ABSTRACT
The degree of resentment varies from gentle irony to blazing hatred, depending, presumably, on the writer’s own contacts with doctors and the outcome of particular illnesses. Medical consultations, particularly consultations involving multiple doctors simultaneously, are dramatic shows, put on for the gratification of the patients or their families but most unlikely to produce any medical benefits. A general dislike of physicians may have its origin in a particular illness, which fails to respond to the doctor’s therapeutic endeavors. The necessity to inflict occasional discomfort is attributed to sadism; decisiveness is equated with arrogance, while the limitations of medical knowledge turn all doctors into ignorant poltroons. The doctor’s initial opinion that the child’s symptoms are due to teething troubles is perfectly reasonable in the light of medical beliefs current at the time, though a less resounding ‘Yes’ would have been more appropriate. Despite all this medical ‘correctness’ Augustin’s resentment against the doctor is never far from the surface.
