[Magdalen] Physician?

[Sibyl Smirl]

All of which reminds me of the time when my mother was doing her long 
dying (with, then, some hope of a turn-around full recovery) in the ICU, 
none of her sisters or me (I think any of us would have qualified as 
"Next of Kin", certainly I would?) could get any current information on 
her condition out of the nurses there, and her doctor made his rounds so 
late at night, and irregular timing at that, that nobody could catch 
him. My cousin, a well-known Chiropractor, heard of our problems, and 
phoned the ICU desk, identifying himself just as "Doctor Grayson", and 
they spilled the whole current scoop to him, which he then relayed and 
translated.


On 1/15/16 1:14 PM, Sibyl Smirl wrote:
> I'm not so sure about the "physician" name or title, but around here,
> the title "Doctor" or "Doc" in ordinary speech and address goes to vets,
> MDs, DOs, chiropractors, dentists, anybody who works on the body, human
> or animal.  With or without an academic doctorate in anything.  Maybe
> not barbers, hairstylists, manicurists, farriers or masseurs, though I
> think a few hundred years ago a barber was automatically a surgeon.
>
> Oddly enough, I somehow got the title "Dr" attached in front of my name,
> just because I'm subscribed to Science magazine, though I guarantee that
> I never told them that I had a doctorate in anything, or put it on my
> checks or my subscription form.  I am a member or the American
> Association for the Advancement of Science, which I pay for in order to
> get the magazine. I hope that doesn't spread across the mailing lists
> from there: someone might think that I wrote it down deliberately.
>
>
>
> On 1/15/16 10:48 AM, Cantor03--- via Magdalen wrote:
>>
>> I spoke on telephone last night and today with a veterinary  specialist
>> caring for our sick spaniel.  She was struggling to put some facets  of
>> her examination into lay terms, and to make it easier for her, I
>> mentioned
>> that I was a physician.
>>
>> Her response surprised me.  She said, "Oh....of humans?"
>>
>> The inference I think was that veterinarians - maybe especially
>> specialist veterinarians - now think of themselves as physicians.
>>
>> This may be just her own idiosyncrasy or in may be a more
>> widespread practice, but I had not encountered it before.
>>
>> My handy Merriam-Webster doesn't apply it to non-human
>> healers, but the second meaning, "One exerting a remedial
>> or salutary influence," may cover this new meaning.
>>
>> She, and others in her profession are welcome to the physician
>> label as I don't think the term has been copyrighted by the (human)
>> medical profession.
>>
>> As one old craggy retired US Navy physician used to say  (between
>> puffs on his chain-smoked Lucky Strikes), "I don't care what they
>> call me as long as they pay the bill."
>>
>>
>> David Strang
>>
>>
>
>


-- 
Sibyl Smirl
I will take no bull from your house!  Psalms 50:9a
mailto:polycarpa3 at ckt.net