The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-20
Editor Eli Smith Speaks on the
 Practical Side of Tuberculosis

The paper by Eli F. smith, AsSociate "A Layman's Views of the Practical Side of Tuberculosis" read yesterday before the Alabama State Medical As- sociatfon caused much fayoraoie com- ment among the physicians.
 This is said to be the first time paper prepared by a iayman has ever. been read before the Association.
 The full text of MT. smiths paper IS
 MT. President and Gentieemn of the Alabama State Medical Association:
 I would consider myself utterly de- void of both gratitude and feeling were to fail to keenly appreciate the hon. or which your distinguished president has conferred upon me by inviting me to appear before this learned 6oay e oS a layman who has had actual exreri- ence-of the practical side of tuoercu- losis.
 It is no exaggeration to say that no other single disease is today command ing a wider range of study. or more thoughtful consideration than con sumption. This is not only true az 10 the members of the medical profession, but 1t applies as well to the intelligent lay mind. All are uniting in an earn est endeavor to devise some means to plague" and therefore it follows that every particle of information worthy of consideration bearing upon the snp- ject is being eagerly sought py
 
 fully weighed with the single purpose of solving the mighty problem at Land.
 Nor is this intense interest in the subject snrprisns ms ws which is being wrought by this malody year by year. According to tho gov ernment reports the number of deaths in the United States from consumption during the census year of 1900 was 11l,059, or 10,6SS per 100000 from all
 causes. In other words, one out of ev- cry ten persons who die rom disease in this country is a victim of tubercu-
 losis. No other disease in the entire I category claims so large a proportion | of the human family, not even pneumo- | mia, though the latter is close behind | the leading destroyer. It Is this fear | full record which makes the considefa. | tion of tuberculosis of intense personal | conern to so large a percentage or our i place phrase, the question Is brought | directly home to them. Viewed in this | light, it Is easy to comprehend the VI 1 tai interest which the masses ot the l intelligent population must feel in this | subject. the eagerness with which ev- | cry popular publication relating 10 II | is read and the readiness with wnhcn every new remedy suggested IS tried. l From School of Experience. | In my remarks on the practical side | of tuberculosis I shall not attempt to
 employ technical or soientlfiG f yneaic,Se ehrsSe | have never in all my life seen the ln , | side of a medical book. I have read
 nothing on this very subject which l l am discussing except & number ot pa 1 pers written by my physician. pr. D; G. Bonney of Denver. Colo. and read | by him before the American Medical Association. and such newspaper and | magazine publications relating to the 1 treatment of consumpttves ny modern | methods as have appeared during ths
 past three and half years. What
 shall tell you, therefore. will De chIeI- ly from practical and hard experlen1e, | coupled with close observation taken both in my own case and in the AaSes
 whom | came in contact while battling | with the disease in the dry climates
 and high attitudes of the far west
 the battlefield where so many desper- | stantly being waged with this cruel
 destroyer and where through the kind l assistance of natures own remedies
 reenforced by wise dne medical s,rm goIRig wii1l | power on the part of the patient,
 scores and hundreds of valuable lives
 are being yearly saved from an un-
 I am frank to say that before I had myself been attaeted by tuberculosis had no adequate conception of what
 sufficiently long in the mad rush in | cident to modern business life to | weigh the meaning of moderation in l effort, the necessity of keeping up |
 the need of hygienic precautions Ind
 safeguards. I taxed my physical be-
 ing to the full limit and realized my by terrible effort. october, 18th, 1901,
 I utterly collapsed and bespattered | my office from one end to the other
 with blood, emerging from the ordeal
 so weak and depleted that was with
 difficulty gotten to my home in car
 riage. I had worked for thirteen
 years on an average of fourteen or
 entire period had lost but thirty days | on all accounts. including both vaca- | ton and idleness. I had kept myself | bent over a desk, paying no heed to
 bedroom. and giving but little, if any. 1 more attention to my diet and general l manner of life
 l Twelve years prior to my first se-
 ries of hemmorages T had suffered a | severe attack of pneumonia and hope | for my recovery had at one time been | practically abandoned. The attack | followed a spell of measles, and my re | covery was considered little less than l miraculous, but I had employed my | saving force-will power-and with its aid came out alive. This pneumo-
 mia attack left my lungs in Q weaken . | ed condition, fact which knew, put | the importance of which did not then | impress me. No member of my fam | fly, so far as l know, had ever hut- fered from tuberculosis, so that even | if we should subscribe to the now eX- ploded theory of heriditary consump- tion it would not apply in my own case.
 Tuberculosis Realized.
 But to deal with my attack Of tu- | berculosis in detail. As soon as came
 to a realization of the fact that had l suffered from a series of hemmorrages
 of the lungs I readily understood that | I was a victim of tuberculosis. My | Birmingham physician never told me so. He must have known. but he l doubtless preferred to adopt the tac-
 tics which in my Judgment too many | doctors employ-the policy of not frankly and promptly advising the | tubercular victim at the very begin | ming of his trouble the exact na- ture of his ailment for fear of unduly | alarming him.
 l Right here I desire to express my | unqualified disapproval of this policy
 "a policy which 1 am pleased to say is
 rapidly disappearing. l am firm in the | conviction that if is the sacred duty | of the doctor to promptly inform a
 consumptive at the outset of his troub-