The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-11-05

From Advance, Alabamas s leading liter
 ary periodical.
 Can consumption be cured?
 This is one of the most vital questions before the American people today. ''The Great White Plague" as this disease is aptly termed, has spread over our coun- try like cloud and there are few fam files but have felt it's ravages in one form or another. The fearful foothold the disease has gained, has served to put to work the foremost minds in the medical world, and science has for years engaged in a Titantic struggle to stay it's progress
 To say that this struggle for greater light upon a subject of such tremendous moment to the human race has been unproductive, is to cast an unwarranted reflection upon some of the most brilliant 1ntellects of the present century.
 In no other branch has the progress of science been more pronounced or more productive of general good than In the field of electricity. Electricity turns the wheels of commerce; 1t carries messages with the speed of thought from continent 10 continent; it furnishes light and heat and In thousand ways proves itself one of the most marvellous and most useful of all agencies. Yet the turning of wheels, the shedding of light and the transmits sion of messages does not describe the limit of its usefulness As 1t has sup
  nlso 1t has supplanted the surgeons knife-and. more. it has shown the way to cures where cure was once deemed im- possible, and has become as great as healthgiving agency as an agency for the generating of light or heat or power. And 1t is in the cure of consumption that at has proven most useful.
 Consumption is due to the presence of a germ which usually lodges in the lungs and, multiplying very rapidlyf soon de- stroy large areas which in the healthy condition, serve the highly important Function of furnishing oxygen to the blood, without whichh life is impossible. It is manifest that unless the destruc- tive progress of these germs Is stayed, death will follow. Light is the deadly enemy of these germs. They absolutely cannot thrive in the light. and were 1t possible to let Gods sunshine stream un- hindered into the lungs. the cure of tuberculosis would be very simple un- dertaking. But this Is out of the ques- tion, and the next best thing is to pour into the lungs an artificial light Thus electricity, in the form of the X-ray. ia brought into service. It Is not contended that this artificial light will always kill the germs, but one thing 1t does with in variable precission-it renders the lungs an unfit habitat for the deadly creatures and, unless the patient Is in the advanced 
 the patient is restored to health.
 The treatment of consumption by cleo tricity is not limited to the use of the X-ray, nor Is the use of drugs dispensed with. Contrary to the idea of many. electricity, in the hands of those skilled in its use is designed to supplement medi- cal treatment and not take it's places. In other words, the practitioners who use tho various approved electrical appliances use also the approved medical treatments, and the patient Is given every possible chance for his life or her life. In this connection. the writer recalls an interest ing and apt remark made by Dr. Orion T. Dozier the well-lknown southern special ist in addressing a body of physicians at the University of Chicago. Dr. Dozier had been describing the methods adopted by him in the treatment of tuberculosis and went on to describe the various medi- cal and electric treatments. But" inter- rupted one of the physicians. "if you re- sort to so many remedies, how do you know which one effects the cure?" The reply was characteristic. "I don't want my patient to die while am determining which treatment or agent is the most effective. l use them all and when cure results 1t Is a matter of small con- cern to the patient whether 1t was the x-ray or medcated ozone or other medi- ums that made the result possible. l be-