The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-11-23
DISAPPOINTING DOCTORS.


This Ia d hard world, full Of weariness and
vanity. Here has the great American Health
Congress been sitting for week or lhcfe-
abouts, Ii Nashville, aud not word SAID con-
cerning Il matter Of tho deepest Importance
matter In which the people OF this section,
at least, are unspeakably Interested Aid ~
Louisiana is heavily represented. we nave
an able-boded delegation present, composer
oil scientific and professional gentlemen
gentlemen who know how TO burst INTO song
iii public. They were selected win eafeihl
reference to the wants OF Now orleans, ana
the people who watched their departure Win
fearful pride looked to them Tor notable per-
fOrnances I'LL tho presence Or the assembled
wisdom of the mutton. But what ls the TO
ault2 Other communities have been made
glad by wide-spreadiDg harangues from their
especial doctors. Other communicative
rubbed their hands. while DR.. Plum
kett expanded his great theory III
section as q fomito" q subject
or literally boundess scope and ovefpowering
vagueness. They have listened with JOY ana
a marked tendency w Initiation while A..
Brewer tuned his voice to discourse upon
"Rotten Wood" "a fine, WOrmy, htEh-llavorad
subject upon the wings OF which the gifted
Brewer circled and tloated at ha will. SINH
aarly they listened while Dir. Campbell OK
pounded to them and to the world his Idea Of
the aQuarantine oF tho Future presumably
beautiful and enrolling scheme for destroy
inE railways, scuttllng water craft and OK
terminating travellers. There is really no
other ei1icaclous quarantine, ana this great
truth was no doubt brought out by Or. Camp
bell lii all its force and symmetry.
But what were our representatives doing
ALL this time? We demand Ill the name of an
aggrieved and disconnected community to
know why nothing has been said touching
the great and important experiments made
In Cuba during tho past summer! II Dr,
Piunkett can arise In that august body md
Gin out long discourse On cotton 40 a fomte,
and IL DIR. Brewer can Torment over rotton
wood. why cannot our doctors tell what they
know about monkeys and parrots? Mon
Keys and parrots are quite as dgnified sub
iects as cotton and decayed wood. They are
quite as elevating study. And some Of our
doctors have spent months In Cuba looking
into the monkey and investigating the par
rot In connection with yellow fever. They
have charts Of tho monkey, showing his
temperature In all stages Of the disease
also Of the parrot. They have diagrams indi-
eating the anatomical points at which the
monkey was tested by the thermometer, To-
gether with footnotes relating the behavior
of the monkey under each application. All
or which, added to o beWIldering collection OF
photographs OF parrots and annotations CIV
Ing verbatim report OF the comments and
remarks of that astonishing bird while under
going treatment, constitutes one OF the most
interesting specimens Of sanitary literature
which the age can boast. 1t represents a
world Of information and research and throws
an almost binding flood Of light upon the
problem Of yellow fever In Its most novel and
startling aspect.
What, thea, has been done with these mon
Keys and parrots and their charts and da-
grams Is all this to go for nothing Are
our doctors to spend months beneath the
burning suns OF Cuba, toilng with the risky
Similar In the tangled bush, or listening to
the gaudy parrots gossip by the black la
COON, and nothing come Of IT. II 50, we wish
1t understood that we go back on science.
Any theory In which the monkey and the
parrot have no place-any doctors who will
sit silently by and let other doctors blow and
gas about cotton and rotten wood while they
are literally gorged with monkey and parrot
statistics, are not the doctors for us. Not by
o large majority.