Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1915-01-06

tuberculous animals, and taking from
them their offspring as soon as born.
These calves, If raised apart from
their tuberculous parents, are free
from tuberculosis; further, and this
is the main point, they are free from
any predisposition to tuberculosis al
so. What DR.. Johnson proposes, is |
not the actual slaughter Of the 10000
more or less tuberculous persons in |
Minnesota, but only the total extinc-
ton of 100000 of their families! On
the other hand what we wild propa- |
gandists" propose is the temporary
isolation of 1000 sick and infected in
dividuals, for an average of one to
two years each at most, and only dur
ing the infectious stage.
DR.. johnson paints lurid picture
Of this isolation, with the State Board
of Health keeping the unfortunate
victims in the Sanatoria with Win
chester rifles. How curious it is to
compare theory with practice! Was
it not DR.. johnson himself who con-
suited me within a month on the SER
ious problem of securing, not the re-
lease, but the admittance of one of
his own patients to a Sanatorium?
Was not his great difficulty the long
waiting-list of applicants already reg
istered ahead Of his poor patient?
Rifles to keep them out you must
mean, Dr., not to keep them in!
Nearly every physician in Minnesota
has had the same experience and has
had to deplore the fewness of the
beds available for those who even
now demand them-now, remember,
before the systematic discovery of
cases has been properly begun. St.
Thomas and Hopewell are full; State
Sanatorium waiting list, so. St. Louis
County Sanatorium waiting list, %;
and counties without sanatoria COM
PEELED to seize on vacancies wherever
they can, at Otter Tail, Ramsey or
the private sanatorium at Pokegema.
DR.. Johnson claims that the "com-
mon DOCTOR" not the public health
man, should have the credit for the
present status of tuberculosis. True,
too true! The "private practising
physician, or rather the system of
which he is the essential and neces-
sary center, is indeed the burden
bearer. In the first place the private
practising physician has no author.
/ ity to seek tuberculosis; he must sit
Il idly by, no matter what he notes, I'M
til the afflicted individual elects to
come to him. The physician cannot
investigate, he cannot warn, he can
not even speak professionally until
he is spoken to. Not until the disease
has developed to a point where il
drives the patient to seek help, and
then only if the patient chooses him
can he announce the facts of which
his observation may have informed
II him long before. Every physician
- knows that on the average, tubercu
lous patients come to him too late b!
r a full year. This cuts their chance:
Of recovery full fifty per cent. Then
when at last called in, the physical,
= gives his ''orders", the patient ma.
obey them or may not, just as his un
trained, uncontrolled fancy may di
rect. The physician often does no
have even the poor satisfaction o
" knowing whether his 'orders" wer
obeyed or not! And however skilled
re he who sees his patient only once, a
often happens, can do little for him
- Every physician bewails these tw
great drawbacks to successful prat
tice-the lack of carrying out of OF
ders, once given; the lack Of oppol
-. tunity to follow up his cases an
learn the results. Now, If the patien
- were alone concerned, perhaps the ps
tents own self-interest or self-nee
lect might be allowed to rule. Blu
when it is remembered that tuberc,
losis is, in certain forms and stages
Ill an infectious disease, this leaving G
In it wholly to the casual control" c
rs the private physician (who has a
n real "control'' whatever,) is just e,
r. actly why the tuberculosis situation
ne son never said a truer word than thi'
ne That physician cannot even fin
K cases Of tuberculosis, let alone hal
ne die them conclusively after the case
g. elect to present themselves to hin
or has been nowhere better exemplifie
es than in Blue Earth County, unless
m be in Kandiyohi itself. (See my pre-
OF ious letter.. In the former county a
us the local resident practising physi'
ed ians in the county reported all tol
49, twenty-five cases. Yet one publ
rs health expert in one month, a strant
TO er to the county, found, visited, iste
Sc and reported lightweight! In Kal
X diyohi, where only five or six wer
to reported by physicians, at least thi
IN ty-eight exist! When we remembe
er- that just this one Of the many draw
backs under which the private physi'
ar ian labors-that of being prohibite
es from searching for the diseases r,
lp- sponsible for about one-half of tn
al deaths annually from tuberculosis
he Minnesota, it will be readily unde
al stood how the present status of tube
N, culosis is just what DR.. Johnso
of claims it is, the result of the preser
et system of handling tuberculosis thr
ID, the private physician.
nd DR.. Johnson in further defendin
mt the present system, makes anothe
on deliciously naive claim. He say
o. granting that a certain tuberculos
at patient is under physicians car
tie and does not spread the disease I