{"id":545,"date":"2017-11-05T22:31:23","date_gmt":"2017-11-05T22:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/?p=545"},"modified":"2019-01-28T13:51:49","modified_gmt":"2019-01-28T13:51:49","slug":"a-laughter-a-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/a-laughter-a-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Laughs ironic, Byronic, and sardonic"},"content":{"rendered":"

27th May 1892<\/p>\n

Three incidents have made me laugh to-day: the laugh ironic, the laugh Byronic, and the laugh sardonic!<\/p>\n

Firstly, on visiting an elderly patient who has suffered acutely for many years from a form of tic douloureux,<\/em> I found her overjoyed at the wonderfully beneficial effects of some pills which I had prescribed. They are composed entirely of bread. Like the patient in the Bible, she has suffered much from many physicians, among them myself; we have poured out the entire pharmacopoeia upon her, and now, having exhausted its resources, we revert to pil. mica panis, <\/em>with wonder-working results! This episode supplied me with the laugh ironic.<\/p>\n

Secondly, the inevitable girl came to consult me as to the inevitable symptoms which, she declared, baffled all conjecture or investigation. When informed that she was merely about to become a mother, she flew into the usual frenzy of expostulation, denial and furious indignation, directed solely at me and my unwelcome diagnosis. I tholed the storm of resentment philosophically, as a doctor learns to do; but when the door closed on her, protesting to the last, took refuge in the laugh Byronic as a solatium.<\/p>\n

Thirdly, a woman whom I had attended in a severe and protracted nocturnal confinement, and to whom I had paid five subsequent visits, driving several miles each way, arrived to settle her account. One guinea – the sum in question – was extorted with the greatest difficult on my part, and the maximum amount of reluctance on hers. No wonder that a country doctor seldom leaves a penny! Left alone with my hard-earned guinea, I enjoyed laugh sardonic to the full.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Extracts from Leaves From the Life of A Country Doctor<\/em>, Clement Bryce Gunn. (Foreword by John Buchan)<\/p>\n

Commentary<\/h3>\n

Leaves From the Life of A country doctor<\/em>, written by the Scottish physician-writer, Dr Clement Bryce Gunn, is mostly set in Edinburgh and Peebles, where he established a buzzing medical practice. His writing feels astonishingly modern, the nature of patients and people little changed, but technology and Medicine transformed.<\/p>\n

Describing a successful placebo effect for\u00a0tic douloureux\u00a0<\/em>(Trigeminal Neuralgia), breaking the unwelcome news of pregnancy to a young girl, and struggling to be paid for his service – Dr Gunn sums up in three paragraphs some of the ups and downs of being a country doctor.<\/p>\n

The appropriateness of his private sense of humour may be debatable. However, by reading his book we may come to a better understanding of him and his passion to write – and to practise. He wrote extensively about his life experiences as medical student, locum, assistant, and finally full practitioner with a very long career, with an intent to educate future readers.<\/p>\n

Further info<\/h3>\n