Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1900-03-19

That Maine is a more healthy place for
consumptives than she has had credit for
will be shown by DR.. A q. Young. secre-
tary of the State board of health, in his
next report. DR.. Young has been devot-
ing a great deal of time and study to the
manner in which the disease Is treated in
accordance with the modern hygienic
methods. He has even extended the re-
searches into Germany ana other places
ana has personally visited some Of the
places i'll this country where the best re
suits are obtained in the cure OF the dis
ease.
He explained in detail the methods used
in the Massachusetts sanitarium. which
he has visited. While there he made
photographs, not only of the surround
ings but also of the patients as they are
taking the treatment. one of the points
that he most desired to show in the pho
tographs is that the patients do not sit
around the warm stove and take medi-
zines hut instead of doing 50 they get
out in the open air, whether ii IS sum
mer or winter ana in this way regain
their health.
The Massachusetts state sanitarium is
located on high land. in Rutland in the
center of the state where the air may be
dry, the cold not being regarded. When
a patient enters the sanitarium he Is
first acclimated and then gradually the
cold is turned on. Cold dry air is one of
the important factors in effecting the
cure.
After the patients have been there a
short time they sleep in rooms of which
the windows are wide open. In fact the
windows are never closed, unless there
is driving storm. -
During the day the patients spend their
time in exercising i'll the open air. wheth-
or there is snow on the ground or not
unless upon their arrival their tempera-
tire is high or there is danger of henor-
rhage. in which case they rest quietly in
bed with the windows open until the
temperature has fallen to near the nor
NAL. IN DR.. Young's collection are sew
eral photographs showing the patients
wrapped UP in fur coats similar TO those
worn in Maine. and out in the snow tax
ing their air-cure and daily exercise. IN
other photographs the patients are shown
reclining in the open air, even though the
snow is on the ground, wrapped in their
fur coats and apparently on the road TO
rapid recovery. The photographs are re
markedly clear and by them it would not
be thought that the patients were per-
sons whose life had been despaired of on
account of consumption.
The point which DR.. Young will make
in his report is that the same thing can
be done in Maine and that the state
ought TO have sanitarium for the cure
of it's consumptives. 1t has been the pre-
yailing opinion that the severe cold OIL inc
Maine winters is the worst possible tmhe
for the consumptive and where there i
means in the family the patient has beer
sent 70 California, Arizona or Colorado
hut LATE experience in America and Eu
rona teaches that there are distinct ad
yaptares for many consumptive patient:
in a cold atmosphere. especially when /
is compare lively dry as 1t Is IN some o.
the central parts of this State.
In the sanitariums which Or. 1ouhs
has visited the patients are put under al
most the same conditions they woui'
have in this State, were they to live NOR
in the open air. There are high place:
enough where the sanitarium might b'
erected and with all the other conditions
| canal 10 those in Massachusetts ther'
! seems to be no reason why the patients
I should not have the same advantage
they have in other places.
In fact it seems that the conditions ar
A little more favorable in some respects
II is A remarkable thing that when pa
tient is brought to the Massachusetts
sanitarium in the winter there is bet
ter chance of prolonging his life than L
the summer. And if person Is brough
to the place in the summer the effort o
the physicians is to keep the patient iron
| fai1inu until cold weather when tn