Blazing the health trail / by Sir W. Arbuthnot Lane.

  • Lane, William Arbuthnot, 1856-1943.
Date:
1929
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Blazing the health trail / by Sir W. Arbuthnot Lane. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    164/168 (page 148)
    consulted on health maintenance, knowing the persons under his care are looking forward to their annual check up with interest, rather than being called in when illness has laid the head of the family low and the expenses of a long illness are being met out of a reduced income. In short, the present situation is that the Assurance Company, having agreed to pay a lump sum on the death of an individual who pays a yearly premium, ceases to take interest in that person's health once the contract is signed, though it is obvious each year of life is to it double the value of the premium paid. To pay a reasonable fee for that person being examined and warned of life-shortening habits, often contracted during early middle life, would seem a sensible procedure. The general public who pay an engineer to overhaul their motor engines neglect skilled examination of their own organs. This does not seem very rational. It does not savour of high professional ideals, for any member of the medical profession to wait for the ignorance of the general public on health matters to bring about disaster, and then earn a livelihood attempting to remedy a condition of disease which could have been prevented by timely warning.