The Gomer: A Figure of American Hospital Folk Speech

ONE OF THE GROUPS LEAST STUDIED BY FOLKLORISTS is the medical profession. To be sure, there has been a long-standing scholarly interest in folk medicine, but this refers primarily to medicine practiced by patients themselves or by healers not usually considered to be part of the medical establishment. Folk medicine, in fact, is often contrasted with so-called scientific medicine. This has perhaps tended to suggest that scientific medicine is devoid of any folkloristic content. Yet doctors and nurses not only constitute an important occupational folk group, they constitute one which by its very nature involves an unusually great amount of anxiety. It is to be expected that matters of health care which are literally concerned with life and death create nervous tension-not just for the patient but also for the dedicated medical personnel who are charged with the responsibility of treating the patient. In most hospitals, a rich albeit esoteric folklore flourishes providing a much needed outlet for doctors and nurses who are under almost