Shorter Notices
Frontier Doctor. By Urling C. Coe. (Macmillan. 8s. 6d.)
THERE is a natural temptation to dismiss this as " just another doctor book." It is that, of course, but it is a good one. Dr. Coe was an eye-witness of the development of the last frontier, the country of eastern Oregon. The Indian wars were over, but there were cattle-rustlers, wars between ranchers and " sheep- men," some " bad men " and resourceful marshals, frontier brothels, land-speculators, all the dramatis personae of a good Western. The main theme of this book is, of course, frontier medicine; midwifery, hasty and risky surgery; patching-up rustlers who had had the misfortune to get in front of a gun when it was going off; typhoid epidemics; medico-religious superstition; marital difficulties; erring daughters; Dr. Coe tells us all. His chief enemy was ignorance, and he is impatient with all forms of obscurantism. He writes well and inspires confi- dence in his judgement, but he has one bee in his bonnet, " socialised medicine." To it he attributes the alleged decline of medical studies in Europe, the superiority of American post- graduate studies, the decline of the direct relationship between doctor and patient. In short, Dr. Coe has been a victim of the ingenious and fluent Dr. Morris Fishbien, but if the nonsense he writes on this topic be disregarded, his book can be warmly recommended.
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