[Surgical humour at Rigshospitalet].

Medical humour is often an important part of the treatment of patients in hospitals and in general practice. Therefore, medical humour should be distinguished from other forms of humour. The author of this article has served over forty years in Rigshospitalet of Copenhagen. He has observed the remarkable difference in the frequency of homour in the two surgical departments of the hospital. Department D had as a chief Wilhelm Schaldemose. He seemed to be completely without any sense of humour, and this spread to the rest of the department. When Schaldemose died Sigurd Kjaergard became head of the department. His sense of humour was limited, and he was not able to induce the humour to the rest of the department. It was first in 1953 when Erik Husfeldt took over as chief that the humour developed in the department, and it took several years before humour became a part of the daily treatment of patients. On the other department C the humour has always had good days starting with Thorkild Rovsing, the first chief, and later when Erling Dahl-Iversen was leader of the department. He had a special way to educate his staff in his sense of humour which became well known all over the hospital. In the beginning of this year a new society: >>Nordic Society of Medical Humour<< has been founded in Norway. This seems to be a remarkable positive development in the field of medical humour.