Frank McCann’s “Medicine Man” (1959) primarily concerns the story of a doctor in the remote NT between the two world wars. It has an easy, humourous style with some strong patriarchal language. McCann introduces his book as stories he has told so often his friends had him publish them, in the hope of shutting him up.

 

pp11-12 (on corpses for dissection)  I must admit I was always diffident about enquiring too closely as to the source of supply of these objects for study, and was intrigued by the readiness with which an attendant could supply at a price “a very nice set of brains” or “a lovely leg” for private study. The occasional carelessness of students in leaving such gruesome objects in public places has led to more than one false murder scare.

It is quite understandable why medical students, working under such conditions, periodically feel an urge to let of steam in some mad way or other…but there was one form of exuberance which always repelled me. That was the so-called ‘meat fight’.

Naturally, one’s regard for the sacredness of the human body is somewhat weakened by the familiarity of dissection, but even what little remains is revolted by the sight of pieces of bodies being thrown in all directions and one does not have to be squeamish to dislike being hit in the face with a lump of human fat. I understand, and hope, that such practices are now practically things of the past.         

 

 

p13 (of the stethoscope)…Occasionally it is handy for listening to some obscure sound in the chest, provided you can distinguish the sound when you hear it, but there are much more important uses. In order of importance I would list them as follows

1. As a distinctive badge of office which clearly distinguishes the doctor from lesser mortals. It can be worn loosely round the neck or twirled casually in the hand as you walk from car to house and is particularly efficacious in letting the neighbours know that Mrs Brown is now “under the new doctor.”
2. As something to use when you cannot think of anything else to do.
3. As a means of gaining a little time to think what on earth you are going to tell the patient when you have no clue as to what is wrong with him.
4. As a splendid toy for the kids when engaged in that popular game of “hospitals” or to distract the attention of a baby while its tummy is being prodded.
5. In case of emergency the rubber tubing is handy for siphoning petrol.

 

 

p14 Stethoscopes notwithstanding, our reception at the hospital hardly came up to expectations, for the only people who took our arrival seriously were ourselves. The hospital staff, tired by years of seeing hordes of students come and go, were certainly not excited, and as for the ward sisters, we might easily have been a plague of noxious insects descending on their orderly domain. These amazons lost no time in issuing their official lists of “don’ts”, which ranged from a ban on talking to the nurses unnecessarily to strict warning about upsetting the tidiness of the beds.  

        We certainly were left with no illusions as to the place we occupied in the life of the ward, the lowest…

 

 

p16 One method of acquiring knowledge which almost assumed the nature of a sport was the hunt for interesting new cases, and the race to examine them before the crowd arrived. One might be fortunate to get a whisper ‘There’s a beautiful new heart in Ward Ten’, and if one hurried there was a chance of an uninterrupted ten minutes of examination with even the possibility of hearing one of those strange noises, indicative of certain heart diseases, which one had often heard described. A little delay in arriving at the scene would mean joining a queue. Pity for the patient who was being subjected to such prolonged amateurish examination often made me leave or conduct a perfunctory investigation. And so another opportunity of learning the mysteries of medicine would pass.

 

Consider: What are your current thoughts on medical school?

      How much do you already know about your future profession?

      What do you think about McCann’s first point about the usefulness of the stethoscope? The power relations of the stethoscope in the workplace have changed since McCann wrote this. It has also been appropriated, like many other symbols, by the advertising industry.

            Have a look at these two comments about working with the aboriginal people. Do you think there are any circumstances in which people should be rounded up for medical treatment?

 

p154 (rounding up aboriginal lepers for treatment) When a leper was located there was often the problem of what to do with him while we proceeded further in search of others. Sometimes it was necessary to resort to the primitive method of confinement I mentioned previously- the use of a light chain to secure him to a tree where, in the care of a trustworthy native and with a plentiful supply of food, he would pass a few comfortable days until we could pick him up on our return for transport into town.

 

p180 (taking aboriginals in the train to Darwin) The blacks were confined to their own compartments, but as far as the rest of the train was concerned, any such stupid distinctions as first and second class meant nothing.