A MUSICIAN ON MEDICINE
Doctors, Disease ani Health. By Cyril Scott. (Methuen. 7s. 6d.) MR. CYan. Scores opinion of the medical profession, broadly speaking, is clearly a little less than high. " Countless people," he _ says, . " are suffering from the indirect and disastrous results of a misplaced confidence in up-to-date medical men who, glamoured by their vast accumulation of learning, have turned their backs on wisdom and common- sense." Their professional Press, he considers, is animated by a " narrow trade-union spirit," and their mentality in general " is such that they are as obsessed by dogmas as are many clergymen." A great many of them, he says, are not even aware, for example, that the cause of cancer has been discovered or, if they are so aware, deny or ignore the men— five of whom Mr. Scott mentions by name—who have proved what the-cause is. - So much for the doclors. Mr: Scott states that "there is in truth but one disease, having as its dual cause self-poisoning and deficiency."
Its manifestations, as he admits, may of course be different, such as " rheumatism in one individual, as diabetes in another, as consumption in a third', as cancer in 'a fourth.". And "'in order to understand the various manifestations of disease we must turn to the study of astrology." Mr. Scott, who evidently does not share St. Aiigustine's ' views on astrologers, states that " the type of body of each individual is governed by the position of the planets at the moment of birth ; the position of-the planets also governs the types of diseases from which he- is liable to suffer." The typical Leo native, for instance, is " broad-shouldered and exceedingly robust in all respects." But, as Leo. governs the heart and back, 'he is liable—Mr. Scott's own father, he tell:I, us, was an exampleHto lumbago
and heart disease. ,
Pisces, on the other hand, governs the, fedi ; `and it is " a noteworthy fact," Mr. Scott says, " that people with the sign of Pisces are particularly liable to catch colds as the result of wet feet, whereas others may get their feet wet without any appreciable harm resulting." It is obvious that to have established such a fact as this must have meant an extremely exact and patient study of an enormous number of human life-histories and their comparison with an equally large number of similarly observed control-groups of persons not bearing the sign of Pisces. And it would perhaps be an advantage if a reference to these researches were to be induded in future editions of Mr. Scott's book.
Indeed, it might be argued that the book suffers a little throughout from a certain under-documentation. Mr. Scott says, for example, that he has read—but :he does' not say where—that " since the employment of lumina!, the ratio of admission to institutions for epileptics has steadily risen," while, " as against orthodox treatment, both the homoeopathic
and biochemic practitioners have a large number of cures to their credit. So also have the naturopaths." But he mentions no names or relative series of cases, with their verifications and after-histories, or even the books or journals in which these have been recorded and where they might be studied- by other biochemic practitioners and naturopaths, or even,' possibly, by 'a not too hide-bound doctor. ' '
H. H. BASHFORD.
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