The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1902-07-24
AN URGENT NEED.
DR.. TUCKER WRITES IN ADVOCACY OF A
HOSPITAL IN HENDERSON.

hUoPIlAl In hENUtRSUN.
Endores the Gold Leafs Suggestion
and Emphasizes the importance of
Such an Institution for Our Town.
Whist Say the People on the Subject?
Let's Hear From Others.
At no other season of the wear is Il
contracted illness ami confinement to
bed more distressing han during the
long. hot, facilitating days Of July.
August and September: even when
surrounded by the best hygienic con-
ditions and under the most favorable
circumstances as to bodily comforts;
such as a desirable bed, frequent
changes of clothing and sheets. large
and well ventilated rooms, etc, for
after all these are the true secrets to
the successful and enlightened prac-
tice of modern medicine. We may
we'll ask is there more appropriate
season than this to consider Hender-
sons great need Of some place where
the sick and helpless may be cared
for9
With the commercial growth OF our
town and the increasing wealth of it's
citizens there has been that inevita-
Bile and necessary influx of the poor
working classes. many Of whom are
alarmingly ignorant of the rules of
health. and not only daily are they
endangering their own lives. but
the lives Of the surrounding com
munity.
Knowing that the thoughtful. pro-
gressive people of this town are inter
ested, as a whole, in its every ad-
vancement and believing that they
will lend an ear for few moments
to consider so urgent a necessity, |
am going to take the liberty TO relate
few OF my experiences during the
past eight months Of the practice of
medicine
There arc surely in our own midst
tragedies Of life and death as fearful,
and sorrows as touching, as any ever
told by Hugo or Dickens.
In the outset we are frank to admit
that there is a very erroneous idea in
the minds Of many as to what hos
pital really is; they look on the be-
ginning Of such an institution with
an unjust suspicion-as a place
where unnecessary operations are
performed aud diseases are contracted
and spread. This suspicion is either
born Of Ignorance or comes from the
knowledge Of some Old dilspidated
and criminally run affair. which is
neither worthy of the name hospital
nor its staff Of the medical profession.
Such place could not and would not
be allowed to exist in wide-awak-.
intelligent community Of this sort.
If it is the fault of the name let's call
it something else: ga Retreat for the
Sick" "a School for the Prevention
of Disease" for instance. After all
the modern hospital is p place where
we can best learn how to get well
and stay we'll, place where we are
taught the proper way to live in our
own homes so as. by a little care, to
prevent disease and illness with all of
their fearful sequele.
1t is a sad delusion to believe that
there could be any undertaking or
enterprise less in furious and of great
er and more permanent aid to the adj
vancement and interest of our people.
For, in the words of DR.. Samuel d.
Gross, Americas great surgeon, and
the peer of any surgeon in the world,
in his last public address,: The
great question Of the day is not this
operation or that. not ovario1omv.
or lithotomy, or an hip-joint ampu-
tation, which has reflected so much
glory on American medicine, but
preventive medicine, the hygiene of
our persons, our dwellings, our
streets, in word, our surroundings,
whatever and wherever they may be,
whether in the city, town, hamlet or
country.
This is the great problem of the
day; the question which you, as the
rising generation of physicians,
should urge in season and out OF sea-
son upon the attention Of your fell
low citizens; the question which
alone ard beyond all others should
engage your most serious thought
and elicit your most earnest cooper
alton"
Is it necessary to say more than
that there is a peculiar and urgent
need OF such a place in Henderson?
Our town is fast becoming one of the
large and substantial towns of the
State. We are all rightly proud OF
its recent development and growth,
and | fppt if
to consider that we will not leave so
important a work to be done in years
far off aud by others, maybe stran-
gers. especially as the health of the
community is such an essential re-
quisite to the peace, prosperity and
happiness OF all classes.
Not desiring to harrow ones feel
ings by the recital of the many de-
plorabIe conditions of human life
that surround us; nor wishing to give
undue publicity to facts which have
come to me through my professional
work and should be held as sacred
am simply going to tel! very briefly
OF two or three instances Of the past
six months of which | have been An
~ y ~ totthS ivy VIII NC It-
ceived in The spirit in which they are
told and believing as verify as write
this that some we'll run institution
for the training 81 the untaughi in
hygiene and sanitation ami for the
care OF The sick and helpless would do
far more for the future DEVELOPMENT
OF the community in which it was es-
tablished, than any commercial I'M
dertaking. however great. which
might bring fame aud fortune to
lev" Such comparison, though. is
invidioVs and misleading for the one
would directly ana Immediately aid
the other.
Last December | was called to see
young man on the outskirts Of town
who was stranger. having lived
here only few weeks. and was at
that time living in a rented room