An amusing and informative article about Mark Twain and his opinions of
medicine and physicians in his time appears in the current issue of Annals of
Internal Medicine, Vol. 126, No. 2 (15 January 1997).  The author is K.
Patrick Ober, MD, a physician at Bowman Gray School of Medicine.

Twain saw hope in the new scientific orientation of medicine in the early
20th century, but he admitted to some benefit of pre-Flexnerian treatments
(before 1910):  "I can remember well when the cold water cure was first
talked about. I was then about nine years old, and I remember how my mother
used to stand me up naked in the back yard every morning and throw buckets of
cold water on me, just to see what effect it would have.  Personally, I had
no curiosity upon the subject.  And then, when the dousing was over, she
would wrap me up in a sheet wet with ice water and then wrap blankets around
that and put me into bed.  I never realized that the treatment was doing me
any particular good physically.  But it purified me spiritually.  For pretty
soon after I was put into bed I would get up a perspiration that was
something worth seeing."

While he approved the new scientific approach to medicine, he continued to
champion a person's freedom of choice in medical care:

"Now what I contend is that my body is my own, at least, I have always so
regarded it.  If I do it harm through my experimenting it is I who suffer,
not the state.  And if I indulge in dangerous experiments the state don't
die.  I attend to that...  So I want liberty to do as I choose with my
physical body..."

What would MT have to say about today's alternative medicine, abortion
rights, and especially, the limitations managed health care programs are
imposing on physicians' treatment of patients!

Reprints of the article are available by writing:  K. Patrick Ober MD,
Section on Endocrinology and Metabolism, Dept. of Internal Medicine, Bowman
Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest U., Medical Center Blvd.,
Winston-Salem, NC 27157-1047.  He'd probably enjoy hearing that the request
was made by a Mark Twain Forum member.

Elinor Reiss
San Diego, CA