The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-03-06

And this blind man says take my nand
and I'll lead you in perfect safety. He
is blind himself but she does not know it.
She places a fee ia her leaders, hand and
sets out with him in utmost confidence.
He dares not halt or hesitate. She might
guess that he was blind. SO he dashes
boldly on, and they both fall into the open
ditch, where he leaves the woman to set
out as best she may while he proceeds to
spend the fee she has paid for being led.
Such betrayal of confidence is bad enough
when the only result is fan into the mire
How much worse is it when the blind lead
er risks his clients life-when the open
ditch into which she falls is an open
grave?
Can such things be-
Such things are every day in this greedy
world of ours. Weak and suffering NO-
men. blind as to their own needs, put their
hands In confidence into the hand of come
self styled leader, with the result that
both fan into the ditch of failure, end
She poor thing, staggers on few more
PAGES only to fall into the last ditch, the
'house appointed for all living. +"
AN EXPERIENCED EXPERT NEEDED
Let us drop all figures of speech and
face the facts frankly. Here are thous-
| ands of people suffering from disease of
one form or another. Sometimes he seat
| of disease is in the kidneys, sometimes in
the liver, sometimes it is the heart that is
affected and at other times the lungs or
the stomach. And sometimes there is
that general decay, that slow wasting,
which We call consumption. The cry of
the sufferer is for some one to lead him out
| of this desert of disease into the promised
| land of health. A hundred leaders rise up
in response to the cry. DO you know the
| way to the land of health? Can you lead
me there? Are you familiar with the road?
| Can you see plainly which is the easiest
| path Tor my failing feet?' All these qucs-
| tons the sufferer showers on the lead
| err" And to all of them he answers with
! a satisfied yes" And so he puts his
| hand into the hand of a blind guide and
| they start on the journey Not once in a
! hundred times do they reach the land of
| health The result is failure, most disas-
trous and most terrible. Do We want to
| discredit the medical knowledge and abil-
| ity of the guides of the land who treat
| disease-the doctors who are the leaders
| to whom the sick intrust their lives? BY
| no means. We only want to call attention
| to a fallacy that is behind all these fail
ures, and that is, that guide must not
| only be a guide by profession and license,
| but he must be also familiar with the ter
| ritory in which he works. You wouldnt
| go on Broadway, New York, and select a
| man TO guide you through tho Mammoth
| Caves of Kentucky because he was the
| most expert guide to the sights and scenes
| of New York that money could hire. You
| wouldn't go to London and pick OUT a
| man who knew every street and turn in
the vast city, as the most capable man to
| guide you across the trackless Sahara
| You recognize that in these things a man
| must be a specialist. A man may be a
| perfect New York guide and be an utter
| failure in London 1t isn't the guide S
| badge that makes man a guide, it ism t
| his license by the city its his practical ex-
| perience in the locality in which he works.
| Apply this to medicine. Any physician is
| considered a safe guide out of the condi-
| ton of disease, because he is an accredit-
| ed physician. But is he safe? Does he
| know this particular disease? Does ne
| know it thoroughly. intimately, closely?
| A man may know London in a way. He
| may he able to follow the broad thorough
fares of oxford street, Piccadilly, Trafal-
| gar square, The Strand; but take MIN a
| few blocks outside of the main Arteries
| of travel put linn into the network of
| streets and alleys that lie barely out of
sound of the roar of travel on these great
thoroughfares and he is hopelessly lost
| So il is In the treatment of disease
| Many a physician knows its broad symp-
| toms. He is all right while 1t follows the
general lines he is familiar with Let it
take him out of the beaten path, into the
! labarynth of symptoms that lie close by
| and he is utterly lost. The only safe guide
| in disease is the man that can't get lost;
| the man who knows the alley and the Gull
| de-sac as well ne knows the main arte-
| ry of travel; the man who knows not only
what disease is doing but what II can
do and can keep up with it in every turn
and twist of It's winnings through vein.
artery and nerve, or blood end brain
is THERE SUCH A MAN?
| Is there such a guide? There ought to
he Every city has its man who knows
each street and building, who is thorough
| ly conversant with every house and alley
| of the town. The seas and rivers have
their pilots, who know every rock and
shoal. every eddy and every current. The
| painless prairie and the dusty desert have
| their guides who have lived their lives on
these expanses, and go as straight to a
| given point as a homing pigeon to its cote.
! Why should one fail of a safe guide in
disease2 There should be one and there is
| But how shall we know that the guide IS
safe? Just as you'd know the safety Of
any guide by his success. The men who