, 1890-12-24

IL QOGS Dear WIN IL UQcS0 dSSOCldIAOL6 In6y, AL
their turn, bring with them a more poignant
anguish than the name Of any other disease
awakens. Consumption, indeed, by almost
the common admission of mankind, is the
most piteous and pathetic of human maladies.
1t is not merely'that it seeks is prey almost
invariably among the young-though this IN
itself is no slight enhancement OF the att1lctlon
but that it creeps upon its victims with a
= stealthier football than any of its fellow-ene-
mics Of man, and that alone among them it
mocks the unhappy sufferer with the mlrl,o
bf recovery until the very eve OF death. How
many of us can recall, with hearts still aching
daily after, perhaps, the lapse Of years, some
long slow tragedy which has thus ended IN the
extinction of a fair young life, the whitening
away of some maiden blossom by a process so
Gradual that the glow Of health has melted
almost inperceptibly into the hectic flush OF
decline, and so treacherously masked that
hope has revived again and again, even In the
breast Of the most despairing onlookers, before
the end has come No wonder that a foe SO
cruelty insidious N it's approaches to its victim.
and so fatally ,s1illed in disarming the appre-
tensions of ose who strive to combat 1t,
should have SO long eluded the efforts Of
Science = trace it to its place Of ambush. Ages
of hannah .)rrow and suffering have witnessed
4he agony n: this long and f~ruitless search,
Lin AA@LS- -IGAtAG0ASS3 C@SSt4J S"'fS"" ~S SN
after anotl :, only to be sorrowfully abandon
ed, have I'd ,ifed to the desperate endeavours
Of men to z 7te3t Themselves and their nearest
and dearest az st TINS terrible scourge.
Even now, indie 1, with all the %accumulat-
ing evidence before. us that Science has at last
hit upon the right track, one almost fears to
give too hasty credence to the j0yEllnews. chose
among us, and there are but too many, whose
hopes in this matter have been doomed to re-
peated disappointment, will find it especially
hare to believe that the incurable malady, as
>.hey have come to regard it is at length to be
confronted by its sovereign cure. Again and,
again, Ghey will remember sadly, have they
been tol9 of some new remedy, some improved
treatment, some untried mode of life and diet
which, was to arrest the fatal advances OF
phthiSals and as often have they found that,
while here and there a case has yielded to it,
the bulk Of the sufferers have gained nothing
more than a temporary alienation of their
pain, and, abandoning themselves at last
to their despair, they have forgotten that
Science, s~leepless and un firing, he's had no such
word in its vocabulary since the creation OF
the world While the friends of the dying
have live alone with their hOpelessness, and
the mou.ners of the dead with their grief, the
struggle Of the gleat army OF Dealers has been
fought steadily onY with indefatigable energy
and un1u6nCn9. - nope, anu S6eiuo INV ~
last about to bVcrowned with success. Those
by whom it hf been waged SO high-heartedly
for so many ers, and not in Germany alone,
have had judee~, the enco uragement Of noble
example to stimulate their efforts. A place by
the side of ] amer in the history Of human
progress is a prize khich might we'll inspire
the Psychologists of all countries to unremitting
toll and, if it has fallen to the lot of a Ger
man to carry it of, his Triumph will earn him
a generous and ungrudging tribute from his
scientific colleagues throughout the civilised
world. It will be yet a little while, as we have
said, before the full measure of his success Is
known. That his discovery is one of vast
importance, and fraught with blessings to
thousands Of the human race, we are assured
already. We only wait to learn whether At
viii procure for mankind the browning boon
Of immunity, or practical immunity, from this
most merciless Of diseases. At no distant date
I'VE shalt know for certain whether this "yel-
lowish transparent fluid, smelling slightly of
carbolic acid " is in very truth a medioament
90 marve'I $ as the tabled elixir in the vain
pursuit of which the medieval alchemists
spent their lives. Were it not that the whole