The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1909-11-05
DIR. WITHERSPOON
DELIVERS LECTURE
ON WHITE PLAGUE
BEFORE AN IMMENSE AUDIENCE
EMINENT NASHVILLE PHYsl-
CLAN TELLS OF ITS TOLL.
SPEA S AT FIRST N. {. CHURCH
Declares That the Mulatto Race is the
Greatest Menace TO the People OF
The South-Are Most Susceptible
to Ravages Of Disease.

Before a magnificent audience That
packed and damned the spacious audi
torium of the First Methodist church.
DIR. John WitherspoOn, of Nashville, sun
day night delivered his celebrated lee
ture on tuberculosis. Sixteen years
ago DR.. Witherspoon left Maury coun-
ty with the object OF finding wider
fields of usefulness in the practice OF
his profession. Since then he has met
with wonderful success, having hlleo
with credit the highest office In the
gift of the physicians of the nation
and having won a national reputation.
His return here by invitation OF the
w. G. T. u. and the ministers of the
city was the signal for all his old
friends and admirers to turn out to
hear the words of wisdom that he
came to voice.
Special Music.
Mrs. Chas Sharp, choir directress
of the First Methodist church, had
arranged special musical programme
for the evening. In addition to the
excellent rendition of several numbers
by the choir, Mrs. H. Darden Hark-
reader gave the ever-popular Dvoraks
Humoresl1i, as violin solo, Mrs. Kel-
ley accompanying on the organ. FOL
lowing this Misses Wava Junk and
Fern Doerr, of Cold Water, Michigan,
two accomplished vocalists now visit
ing in the city, sang as a duet GiVen,s
twilight" This was the first OPP
portunity that the Columbia public has
had of hearing these gifted singers,
and the number was greatly enjoyed.
Both have contralto voices, OF much
sweetness and expression.
The Long Meter Doxology, sang by
the choir assisted by the congregation,
was the closing number.
The Invocation.
The invocation was said by Rev. W.
T. Boaz, pastor of the First Chris
tian Church Following this Rev. A.
A. Dinwiddie introduced, in few well
chosen words, the speaker of the
evening-Dr. Witherspoon.
In his opening remarks Or. W1ther-
spoon stated that he had no formal
lecture to deliver, as had been an
nounced, that his lecture was that
which he delivers before his class, and
that he would attempt no flights OF
oratory. He expressed the greatest
pleasure at appearing again before
the people that he loved best-those
of his old home county of Maury, a
county in which he was born and rear
ed, where many of his relatives live,
and which was the birthplace of his
wife. He declared that in speaking
before large audiences in twenty-five
or thirty states he had not experience
ed the embarrassment that he did In
addressing his home people.
Origin of the Disease.
Consumption, or tuberculosis, he
said, was but one of the many forms
of tubercular attack. It's origin is
a germ of remarkable longevity and
unusual hardihood This germ is ex-
perforated by those suffering with the
malady, and can be frozen or dried
without losing its potency for harm.
Every mouthful of this expectoration
In which
rapidly dry and are spread broadcast.
In this way they become mixed with
the dust of the street, linger in old
buildings, and are ready to spring
from a thousand places to attack man.
kind He said that the disease Is
house born; that it is not hereditary,
and that its victims number one-tenth
of the human race.
Heredity.
Regarding the old belief that con-
sumption is hereditary the speaker de-
clared that the medical profession
had thoroughly disproved this theory.
He said that the children of consump-
tive parents have pre-disposition TO
tuberculosis, because Of weakened It's
sue that is as field plowed and har-
rowed and ready for the reception of
the seed But that any child is born
with the doom of inevitable death
hanging over his head from tubercu-
sis, he denied
The Negro Menace.
Foul air was held up by Dr. Wither-
spoon as one of the greatest agencies
for harboring the tubercular germ and
as one of the ablest assistants of the
White Plague. But he held up the
proximity of the negro race to the
white in the Southland as the .one evil
that was apparently tncurable. SO
long as the white man of the South
must live In country Jointly occu-
pied by an alien race, thrown into