Left-handed Doctor by Peter Quince, and: At Doctor Mac's by Peter Quince (review)

Abstract

Left-handedDoctor. By Peter Quince. London:J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., 1957. Pp. 194. 16s. At Doctor Mac's. By Peter Quince. London:J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., 1958. Pp. 277. 155. The physician as represented in literature has run the gamut of humankind. He has been depicted as the personification ofall evil as well as the most saintly ofmen. No doubt both representations contain a modicum of truth, most physicians, like most people, being something ofa mixture. Physicians dealing with themselves may write fiction or autobiography. It is not always easy to tell which is the proper label for the form being used by a given physician-author. Ifthe physician is perceptive and also a skilful writer, the result is likely to be good. The result is determined also by the choice of subject material and the wisdom, insights, and style ofthe author. Peter Quince has published two books which are in essence autobiographical essays. In the Left-handed Doctor he gives an analysis of himself, his patients, his life, and the practice ofmedicine in a small town in England before World War II. Not only are his medical insights clear and deep, but his writing is graceful and subtly elegant. The style ofthe book is so unobtrusive that the casualreader mayhardly be aware ofits perfection. Few readers will realize the great amount ofwork which goes into making anything so seemingly artless, so gay, and so simple. The book describes the life ofa young physician who is the family doctor in a small community in England in the 1920's. Professional trials and tribulations arise from the quirks and foibles of sometimes maddeningly demanding, but deeply loyal, patients. His own responsive warmth toward his patients is clear, no matter how may he chide and cajole them. Administrative skill in supervising amateur theatricals and directing a group ofmadrigal singers provided recreational outlets. These succeeded so well that they became an impossibly time-consuming business. The doctor was tending to such things with his right hand while practicing medicine with his left. All the hopes, confusions, and minor crises ofcommunity plays and singers, their struggles and successes, are told in a cheerful fashion as though over a cup of tea. Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, almost every one of them, were performed. The Left-handed Doctor reflects clearly the spirit, and often the words, of these operettas which have become imbedded in the tradition ofEnglish-speaking people everywhere. With the coming ofsocialized medicine in Britain , the kind of practice described in this book vanished. Even before the author's exuberant talents for community activities forced him to relinquish his practice, social and economic change was altering the face ofBritish medicine. At Doctor Mac's is a longer and more elaborate book. The experience and insights gainedinprivate practice bore fruitin Peter Quince's second career—running asanatorium for people with tuberculosis. This he organized much as he had the community choral groups or amateur players. He was by turns the loving senior partner or stern director. Tuberculosis in the strange communal Ufe in a sanatorium was the theme of one ofthe great books about medicine, Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain. It is natural to compare At Doctor Macs with The Magic Mountain, and in most respects it comes out very well. Each in a sense is the biography ofan institution. At Doctor Mac's ranges over the three levels of organization: the organic life of a sanatorium, the sick people who are the reluctant guests or prisoners, and those who minister to them in various roles. The 154 Book Reviews Perspectives in Biology and Medicine · Autumn 1959 feelings, sensations, hopes, and aspirations ofa person with a chronic disease like tuberculosis are described vividly through the eyes oftheir physician. Another set ofintertwining Uves includes the physicians, the nurses, and their battery of assistants who care for the sick and administer the business ofthe hospital. All manner ofpersons are portrayed dramatically in the different characters, the peculiar individuality of each depicted with a strong sense ofreality. My own interest in these books is deeper than the average person's might be because I have had the pleasure ofvisiting the Engüsh sanatorium that is the scene...