r. Those who pretend they want to know are more
common. Those who should not know are frequent enough, and among them
one is troubled to do what seems right and to say in answer to their
questions what is true.

Wise women choose their doctors and trust them. The wisest ask the
fewest questions. The terrible patients are nervous women with long
memories, who question much where answers are difficult, and who put
together one's answers from time to time and torment themselves and the
physician with the apparent inconsistencies they detect. Another form of
trouble arises with the woman whose standards are of unearthly altitude.
This is the woman who thinks herself deceived if she does not know what
you are giving her, or who, if without telling her you substitute an
innocent drug for a hurtful one which she may have learned to take too
largely, thinks that you are untruthful in the use of such a method. And
you would indeed be wrong if you were of opinion that to tell her the
whole truth, and invite her to break the habit by her own act, were
available means. I certainly do not think that you have any right
(indeed, I would not even discuss this) to take active means to make her
think she is taking, say opium, when you are only giving her something
which tastes like it. If she asks, you must answer. But she may not, or
does not, and yet when she is well again and learns that the physician
preferred to act without her knowledge because he distrusted her power
to help, she is very likely, if she chance to be a certain kind of
woman, to say that he has been untruthful. Happily, such cases must be
rare, and yet I know of some which have been the source of much
annoyance to sensitive men. Thorough trust and full understanding is the
way to avoid such difficulties. A nervous woman should be made to
comprehend at the outset that the physician means to have his way
unhampered by the subtle distinctions with which bedridden women are apt
to trouble those who most desire to help them.

I omitted above an allusion to the most unpleasant inquirers, those who
are either on the verge of insanity or are victims of that singular
malady, hypochrondriasis. A patient clearly staggering to and fro on the
border line of sanity consults you. Here is a wilful, terrified being,
eager to know the truth. "Am I becoming insane? Will I end in an
asylum?" How can you answer? You see clearly, are sure the worst is
coming. What shall you do with this