Judge, 1919-06-21 · page 13 of 36
Judge — June 21, 1919 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "The Obvious Is Sometimes Startling" — Satire on Medical Overspecialization This story mocks the early 20th-century medical establishment's tendency toward unnecessary specialization and procedures. **The Plot:** A man named Peacock visits his general practitioner with a heel infection. Rather than diagnosing the actual problem, the doctor refers him to a throat specialist, who removes his tonsils and adenoids. When the heel still hurts, a dental specialist extracts most of his teeth. None of these expensive, invasive procedures help. **The Satire:** The joke is that after all these specialists fail—tonsils, teeth, appendix removal—the real solution comes from the humble **shoe cobbler**, who simply re-soles his worn shoes. The heel pain was caused by worn footwear, not infection. **The Point:** This attacks how doctors over-specialize and perform unnecessary procedures for profit, while missing obvious causes. The title "The Obvious Is Sometimes Startling" suggests that simple, practical solutions get overlooked when specialists chase complex diagnoses. It's social criticism of medical greed and incompetence dressed as satirical humor.
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The Obvious Is Sometimes Startling By G. T. Evans HE pain in Peacock’s left heel became so bad that it finally drove him to_his family physician, Dr. Peti- bone Parboil. “A plain case of infection,” de- clared the general practitioner, when he had learned the symptoms and made a conventional examination. “But your tongue is all right, your pulse is OK, and your temperature is normal. ‘There must be some hidden cause for your trouble. Let me see your throat.” Peacock threw open the throttle. “T am not sure,” said the doctor, as he lined his professional forehead with dubiosity, “but I think your tonsils may be the breeding-places of the unnatural condition of your foot posterior. Hadn't you better consult Dr. Garlingham, the nose and throat specialist Peacock thought he had; he was beginning to get worried. An inter- view with the specialist resulted in two operations: one, the snipping off of Peacock’s tonsils, and the other, the lassoing and severing of a few appendages, which the specialist said were ade- noids. The operations were costly for Peacock, and thoroughly satisfactory to Dr. Garlingham. A few days later, when the bleeding and other unpleasant factors of his wounds had abated, so that he could think again of things closer to the earth, he was shocked to realize that his heel hurt as much as ev Limping to the office of the specialist, he complained loudly. “There is a bare possibility,” rumbled the specialist, when he had pondered a little, “ that your teeth may also be infection manufacturers. I would suggest that you call on my friend, Dr. Enamel, the dental X-ray expert. “No doubt of your teeth being culpable,” pronounced Dr. Enamel, after he had done a lot of probing. “A picture will prove my assertion.” A picture did prove it; and so alarmed Peacock that he sat down at once and suffered the loss of a majority of his teeth. But, soon after leaving the dentist’s office, he became aware of some- thing familiar, and on inves- tigation, found it was his old cross, the heel-ache. Early the next morning, he hobble his way back to the dentist's parlor, and there bemoaned the inadequacy of the tooth- puller’s treatment. The dentist scratched his head, figuratively, of course, for he was a sanitary dentist, and concocted his defense. “Mr. Peacock,” he said at length, “I have done every- Drawn by Mvorar Levenixe “ Drawn by Senor, FP, Matin Billy Fire-Fly—Sometim For He Was a Sanitary Dentist” to hide your light under a bushel! 13 thing possible in my line. Your heel is evidently infected from a source that would be unethical for me to treat. The best thing for you to do is to place yourself confidently in the hands of Dr. Biped, who has an international reputation as a special ist in the treatment of appendices Now if——” Peacock had bolted. He was tired of specialists; besides his heel hurt him more than ever; moreover, his frequent trotting to and fro had so worn his shoes that he now needed a new pair. But he couldn’t afford a new pair; he had so little money left that he had to follow the exan ple of Mr. McAdoo, and have his old pair half-soled. He went to a place where the job is “done while you wait.” When the shoes were finished and again on his feet, Peacock looked at them admiringly. ‘You have done the work very nicely,” he said to the cobbler. “And,” he added, in a tone of surprise, when he had stood up and taken a few steps, “my feet seem to feel easier than they did.” “Perhaps that, sir,” suggested the shoe-man, “is because, in addition to half-soling your shoes, I pulled out a sharp nail that was sticking up through one of the heels.” Attack and Defense I dreaded to be introduced to him. He is a huge man whose favorite greeting is a hearty slap on the back, and he attributes the subsequent discomfiture of his new acquaintance to bashfulness. I thought of many schemes to escape this shaking up, wearing my arm in a sling, etc., and finally hit on a splendid idea. When I was presented I stole a march on him. I greeted him with a resounding slap on the back. The Clarion Call Seating myself at a table in the deserted café, I waited to Time passed with no appearance of servility. I Snglish, Italian, Spanish, Sanscrit and all the other languages with which I am familiar, without any tangible result. hen I thought of the universal Jan- guage. I had barely dropped a coin the table before I was the center of a gesticulating throng. be served. called for a waiter in French, on Suspended Espousal Maye—I thought you were to be married this June? Faye—Dearie me, so I was. But I couldn’t get my divorce in time comicbooks.com