Mr. Monday and other tales of Jewish Amsterdam

91 Air. Monday and Other Tales of Jewish Amsterdam

is earned, about marriage problems of a very personal nature. Sometimes he is a mediator at engagements and marriages, and intercedes at small business transactions.

On the wall of his waiting room hangs a poster showing a doctor examining a gaunt little boy. It says:

"That's right, Mother

Have your child examined before it is too late. " On another sign it says: "Washing is good Bathing is better."

Although he is a great admirer of scientific progress, Doctor Lamb is also a cautious man, he only uses the methods that he learned as a student. His prescription for all affections of the chest and lungs is invariably to stick your head in steam coming from a boiling kettle.

His patients hasten to obey for they have a deep-rooted fear of being operated on. For-generations they have been taught that the human body is a holy temple and that one may not rashly cut into a holy thing. But sometimes an operation is so urgent that even Doctor Lamb dares to hesitate no longer.

"You have to be helped, I'm afraid. But they put you under an anaesthetic, and when you wake up you will have noticed nothing."

To cheer up his patients he tells them funny anecdotes. "Last week I was visiting an old woman and I asked her 'How is your stool?' She replies,'Not very rosy, doctor!' Ha, ha, ha. But yesterday I asked a woman patient, 'how is your stool' and she answered 'You are sitting on the only stool in