For over 20 years, "Medicus" was the medical columnist for The Girl's Own Paper. Medicus was actually [William] Gordon Stables, M.D., R.N. Gordon Stables was a prolific writer on a variety of topics; in addition to being a doctor, he was an ardent naturalist and an expert on dogs. He spent much of the year traveling in "The Wanderer," a self-designed "recreational vehicle" -- something like an overgrown gypsy wagon -- studying the countryside and collecting botany specimens. (The dog shown in the picture is "Hurricane.") Not surprisingly, therefore, his health advice tends toward repeated urgings to live a healthy, natural life, getting lots of fresh air and exercise, eating healthy foods, keeping one's room clean and free of dust, not fretting about imaginary ailments, and taking lots of cold baths. He rarely urges the use of medicine, and clearly considers that medications are over-used and over-relied-upon; his columns often give recipes for home-made beauty products and herbal remedies. This section lists the columns of Medicus chronologically, from 1881-1902. (He may have written more columns after that; however, our collection of GOP ends at 1902.) See The National Motor Museum for a delightful biography of Stables.

1880 How Can I Look My Best? Health and Beauty for the Hair Lissom Hands and Pretty Feet Bright Eyes and Teeth Like Pearl The Care of the Voice Baths at Home and Baths by the Sea On Nursing the Sick 1881 Chilblains How to Be Healthy, Happy and Beautiful Comedones [Acne] Some Useful Hints on Surgery A Word with the Nervous The Toilet Table, and What Should Lie Thereon On Summer Drinks What May Be Done with Simple Herbs The Holiday: How to Make the Best of It The Eyes and the Eyesight 1882 A Seasonable Word to the Wise The Mind and the Health Maxims for the New Year The Girl's Own Room How to Be Healthy in Springtime On the Benefits of Pure Water A Few Facts About Food and Digestion A Few Words About Colds and Coughs On the Virtues of Simple Herbs and Flowers Tic-Douloureux and Toothache: Prevention and Cure 1883 Tea in Health and Sickness How to Nurse and Tend the Aged Medicines: When to Take and When to Avoid Exercise, and How to Benefit by It Early to Bed and Early to Rise A Plea for Vegetables v. Drugs Pure Air: What It Can Do What a House Ought to Be to Be Healthy Sleep The Secret of Home Happiness and Wealth In the "Fall" of the Year 1884 Things that Every Girl Should Learn to Do Facts and Fallacies about Food and Physic Work versus Idleness A Beautiful Skin 1885 Milk: As Medicine and as Food Health All the Year Round Rheumatism in the Young Common-Sense Advice for Working Girls Some Simple Facts About Medicines Practical Hints About the Hair An Invalid's Advice to Invalids 1886 A Few Questions Asked and Answered Tonics: How to Use Them Beneficially "I Remember, I Remember." How to Earn a Summer Holiday Toilet Table Elegancies Fish as Food, and Facts About Fishing The Position of Body at Work or Studying 1887 The Weather and Health I Only Wish I Had Spring: Its Troubles and Dangers Health in the Kitchen Garden Hope: As a Tonic for Body and Mind Are We Leading Natural Lives? Sleep, Gentle Sleep 1888 When Not to Take Medicine What Working Girls Can Do For Themselves "How About the Diet, Sir?" Poverty of Blood: Its Cause and Cure Summer by the Sea Beauty 1889 Remove the Cause Before and Behind the Counter Hints About Housekeeping It's Strange, But It's True What Summer May Do for the Invalid Christmas Comes but Once a Year, 1890 "Shall I Ever Get Well, I Wonder?" What to Do for Nervous Pains "Why Am I So Pale?" About Personal Appearance A Bundle of Nerves Is Beauty Evanescent? Health, Strength and Beauty By Mountain, Stream or Sea 1891 Health and the Toilet "With the Best Intentions in the World" "When'er You Feel Lazy You're Ill" "Where There's a Will There's a Way" "A Fellow-Feeling Makes Us Wondrous Kind" What to Do When June Comes Pain: A Friend and Not a Foe Health for Tropical Travelers O'er the Seas and Far Away

1892 Rational Toilet Hints on the Care of the Feet Beautiful Hands Health and Complexion: A Roundabout Talk How to Look Well in the Morning "I've Got Nothing On That'll Spoil" Can't We Mount Above It? About Rheumatism, and Its Kindred Ailments 1893 Myra and Kate: The Lesson Their Story Teaches "In the Fa' of the Year" The Little Misses Miserable "Something Wrong with the Lamp" "Find Happiness and You Find Health" A Fit of the Blues About Getting Farther East All Kinds and Conditions of Coughs Poor Mother's Growing Old Beauty and the Hands The Poetry of Ablution Nervous Girls 1894 Caught a Little Cold Nothing to Do But Simply Get Well Only a Mountain Daisy Summer Is Coming Can Girls Increase Their Strength? All About Myalgia Hints About Summer and Autumn Touring, 1895 Preparing to Face the Winter "Caught a Bit of a Chill, Perhaps" 1895 Neglected Colds and Winter Coughs Some Special Points of Female Beauty How to Be Merry in May The Eyes: Their Strength and Beauty Useful Pastimes for Health and Pleasure 1896 A New Year's Health Sermon "A Bit Fanciful, Sir" The Health in Springtime "Between the Dark and the Daylight" A Plain Talk with Sensible Girls The Study of Nature for Health and Pleasure Cycling: As a Pastime and for Health A Holiday at Home 1897 In Chill November What Girls Might Do in December When Bud and Burgeon Come Again Quiet Hints for Spring and Early Summer To Girls Who Wish to Be Well "What Is the Name of This Ailment?" A Bundle of Hints on Beauty Holidays in the Green Country, Hydros and Health How to Be Happy in Winter 1898 Our New "G.O.P." Year Chiefly About Rheumatism Beauty: A Duty From March Till May Influenza: Diet and Treatment In the Joy of June Healthy and Happy in July 1899 Words to the Wise or Otherwise "Dinna Forget": A New Year's Sermon Beauty in Woman: From a Man's Point of View Our Mutual Friend the "Bike" A Happy Healthy Girlhood Will She Grow Out of It? Sunshine: A Summer Sermon 1900 Physical Culture for Girls A New Year's Gift to Our Girls Spring Is Nigh Some Words in Season Hints About Health for June What We Pay for Our Boots 1901 A Few Words to the Wise Health Hints for Winter Months Nature's Soft Nurse [Sleep] The Beauty of Health: A Paper in Pars Health Natural Beauty and How to Obtain It 1902 Beauty Hints Mind the Measure of True Beauty Home Truths About Beauty