Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-10-14
THE HOSPITAL A NECESSITY.
Or. Weir Mitchell Gives Some Reasons Why !,
Is Needed In Small Towns.

At recent hospital meeting in Bal
| Harbor. DIR. Weir Mitchell. author OF
Hugh Wynne. Quaker and one Of
| Philadelphia leading physicians. CAV,
| the following interesting talk on tht
value of a hospital to a community:
Let me take for my texts. fact
and prediction. My fact is that q
hospital is savings bank for the com
munity at large. What it saves are
life and health. My prediction is. thai
in a few years any man, rich or poor
who needs a surgeon. or is gravely i'll
will want to go into Il hospital.
In the great cities, it is now accept
ed as reaSonab BILE. in the matter of Seri-
Gus operations, that surgeons will not
operate in private houses. They in
sist on people going to hospitals-and
presently l shall tell you why. This
growing opinion ought to interest you,
for in this neighborhood almost every
few days, someone is hurt-now it is a
fall. or a carriage accident.-or in win
ter the usual injuries of the lumber
camps. These persons We're forced to
go to Bangor. or further, and it was
time to provide some nearer help.
You have good surgeons.-and that
used to be thought sufiicient.-but now
we know that if the surgeon is to get
the best results. he needs a specially
fitted room. and the means to disinfect
that ROOM the instruments. towels.
himself. and the patients person. All
this is costly. To secure it in the most
luxurious homes is difficult, and in
MANY homes impossible To have all
this apparatus in the hands of man
who knows how to use it, is to insure
success and life Not to have it, costs
life and lessons the chances of success
in operations. Moreover, no matter
how rich a man may be, he cannot get
all these essentials just when he needs
them, and you or l. or any one else.
may thank God for them tomorrow.
But now as to disease. Is not a
mans home the best place for him
when he falls i'll? l mean of course ill
of pneumonia, or typhoid or one OF
many other diseases one might
name? Generally it is the best place,
if you can secure perfectly wholesome
surroundings. suitable diet. and above
all. that often too expensive help,
well trained nurse, or even two OF
them But if it be a grave malady,
especially a fever. the man who has
| the courage to elect to go to hospital,
has. / am sure, the better chance.
Let us take case of typhoid fever
| to make clear my meaning. 1t may
| last many weeks and now observe
what competent care Of the disease eX
acts. Nurses watch it by day and by
might. Records of the pulse and tenn
perature are kept. and when the body
| to mint of danger cold DatnS
are used-perhaps several times day,
a portable bath tub being required. and
people to lift the patient. Imagine all
| this in any home. You want Skill
care. habit of observation! The wife
| or the mother is useless. Nursing Is a
technical art. All the affection in the
world will not suffice to nurse properly
a case of typhoid fever. There are
other ways of looking at this question
keep the typhoid case in view.
Some two years ago man from the
main land came hither, and at once
fell i'll of typhoid. Owing to failure to
| disinfect certain of his diseased prod
ucts and also to drain leakage near
| water pipes, the case cost some thirty
or more additional cases. At once
| there was alarm: number of people
left the island. This is a small but
valuable example. A larger epidemic
would have emptied hotels and cot
tages. as has CHANGED elsewhere. You
may guess what such an exodus would
mean in the way of money loss!
THE hygienic moral, the common sense
| suggestion of prudence is. that there
| should be instant report of all such cases
and immediate removal to a hospital. i
possible-and why? Because no hospita
ever allows such fever to become per
il to the healthy. What comes out of thu
sick man spreads the sickness. Disin
feet him, and it, and then the danSe
| ceases. You may secure this good result
| in his home. but to do so, asks for grea
care and the best nursing.
"A hospital is an insurance against thu
spread of disease. Try to send your frs
typhoid case thither. That ends ii if yol
act promptly To act in time is the mail
thing. | presume the doctor to know hi
business. What else? He must be abb
10 make tests which will tell him If it i
this fever or not. He requires costly ap
paratus. which you cannot expect al
physicians to have. In the hospital h
finds them: and the needed Instrument
for this, and for a great number of othe
purposes With these means at com
mand, medicine becomes more and NOR
a science, and less and less mere art