''How These Doctors Love One Another!'' is a short playlet written in 1931 by
George Bernard Shaw which satirises a dispute between two doctors about the use of antiseptics in surgery. Shaw regularly attacked conventional medicine in his works.
Content
Shaw introduces a dispute between Sir
William Watson Cheyne
Rear admiral Sir William Watson Cheyne, 1st Baronet, (14 December 1852 – 19 April 1932) was a Scottish surgeon and bacteriologist, who pioneered the use of antiseptic surgical methods in the United Kingdom.
Early life and education
Cheyne wa ...
and Sir
Almroth Wright. Cheyne and Wright are portrayed ridiculing one another's opinions. He concludes that when doctor's disagree, no-one is harmed, but "when doctors agree we are face to face with a conspiracy of pretentious ignorance with that sordid side of trade unionism which is forced by common need to struggle for its livelihood even to the point of saying, 'Thou shalt die ere I starve'."
Context
Shaw had based his principal character in ''
The Doctor's Dilemma'' on Wright, but had later come into conflict with him over vaccination, to which Shaw was opposed. He also sparred with Wright over Wright's belief that women's minds were different from men's, a view which Shaw rejected.
[Peters, Sally, "Shaw's Life: A Feminist in Spite of Himself", ''The Cambridge Companion to George Bernard Shaw'', Cambridge University Press, 1998, p.18.] However, here, Shaw, in line with his own belief in
preventive medicine gives much more weight to Wright's views. Wright was concerned that over-use of antiseptics would create resistant strains of bacteria, while Cheyne believed that antiseptics were absolutely necessary.
References
External links
Wikilivres text of the playlet
{{George Bernard Shaw
1948 plays
Plays by George Bernard Shaw