The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1902-07-24

we were able in the teeth of inevita-
BILE failure and death to relieve her
sufferings for few hours, whereas
two lives, in a hospital might easily
have been saved.
Even now l can hear the delirious
cry of young mother with typh old
fever | am attending (>he imagines
her infant is in disirtss) in fact, l
may add, it is the direct cause of this
article, and being unequal to describe
the feelings that arise within me
when l gaze on such poverty and
| sorrow, l will, with all due apology,
quote from a lecture delivered by DR..
Meigs. at the Pennsylvania Hospital,
Philadelphia, as long ago as 1879:
When stand by the bedside of a
severe typhoid fever and see the pa
tient motionless, insensible, dead to
all the usual senses of the living;
when look at his half closed eyes,
his gaping mouth, his dried and ifs
sured tongue; when | brush the I'M
needed flies from his poor uncon-
scious face; and when l touch his hot
and burning skin. | ask myself into
what lower estate the human body
can fall. Not only has the patient
lost all appetite for food: not only is
he dead to all that surrounds him.
but this hot and withered body,
this dry aud pasty mouth. filled with
desiccated crusts and sordes, knows
no longer even the sense of thirst.
This has been the last sense Of which
he has been deprived. So long as he
retained any consciousness at all he
would ask for water Or for ice. Now
he feels not even this great want. 1t
is in this crisis of his life that he is
to be saved. if saved at all, by the
constant care Of his physician, nurse
and relatives. And woe TO the ply
| stefan who can look on such sight
and not yearn to know all that his art
has acquired through centuries of
experience and study"
The above referred to case of tv-
phoid fever | saw in the early stages
about two weeks ago. If, at that
time, the patient could have been re-
moved to the wards of a hospital, her
young husband might have gone on
with his work and paid the ward
charges from his earnings and have
his wife receive the benefit of all
that modern hos pital offers in the
way of care, cleanliness and nursing.
Alas! what different and appalling
condition there exists to-day. He
has been out Of employment for
more than two weeks, taking from
his family their only means of sup
| u
nursed his wife in badly ventilated
room, filled with foul odors. until
they are both on the verge Of illness.
And now the infant is sick in the
same room.
just what the closing act and final
scene in this little human tragedy
will be, no man knows. This morn
ing, with tears in his eyes, he told me
be was not able longer to buy the
proper nourishment, for all of his
money had been spent. AS usual,
the Kings Daughters, in their noble
efforts to do their Masters work,
have gone to their rescue.
An unseen power may, and doubt
less will, protect the surrounding
families from this fearful disease,
though now there is a case next door
Some years ago in the town of Ply
mouth, Luzerne county, Pennsyl-
vania, there occurred during the
month of January one case of ty-
phoid fever, and during the course of
the disease the ground was frozen and
covered with snow. Due to criminal
ignorance and neglect no attempt at
disinfection was made and in March
a thaw began which was followed by
slight rains and during the following
Spring from population OF 5000
there were more than 1900 cases Of
typhoid fever.
Had the infectious poison of that
one fever patient been destroyed by
the proper disinfectants, or other
wise, that community of 5000 people
living in the valley would not have
been shrouded with the pail of death
or had it's industries so blightei. -
(From report of Drs. French &
Shakespeare, of Philadelphia)
This article, in length, has far ex-
ceeded my original intent. and shall
! not ask that you bear with me longer
just now. At another time | will
60 more fully into the equally urgent
necessity OF sewers and proper drain
age, as we'll as expand upon the kind
of hospital we want. Not some old
structure long since past usefulness
as an abode for we'll people, and by
small additional furnishing call it a
hospital. But rather start from the
foundation, however small at first,
and build an inviting. up-to-date
modern structure, with pleasant sur
roundipgs. A place which the
humblest and the wealthiest citizen
will point to with pride and be glad
to 20 to for rest and treatment when
disease and trouble overtakes him.
First, realize the necessity, then let
every living soul in the town and
county who wants such a place do his
or her little toward starting, for ..To
will is aye to do" not throwing the
burden of such a work on two or
three.
However vast and wide the differ
ence In character and worldly posi-
tlon OF men may be, we are common
heirs to trouble, weak and piliful
when the merciless tiuger of disease
| ana death comes near. There NAV
| be ii day when we are made to feel
that we would willingly give all we
possess could we but lessen the suf-
ferings of some loved oLe
Finally, we hear the voice of tina;
Nondrons Being, coming down
through the distant ages. with that
divine exhortation: Verify. | say
unto you, inasmuch as We have done
it unto the ona OF least of these, nv
brethren, We have done it unto me-
JOHN HILL. TUCKER, NJ. d.
e M e