Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 149, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1916 — Why It Is Supposed to Indicate Digestive Disturbance Never Has Been Explained. [ARTICLE]

Why It Is Supposed to Indicate Digestive Disturbance Never Has Been Explained.

Just why a furred tongue is supposed to be an indication of a disturbance of the digestive apparatus has never been explained. The Medical Record calls to mind ‘‘the respected (and feared) spinster in our community'a good many years ago who had her own opinion about doctors. Urged to consult one of their fraternity when a little indisposed, she would repel the suggestion with scorn. ‘All they do,’ she would say, ‘is to say, "Let’s see your' tongue. How’s your bowels? Two dollars, please.”’” The editor says he has known physicians of the old school who could diagnose a case by looking at the tongue, just as he has known a physician who could "diagnose” a case of pneumonia in a child he had never seen before when he got ten feet away from the bed. And what is more, he could tell which side it was on and even designate the lobe affected in some cases.” Of course this is sarcasm. The editor is ridiculing the furred tongue as a symptom of trouble in the digestive apparatus.