Summary of the short story ‘THE KING AND THE DOCTORS’ by George Bernard Shaw

                    Summary of the short story ‘THE KING AND THE DOCTORS’ by George Bernard Shaw

Bernard Shaw’s ‘The King and the Doctors’ is a fine satire on doctors who belong to different schools and faiths in the profession of medicine. It criticizes their professional rivalries which often hinder rather than help patients improve their health.

In the country of the Half Mad the King fell ill. As he had established very kindly relations with his subjects, his illness caused a great affection for him and for his family. The king had twelve doctors to attend him but there was no sign of his being cured. People became anxious. They said a single doctor was generally sufficient to kill one of them, so how the king could survive twelve doctors.

The Prince asked the chief physician whether it was not possible to cure the King. The physician replied that everything was being done that could properly done. The physician asked if he had no confidence in their knowledge and devotion. The prince said that their devotion was all right but their knowledge was bunk. The chief physician was highly scandalized. He requested the Prince to suggest any measure they had omitted.

They discussed on giving drugs. The Prince questioned whether drugs were bunk or not. The physician said that undoubtedly drugs are bunk from a purely secular point of view. The Prince said that there was a way of giving drugs in infinitesimal quantities to which all the latest discoveries and scientific speculations point as the right way. The physician replied that infinitesimals were used only by homeopaths. He said that they were ignorant of the nature of disease and they merely treat its symptoms. If a Chinese patient had been brought to a homeopath he would have been treated for yellow fever.

The Prince asked physician whether he knew the nature of the disease. The physician said that certainly he knew. He said that he had passed an examination in pathology and written books about it. The prince asked what the nature of his father’s complained was. The physician said that it was pleurisy. The prince said that he knew its symptoms and asked again what its nature was. The physician replied that if he had knew that he could have cured it. The Prince said that then pathology was bunk. The prince said that let them call in a homeopath. The physician said that there was only one successful homeopath in London and added that if he had discussed the case with him he should have been excommunicated.

 The Prince said that he heard that a lot of came from spinal displacement. Then he asked about the King’s spinal. The physician said it looked all right. But the Prince said that there were trained chaps to feel it is all right. There was a machine that will register on a galvanometer displacement that nobody can feel. The physician said that he had never heard of it. He assured that those people who feel spines’ were almost ignorant Americans who had spent two years in mere manual training. If he had been seen speaking to one he should have been excommunicated. The Prince asked the physician to do it himself. The physician said that he had not had the two years training and said that it was not part of our official surgery. The Prince said that official surgery was washed out.

Then the Prince asked about testing his father’s blood for radiations. And said that it could be done by a rheostat and there was some method of neutralizing the rays that sometimes cures.  The physician said that it was discovered by an American. He was not only American but a Jew. But the Prince persisted that he understood he was a proper doctor. The physician said that the treatment would involve attaching the King to the electric switch and the public opinion would never tolerate that. The Prince said he did not want to lose his father because people were fools. He said he could use a private battery. The physician said it was recognized their Vatican and it had not been proved by at least fifty years of experience in curing disease. The Prince asked whether the patients recovered under the logical appropriate treatments which were being taught by in their medical college. The physician said that it was true and the recuperative power of the human organism was marvelous.  The Prince said that he was not satisfied and it seemed to him that his father just because he was a king, was cut off from the benefit of all the new discoveries and treatments that are available for his subjects.

The physician requested the Prince to be patient and said that his father was in the hands of God. The prince said he should like to call in Pope for a consultation. But the physician said that he was qualified more than half a century ago and might not be quite up to date. The Prince said that then the pope was another wash out. The Prince asked what the most up-to-date scientific treatment for his father was. The physician said he had already ordered it. The Prince asked what the treatment was. The physician said that was seaside. The Prince said that that was not the latest treatment and it was what his grandmother recommended.

The physician said the benefits arose from change of air. The Prince asked what it arose from. The physician requested the prince not to reveal their professional secret. The Prince promised not to reveal the secret. The physician whispered that it would get him away from doctors. Shortly afterward, the King recovered.  

Moral: Too much of anything is good for nothing.