The Progress., 1893-11-18


The idea may seem a harsh one, but
il is certainly in tho interest of tn,
friends of the sufferer. The great
trouble with the pro cct would he to
get patients in the first stage Of the
di-case TO go to such retreat. Most
OF them don't believe that they have
consumption, and you can not con
vince them to the contrary"
DIR. Whitaker said: IL do not ap-
prove of the isolation project simply
because | do not think il would dc
any practical good. Isolation. the
taking away of "a consumptive from
his home and friends, would be rather
inhuman.
lis every case OF consumption the
result OF contact with some other case,
or is the disease sometimes sporadic.
like chOlcraD'
"NO. There is no such thing as
sporadic consumption. II is not even
an inherited disease. Every case
owes its origin to communication.
Many cases Of consumption are con-
tractcd at bedsides. One patient can
give it to twenty well persons. Strong
men with no prcdispOsition that way,
get it. Why. one OF the worst plac >
to contract consumption is IN post
Office corridor. A consumptive COM
ing in, splits on the floor. He spreads
the germs of his disease to be inhaled
by others who enter. There should
h' cuspidors in postotliccs, in market
houses and i'm all other public places.
Splitting by cOnsumptivcs upon side
walks is not so dangerous, rs the
open air dissiminates the germs more
widely than in Il building"
''Do you think that consumption is
increasing or decreasing?'
''Probably decreasing on account
of better methods used i'm treating it.
The newspapers can do great good by
calling attention to the great danger
of consumption and noting the neces-
sity for greater care in guarding
against the disease. People are too
careless. No doubt isolation would
be of benefit to patients and do good,
but it could not be enforced" "
DIR. W. X. Amick, who resigned
his professorship in the Cincinnati
College Of Medicine and Surgery. held
for seventeen years, to devote him
self to curing consumption. said:
81 am, OF course, opposed to isola-
tiOn, because my theory is that con
is not directly produced by
an outside cause. | hold that the
bacillus microbe is the effect, or pro-
duct, and not the cause of the dis
ease, go it is very evident. in my
opinion, that isolation would accom-
plish no good"
''You mean to say, then, that the
inhaling of the dried-up sputa, con-
tanning these microbes, is not harm
ful?'
"On the contrary, DIR. Amick re-
piled, ''any dust or extraneOus mat /
ter would produce a mechanical irri-
tatiou of the parts and be likely to
occasion lung trouble-as the inhala-
ton of the dried sputa of a cOnsump-
tive. just as a speck OF dust irritates
the eye, the inhalation of any foreign
matter irritates the air passages"
Continuing, DR.. Amick said:
You may state as my opinion that
The natural secretion of the healthy
mucous membrane either destroys the
germs so inhaled or renders them of
no effect, SO far as any intrinsic
power to produce the disease is con-
,erned. If consumption was either
or infections. | would have
nad it long since, as am daily clos
eted with the worst possible eases.
and during the investigation leading
10 my discovery of the cause and cure
Of the disease. | sought out the worst
forms of it and made microscopic ex-
animation of diseased sputa a marked
feature of my professional work and
research. Notwithstanding all this,
and although predispcsed to consump-
ton, have inhaled the diseased
breath and germs of tuberculous pa
tients almost continually without i'll
effect"
"On what grounds, doctor, have all
these appeals for the isolation of con-
been made?'
.'On the theory of some bacterolo-
gists that the disease is communi-
Gated by microbes expectorated by
The consumptive.
Asked as to how many of the med
ical profession agreed with his theory
TO the contrary, DR.. Amick said:
From all | can learn perhaps one
half and majority of the other half
freely express their surprise that.
my treatment is not based
on the bacilli theory, it proves so efli-
cacious. A year or two l was prac-
tically alone in advocating my theory.
but to-day the progressive physicians
agreeing with me are numbered by
and | prophesy that in
few years very few will contend that
the microbe causes the disease.
make no attempt to destroy the bac-
Hi in my treatment, for they disap-
pear of themselves as the disease is