The Savannah morning news., 1902-07-06

wall with his rapier in his hand fac
ing great odds. There were times when
life depended upon the movement
of a surgeons hand. There was a
depth of romance in some applica-
tons of that branch of the profession
which could hardly be exceeded by
what were called the romantic stories
of the present time. 1t was a ro-
mantle profession throughout it's two
extremes, with a little village doctor
at one end of the scale and the army
surgeon who earned the Victoria Cross
on the battlefield at the other. In
war it was difficult to say where the
romance was to be found. 1t might
be in the trenches, but he fancied a
great deal of it lay behind the
trenches. In watching the advance of
the army to what was afterward the
field of battle of Colenso, he thought
the greatest interest attached to the
four wagons of the bearer companies
with the red cross f1uttering above
them that were to go on to the field
the next day to remove the wound
ed OF all circumstances connected
with the battlefield such as that of
Colenso, he thought, when the story
was told, the most romantic would be
found in the hospital in which all the
wounded of that battlefield were col
lected. (Cheers) In conclusion, Sir
Frederick Treves made a protest
against the tendency which was creep
ing into the profession to use any
thing but the hands in medical prac-
tice. He said it was too much the
practice to trust to the results OF
analysis in the laboratory, to the use
of the X-rays, and to other similar
aids to medicine and surgery rather
than to use the hands.
If medical men had discovered no
new Hesperides, they had certainly
travelled very far into that mysterious
valley, the valley of the shadow of
death; and, although there might be
no man there present like new CO.
lumbus to discover a new continent of
America, there might be in that thea
ter one who would discover-for there
must be such a man soon forthcoming
"a cure for the disease known as can
GERS. (Cheers). If they thought of it,
the parallel was very close between the
destruction of the dragon by st. George
and the discoveries in connection with
tuberculosis. There was a disease de-
vastating this country, and others, too,
and laying low the very primest lives
within it. And then came the deter
mined destruction of that disease, and
the manner in which it had been fol-
lowed out was romantic to a degree.
He did not think there was anything
In all their profession more solemnly
tragic than the picture of Laennec,
who, after years of study. held on the
point of a needle a little minute speck
of tissue and said, II have found the
seed of tuberculosis; it is here on the
point OF needle. That poor, pale,
hard working man, after years of pa
tent search, could isolate on one little
point what he considered then to be
the seed of this dire complaint And if
they went a step further and tried to
picture what really was meant when
Koch. could isolate and demonstrate
the bacillus of tuberculosis they would
realize that that man had practically
reached the very pinnacle of philosoph-
zeal inquiry. (Cheers). Beyond that lit
the speck there, was a complete mys-
terry of life; there was the absolute
shadow on the one side, there was the
light of this world as we knew it on
the other, There was no sort of detec-
tive story that had ever been written
that could in any way surpass the
story of the mysteries of malaria and
the manner in which it was tracked
down and finally revealed.