The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1905-06-22


This is an age of progress; intelligence is
being disseminated by the press and our peo-
pie are being educated. In the scientific
world great strides are taken. The pid and
wonderful growth of the industrial in erest of
the country is producing an equally rapid
growth OF accident cases, and these cases de-
mand immediate attention. There is no time
in which to transfer the patient to hospital
one hundred miles away. Immediate care
must be had or lives are jeopardized. Anoth
er point to be brought out in this connection
is this The family of the average industrial
worker is large; the home is not proportion
ately large, and as q result the convenience
for earring for the sick and INJURED are not
adequate, and the hospital is very naturally
looked to to supply this need. Another de-
mand is to be found in the increased attention
and care given their members by the church
es and the various fraternal organizations,
who, in the main, prefer to give their assist
ance, in times OF illness or accident, through
the medium of the hospital, realizing that
through this medium the better care is OBJ
tanned. The general welfare of the commun-
ity also demands the hospital as a means by
which the we'll may be protected from the
sick by the prevention by isolation of the
spread of contagious diseases. Many other
reasons can be advanced in favor of the gen
eral extension OF the hospital facilities of the
country. If our hospital had no reason for
it's existence beyond the relief of individual
suffering and the cure of Individual disease,it
would still play an important part in the
philanthrOpic activities of the community. 1t
is this part of it's work to which public at
tention has been and is largely directed; and
it is this part of it's work which, in the minds
of most people, constitute the chief reasons
for it's existence. This is a very narrow view
to take. Great as is it's service to the com
munity in this particular, it is only small
part of the service which it really renders. 1t
is an educational institution; an institution
through which alone doctors and nurses can
be trained, and through which alone medical
science can be advanced. that our hospital,
like others under equally enlightened man
agement, has it's chief claim upon the public.
1t is only by providing hospitals where the
art of healing can be practically taught, that
doctors and nurses can be prepared for their
ministratioh of mercy, whether to the rich
who can afford to pay IN money or to the
poor whose only recOmpensei is thankfulness.
And it is only by providing such hospitals
that medical and surgical science has made
the marvellous advances which we have wit
| messed in our generation and which is hoped
only presages the progress still to come.
People sometimes talk as if a hospital was
| for the benefit only of the patients treated
| there No greater mistake could be made.
| There can be no great doctors without big
| hospitals. The hospitals give more education
| in six months than the general practice will
| give in six years and the spur is not simply
l
| the greatest surgeon alive has stimulus in
his hospital work if he knows that in his
| clinics there are perhaps numbers OF intelli-
! gent and sharp observers watching to catch
him at fault in anything. The community
| with hospital las far better doctors than
the community without one. 1t it has come
about that the modern hospital does not
| stand for charity merely but for almost every
step that is taken forward in medical discov'
cry. 1t means an advance in surgical skill
that would have been impossiblei in any other
way 1t means trained nurses too, for few
nurses could be trained outside OF hospitals
80 take it altogether about every modern
comfort that can be found at the bedside O
the rich can be traced to the bedside OF thu
poor in modern hospitals.
/ believe the best evidence of a progressive
town and the greatest benefactor to it's PEG
| pie in this day and generation is an up-to
date hospital.
| First, it is economical, for that thousands
| yea many thousands Of dollars are going from
us and enriching the North which we ough
to keep at home.
Second. it puts relief in easy reach of hun
| dreds of helpless poor who are thereby mad
| strong, useful and profitable citizensy usefu
to the State for that they are producers AM
no longer consumers
Third. it is humane and Christian like.
The above address quoted from mad
q profound impression among tn
J thoughtful members of the profession
who often recognize the hopelessness Q
trying to carry out the simple precept
of progressive medicine and surgery il
surroundings reeking with filth, diseas
and death The hospital is in the larges
sense an educational institution, secon'
in this respect, to no other institution
There can be given such hygienic hint
, as to the proper care of the body il
health, so as to prevent many diseases
and when disease becomes inevitable t.
lessen the sufferings OF the afflicted an
to teach the ways Of preventing it
spread.
1t matters little how vast are our &c
}. ucational facilities, how great and i'm
r posing our public buildings and libraries
l how faultlessly paved our streets, to tn
4 Individual who must see them throug
= the eyes of a poorly developed and di
\ eased body, and whose appreciation I
- the aesthetic and beautiful in life has bee
. dwarfed and perverted by unhygien
care and surroundings in the home OF II
Young life. 1t would be surprising an
:. shocking to many Of us to spend da
= in some of the homes in this town ar
Il observe the fearful ignorance of heads
!. families of the laws ofhealth and SAINT
O ton.
70 Let us erect in our town. small, clca
- modern hospital where all classes al
- conditions OF men may be given an o
"a portunity to acquire knowledge OF pr
yentive medicine, for to borrow t
d words OF a recent writer: "1ndustri
&c corps, labor unions, farmer alliances al
IT other like organizations view with gra
+ suspicion the action Of a member wi
- would by any method hinder or less
the business activities OF their orders, b
u, modern medicine under the new era, t
al medicine in whose service we are enlist
r and at whose shrine we bow. speaks
be no uncertain tone when the physician
in sent forth to prevent disease, lessen sit
ness and prolong human life, and
priesthood proclaims apurer gospel tn
the simple and unselfsh creed OF him W
. wards off and prevents the disease
the cure of which he would receive far
fortune and power"
Let some of our business men W
70 know not how to fail in what they
.hs dertake, who by their energy and to
a. thought have reared large and prosI
GUS business enterprises in our town, 6
ing EMPLOYMENT to hundreds-cOnsi
u the means of placing in the easy reach
all their townsmen, hospital from
GO wards and rooms of which mercy {
rs charity will be dispensed to many
serving men and women through
years yet to come, and by SO doing t
ne will win for themselves a place OF !
nd and respect in the hearts OF generate
Try unborn-far more enduring than
nd traneient and dangerous benefits
stored wealth left in the hands OF
while many toll on through days OF
RS and misery.
JOHN HILL TUCKED