Are Doctors Men of Science?

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G. B. Shaw

Are Doctors Men of Science?

Q. No. 1:         What do common people think about science?

          This is a very effective essay that compels us to think ablaut the doctors in a new way.  Bernard Shaw points out the common wisdom on the matter of doctors and says that it is wrong.

            Common man is generally non-critical and accepts things as they are.  People never try to think carefully and deeply to find the truth for themselves. Due to this trend common people hold many faulty and ridiculous beliefs.  For example a common man thinks that the captain of any trading ship is as great a man as Galileo.  The street singer is as gifted a music expert as Helmholtz.  A common organ player is Beethoven.  A petty roadside pigeon dealer is Darwin.  Every engine driver is as miraculous as the father of railways, George Stephenson.  A common copyist or drafter of documents is as wonderful as Shakespeare.  All these examples show the common delusions that make it difficult to know the hierarchy of the learned people. The narrow outlook of common people makes it hard to understand the grades of efficiency and knowledge.

            Similarly people do not have a correct view of doctors. The doctors are not scientific rather they mimic the practices of science as an art and work to earn their bread. In fact science is not a profession; it is a complete way of thinking.  It is the mode of observing things in a critical fashion. So the understanding of common people about science is not complete and true.

Q. No. 2:         Are the doctors men of science?

            G. B. Shaw discusses the relation of doctors and science. He says that commonly doctors are considered to be the men of science but in fact they are not.

            Science is a complete thinking process that holds different technical steps.  The scientific method is strictly a logical process with nothing superficial or superfluous. Nothing is there on speculations.  Everything needs evidence.  Things are again and again tested to know the ultimate truth.  The negligence of a single second can spoil everything. The medical science also works on the same principles. They too need extreme vigilance and keen observation.  The people, busy in medical researches, have reduced human misery to its lowest level but if the common practicing doctor are also doing all this.

            No, they are not.  Doctors do not pay attention to anything. They cure people, it is true.  But a common practicing doctor has never added anything to the scientific knowledge.  They never do research on the new and challenging diseases and maladies.  They just cram the names of some diseases and their respective medicines to earn their bread. Doctors cannot keep a man healthy.  They only cure the diseases.  A doctor can never suggest anything in order to keep a man away from disease.  Even a grandmother or a quack can advise you better.  The doctors do not know how to handle the evidence and statistics.

 At the end of the essay, writer narrates the case of an old lady.  She was treated in an ignorant way by a doctor who prescribed a stiff dose of medicine for the disease that she never had. 

            This shows the way in which the doctors work.  The sprit of research and inquiry is totally absent in them.  Their main purpose is to earn money in whatever way.  Some doctors even use quite heretical methods for treating diseases. Their degrees do not lend a scientific urge to them but they only provide them a chance to work fearlessly and cost people their lives because of their attitude and ways.  So the doctors are not men of science but they should try to be so.

Q No. 3:          Discuss the role of bon-setters, hygienists and herbalists?

            Due to the failure of doctors, many other quacks have come ahead to rob the common man.  There are many kinds of these quacks who are earning money not only from ignorant people but also from educated and wealthy people.

            Bonesetters are earning a lot of money in front of highly qualified surgeons.  The hygienists fashionably work and are popular even in highly educated classes.  The herbalists are the humblest professional healers and they face a tough times. They also work on speculations like doctors.  They sell packets of different herbs and give a long list of diseases to be cured by a single herb.  They always think that they are on the verge of discovering a miraculous medicine with the help of Virginia Snake Root.  People go on buying these medicines that shows their satisfaction with the science of the herbalists.

            These are not the only healers.  There are village witches and Christian Science also in vogue.  Due to the failure of the doctors, the alternative medicines are making their roots firm in the society.

Q. No. 4:         What is the conclusion of this essay?          

            This essay is a fine piece of satire and it effectively points out the inefficiency of doctors in certain ways.  According to the writer, doctors are not at all scientific and their ways of treating diseases are quite unscientific and illogical.  He bitterly makes their fun when he says that distinction between a qualified and unqualified doctor is only that the registered doctors is authorized to sign a death certificate for which both have almost equal chances.  Bernard Shaw rightly says that most of the doctors practice only to earn their bread and they never try to update themselves with the modern researches and knowledge.  The urge to learn more is extinct in doctors.

            The writer has become quite cynical in his invective of doctors.  He has concentrated only on the bad faction of the doctors and has ignored the good ones.  He is right when he talks about their negativity but still there are too many doctors who have done miracles for humanity.  They have curtailed human suffering to its minimum level.  We can never neglect this great contribution of the doctors.  We can condemn certain members of this profession but we can never denounce them as a class.

            Concluding the discussion, it can be said that G. B. Shaw correctly lashed the bad eggs among the doctors but he forgot to praise the angelic figures among them but this thing can be defended. As we know that this essay is satiric and no satire work will keep its force and energy if it points out the positive side too so to activate the reader's thought, he might have excluded the positive aspects of the topic.  So it cannot be termed as the drawback of Shaw's essay.