Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-02-21

until the city, can take it entirely of
of their hands, rather than to let the
need go untitled.
TN the meantime, before the city
could do this, can think of no more
public spirited act than for some IN
dividual or group of individuals to put
the necessary funds for purchase of
ground and equipment Immediately at
their disposal. The safety of the com
munity as well as justice to the patient
demands II.
! L. Trudeau is the father of the sana-
forum movement in this country. All
honor to the man, who, finding him
self an incipient consumptive, went
with his wife up into the wilds Of the
Adirondacks in northern New York
and fought out for himself in a one
room cottage, eight miles from civiliza-
ton, a permanent and lasting cure
Today the Adirondack cottage sana-
forum is worth more than a million
dollars, and thousands of graduates
are going out every year from this
and other sanatoria all over the coun-
try-saved themselves from the dis
ease and devoting their services to the
saving of others.
Witness the Ottawa tent colony
which since 1904 has been successfully
treating patients and getting a high
percentage of cures.
Travesty of Justice.
yet with all these facts, is it not
almost a travesty of justice to the poor
consumptive that outside of a few free
beds in private institutions, there is
not in this whole state of Illinois a
single place where the durable case
of tuberculosis can receive care and
treatment at public expense? New
York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts,
New Jersey, Michigan, Wisconsin,
Iowa and several other states have
established state sanatoTia for this
purpose. Thus far all attempts to es-
tablish a state sanatorium in Illinois
have met with a dismal failure. l am
constantly in receipt of letters from
sufferers from all over the state, in
curing if there is no place where they
can go to be cured. Recently a young
woman from Mercer county wrote say
ing: 1t is hard to die knowing there
is a means of cure A high school |
principal in an Illinois town wrote TO !
ask if there was not some means of
curing girl in his senior class |
one of the brightest of his students, /
who had become a victim of the dis |
ease These are only typical exam /
pies. The state is full of them as evi- |
denced by the 1000 deaths outside nf /
every year from the disease.
We need state sanatorium and /
should bend every effort to secure
legislation to that end at the next ses-
sion of the general assembly.
The GIacIIn Law.
I'm the meantime, relief to the !
larger cities is afforded by the Glackin
law, which permits cities and villages |
to levy a one-miIl tax annually for the |
care and treatment of tuberculosis /
patients, after petition signed by 100 !
voters is filed with the city council /
and a majority of those voting on the |
at the next general cleo
ton. have voted in favor OF Tue
measure. Chicago has already taken
advantage of the law. The governor
signed the bill on the afternoon of
March IL last year, and a petition
signed by over 1000 voters was pre-
5ented to the Chicago city council at
noon on the 18th, just in time to get
the vote in at the last general election
On April 6.
Two other factors in the fight
against consumption are the tubercu-
osfs dispensary and the visiting tuber-
,ulosis nurse. The Chicago Tubercu-
osis institute has eight such dispen-
saries and a staff of IL nurses, de-
voting all of their time to the instruc-
ion and care of those consumptives
who can not or will not go to hos
oital or sanatorium
AT the dispensary the patient is
net by the nurse, who gains the pa
tents confidence and by tactful ques-
Joining secures the information neces-
;ary to the doctor in making a careful
md accurate diagnosis. After the ex-
the doctor turns the patient
pack to the nurse with such instruc-
ions as may be necessary regarding
home treatment and return to the dis
From thu ne on the nurse
becomes the Gomez & link between
he doctor and the p, lent. She SYM
,athizes with, encour, ges, helps, in
itructs her patients. IN her frequent