Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1906-08-08
to enable friends and relatives to

visit the patients without entailing
much loss of time or expense.
1t is OF vital Importance, moreover,
it the best and most lasting results
are to be obtained, that sanitoria in
tended for patients who are still in
vigorous bodily condition should not
be so large as to render personal
supervision almost an impossibility.
In the watchful care necessary for
each individual at critical stage
of the disease, when Ignorance may
be the cause of fatal errors in mode
of life, lies the great virtue Of this
method of treating tuberculosis.
just so surely as we increase the
proportion of patients to the number
Of medical assistants beyond certain
limits, just SO surely do we diminish
the chances Of proper supervision of
individuals and thereby run great
risk Of not gaining favorable results
for those under our care.
One fact | believe now to be OF
great Importance if we would keep
public sanitoria for the tuberculosis
above the level of mere boarding
houses with medical attendants. i
have already alluded to the extra
ordinary interest awakened through
out the world in the last decade by
the favorable results OF fresh-air
treatment. This is great step in
advance and Of great educational
value; but we should now keep
something higher before us lest we
stagnate and merely content our
selves with watching a large per-
centage Of patients leave our sana-
toria with the disease in a state Of
arrest, ready to act as missionaries
in the world to teach others the
simple but essential laws Of hygiene
We should aim now to make our
sanatoria centers of scientific re
search, where clinical observation
can go hand in hand with laboratory
investigation. That this is moi
utopian scheme for public insii
buttons, is well illustrated in the
Boston City Hospital, which, al
though undermunicipalc ontrolal 4,
not merely offers practical aid to
thousands of sufferers from acute
diseases, but has built up slowly a
pathological and archaeological de.
partment which is an honor to Bos-
ton, and the fame of which is now
established in America and Europe.
With a great clinic like that now
at Rutland there is an almost M
rivalled opportunity not only fol,
giving immediate aid to hundreds
of sufferers from tuberculosis, but
for establishing, by comparatively
simple means. the nucleous for
laboratory research, which shall
have for its special object the study
of methods for stamping out tuber,
culosis, or at least 80 keeping it under,
control that the awful mortality from
this disease may be reduced to a
|
In order to place our state sana.
toria on such basis, it is essential
that those in control should be men
md women of broad vision that The
policy of such institutions should be
eft to those whose special training
fits them to be guides for scientific
Is well as practical work.
With the example before us Of
what Trudeau has accomplished in
the study of tuberculosis in his
laboratory at Saranac Lake, and
with the great hope ahead OF us that
the disease may yet be conquered, ]
can conceive Of no more inspiring
ideal for the state institutions. nor
anything in which our indi ,ilual
communities could take greater
pride than to make such All ideal .
reality. That this can be done J
firmly believe. 1t only remains im
,thers who have similar beliefs, t,
Use their influence to this end, and
9e may yet live to see our wishes
accomplished.