instance she will call each day, wash and dress the baby, clean up the mother and care for the breasts. ”

“ When a physician is called to an urgent case, because the family attendant is not at hand, he ought, unless his assistance in consultation be desired, to resign the care of the patient to the latter immediately on his arrival. ”

“ Of course, such a busy woman has no time for social life, but is devoted to her family and her profession. Being the family doctor in many homes, she has a number of gentlemen patients, for the boys and girls of some families have grown up from childhood under her medical care. Many male doctors send their special female cases to her, one eminent physician having placed his mother in her care for treatment. ”

“ A young doctor is called into a family which lives in the rear of a man’s place of business, above the store or next door to it. The competent young physician discovers a patient suffering from diphtheria, scarlet fever, maybe smallpox. ”

“ The importance of bearing in mind the family peculiarities is best appreciated by the old family doctor who has had two or three generations pass under his hands: he knows, for example, that in one family he may expect brain complications, in another lung troubles, and that what would be grave symptoms in one house are of comparatively small import in another. Unfortunately, the greater part of this kind of knowledge has not yet been formulated, and each physician has to acquire it for himself ”

“ Again, patients of the poorer classes continually 81change their doctors. Unlike people in more fortunate circumstances, they have no one physician to whom they always turn when in trouble. To such as these, the “family doctor” is unknown. Their fickle interest is attracted by the newest shingle, and they pay a visit or two to its owner and they depart. We knew one patient who visited five different doctors within the week. ”

“ When there is reason to believe that an individual possesses an inherent tendency to any disease, it is the duty of the medical adviser to study the constitution of the patient thoroughly, and after such study to recommend those measures of prevention best suited to avert the threatened disorder. Above all, let the physician look closely to the child at the period of life when any grave constitutional inheritable disease attacked the parent. ”

“ The conversation with the physician, in addition, may enable a parent to provide better advice to the minor. The parent who must respond to an event with complex philosophical and emotional dimensions is given some access to an experienced and, in an ideal case, detached physician who can assist the parent in approaching the problem in a mature and balanced way. ”

“ But if he be disposed, as many are, to make capital out of the anxieties of his employers, he will say that the child is very sick, and perhaps that ‘it is well you have called me so soon,’ or, ‘I wish that you had called me before, but I think on the whole that the little one can be relieved.’ Every physician knows how readily the imagination of a parent may be excited in relation to the symptoms of disease in a darling child. ”

“ The next responsibility of the nurse is to advise the patient in arranging for care at the time of delivery, this advice being based upon the patient’s physical condition, the circumstances of her home life and the available facilities for care. Although hospital care may be the ideal for all patients, from an obstetrical standpoint, the mother cannot always be removed from her home with safety to the family circle. ”

“ Low vitality, general poverty of the whole physical make-up, the prevalence of phthisis and epilepsy and kindred diseases require he daily inspection of a physician, while the comfort and well-being of the whole, both workers and children, are insured by a capable and sympatheic house mother. ”

“ Upon the knowledge and skill and right action of those who have the care of children and of the household, it will depend that the right thing shall be done in such emergencies as are liable to occur. You must necessarily care for your children, both to guard them from sickness and to relieve their ailments. You must know the symptoms, at least, how to observe the symptoms of diseases; and you may be called upon, in the absence of the physician, to act as midwife. ”

“ Reluctance to permit operation on a young child, and the natural shrinking of a parent at seeing a child under the surgeon's knife, require the teacher or school physician or nurse to answer fully the usual questions of the hesitant mother and father. ”

“ Rest, quiet, cleanliness and warmth are what the children need to restore them to health. The right kind of physician when acting as adviser to intelligent parents who wish to do the best by their children will see to it that there is little or no disease.
If the parents do not know what to do, the most economical procedure is to consult a physician who has understanding of and confidence in nature. Pay no attention to the women of many words who give advice "because they have had many children and have buried them all." ”

“ The family medical attendant appears the most fitting person to make a return of the sort: his professional knowledge must be called in to testify to, or to decide on, the nature of the disease, and the fact can be best communicated by him in his medical capacity. ”

“ In ordinary cases the best doctor you can have is mother or grandmother, who has piloted through the rocks of infantile disease a whole family. She has salve for almost everything, and knows how to bind a wound or cool an inflammation. But if mother be dead or you are afflicted with a maternal ancestor that never knew anything practical, and never ill, better in severe cases have the doctor right away. ”