Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-11-17
AMICK'S DISCOVERY.
ITS BEARING ON THE ISOLA-
TION OF CONSERVATIVES.
Health I'm Designating Consumption n
Contagious Disease DIscussed-Cure
the Best Alternative.

The recent action OF the Michigan
state board of health in placing con-
sumption on the list of contagious dis
eases and requiring safeguards to pre-
vent its spread, is causing widespread
newspaper discussion as to the pro-
priety of similar action in other states.
Not only has the Michigan board of
health taken this radical step, but the
county medical society, of Philadelphia,
has petitioned the board of health
there to isolate consumptives. The
PAN American congress also passed a
resolution at the recent Washington
convention calling on the national gov
eminent TO take steps in the same di-
rection, even going so far as to ask
President Cleveland to give his per-
sonal attention to the matter.
The result has been that national,
state and civic authorities have been
appealed to, thereby causing conster-
nation to thousands of consumptives
in every state in the union, who are in
terror lest they should be torn from
their homes and friends, and turned
over to especial hospitals" which, in
reality, will be pesthouses. The tur-
moil which the proposition has created
is steadily increasing, and great wave
of opposition is appearing.
Friends of consumptives declare that
If isolation of the patients is attempted
in special hospitals, numerous outrages
will result and that not only will un-
feeling persons who want to get rid of
sick relatives, dump them upon the
hospitals, but Vaccinations will arise
of most evil character. Small trades
men, for instance, afflicted by cough,
may suddenly find themselves moved
out of their competitors way, by jul
dicial process which will send them TO
the special consumptive hospital to end
their days. Some declare that while
the appearance of smallpox or cholera
III the land is the signal for immediate,
widespread alarm, and the iEargura-
ton of severe repressive measures, con-
sumption which is always present and
is chemically epidemic, is allowed to
take an unchecked course, the people
not realizing that it is far more deadly
than any other disease, and is slowly
but surely increasing its silent raw
ages. 1t is claimed that as half of the
people who have consumption do not
realize the fact, they spread false
confidence among their friends, who
carelessly allow themselves to come in
contact with the victims, and are, in
turn, fatally infected.
The New York Herald in comment
ing on the subject quotes the action of
the Congress de la Tuberculose, recently
held in Paris, in which the following
resolution was adopted:
"In view of the fact that life in COM
mon of consumptives with the other pa
tients in the hospitals is disadvantage
Gus both TO themselves and others, and
/ haf hn riC nd 70
which they expose others are not COM
pensated by any serious profit, the
members of the congress are of the
opinion that all consumptive patients
should be gathered together in special
hospitals in groups, according to the
period of their disease, and that these
| groups should be as small as possible
at the earliest stage of the complaint.
In consideration of the fact that in the
present condition of the science a con-
tinuous and sufficient supply of pure
air is one of the most powerful ele-
mentS in the treatment of tuberculosis,
it is also advisa ble that these hospitals
should be built in the country. or at
the seashore. Finally, as a transitory
measure, to last as short a time as pos
sible, consumptives should, for the
time being, be united in special wards
in the hospitals, apart from those of
the other patients, and the walls and
furniture of these wards should be dis
infected at stated intervals"
Another scheme for the isolation of
consumptives, which has just been an
nounced by the Denver Coli News, is
to the effect that w. N. Byers, repre-
senting syndicate of Boston capital
lists, has applied at the office of the Col
orado Land Commissioner for sections
of land on which to colonize consump.
tives from New England. The idea is
to erect suitable buildings and put the
patients at gentle work, attending to
fruit and poultry, bee culture and gar
dening insisting, all of the time, upon
suitable physical exercise. The idea is
that patients in the first stages of con-
sumption be in the mild, dry air of
Colorado, and that their light labors
can be turned to the pecuniary advan-
tage of the syndicate.
The Cincinnati Post over year ago
interested itself in the question of the
cause of consumption and the posi-
bility of it's cure. Since that time
many other newspapers have devoted
attention to the subject. Recent sta
tistics, carefully gathered, have shown
that one-seventh of all the deaths in
the United States from disease are
caused by consumption, and this start
ling fact, prominently presented, has
served to increase the agitation which
has been aroused.
In order to get at the opinions of the
leading physicians of Cincinnati on the
latest aspect of the case, j. e., that re-
lating to the proposed isolation of con-
sumptives, interviews were secured
with Drs. Whitaker, JudlIins, Amick,
Drumming and others.
DIR. William JudlSins said: "I thor
oughly believe in the scheme for the
isolation of consumptive patients. The
best plan is TO take the patient out of
his home and put him in house spe-
cially built for consumptives. The idea
may seen a harsh one, but it is GER
tainly in the interest of friends of the
sufferer. The great trouble with the
project would be to get patients in the
first stages of the disease TO go TO such
a retreat. Most of them don't believe
that they have consumption, and you
cannot convince them to the contrary. :"