A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
THE announcement of the King's impending operation must have reminded many of his subjects of the operation his grandfather, Edward VII, had to undergo almost on the eve of the date fixed for his Coronation. That circumstance, and the necessary postponement of the Coronation ceremonies, together with the fact that operations for appendicitis were then unfamiliar, caused more concern than the King's condition warranted, and all soon ended well. There is every reason to believe it will be so on this occasion. At the same time, it would not be right to take King George's operation too lightly. Whether it should be considered a major operation or not is, I gather, a matter of nomenclature. One doctor with whom I discussed it thought on the whole yes, another on the whole no. It is not to be regarded as dangerous in any ordinary case, involving as it does simply an incision near the lower part of the spine and the severance of certain nerves which may be responsible for the contraction of blood-channels in the King's leg or foot. But the decision to operate does suggest that the external treatment so far applied has not been completely effective, and if the operation does not serve to clear the obstruction it may be necessary to take a more serious, view. But in fact the public, and even medical men to whom bulletins naturally tell a much fuller story, have been given little to go on. The King's symptoms have been described, but that is only the basis for a diagnosis, not the diagnosis itself ; and nothing in the nature of a diagnosis has been published. But it cannot be quite forgotten that the first bulletin issued spoke of the possible loss of a limb in certain contingencies. Those contin- gencies would only arise if the coming operation were unsuccessful.
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