Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1915-02-05


germ in half the cases and prescrib-
ing the wrong microbe in the form of
, a serum or some other preparation
may as we'll be imagined"
II was also pointed out that many
OF these cases were OF simple dag.
nosis. making the percentage of error
much higher when confined to the
doubtful cases.
Question Of Surgery.
Surgery is more scientific than
medicine said the senator. Some
surgeons have become wonderfully
skillful. They apparently Vie with eacn
other 10 show how far the body can be
carved and mutilated and the patient !
still live. The desire to use the knife |
has become n mania with many surg I
cons. No one who has noticed the ex-
tent TO which surgery is resorted TO /
in these modern times can fail TO
know that thousands of lives are need
lessly sacrificed and thousands of per
sons made invalids by this means.
This occurs sometimes from the Gag
/ erness 20 operate, more frequently
/ from ignorane and incompetency. but
more commonly still from wrong di-
/ agnosis."
| boy in Los Angeles who was about to
be operated upon for spinal meningi-
It's. to become a permanent cripple as
a result His mother decided to de-
lay. though the surgeons protested.
and il was discovered by other surg
cons that the boy had no symptoms of
the disease. \ simple remedy was
given and the next day the boy was
playing in the yard.
Surgeons and physicians deplore
this more even than the laymen.' ne
said. They realize it more and prob
ably sympathize with it less than we
do because they can comprehend its
fearful consequences"
Methods in Hospitals L
He quoted DR.. John B. Murphy's ad- I
dress before the American Medical As L
ISOLATION criticizing the practicing of 9
unskilled surgeons in the hospitals. Z
saying that hospitals suppress the ?
number OF fatalities and that other ?
things go on that would not bear the a
light OF day.
DR.. John NJ. Mackenzie of Johns c
Hopkins University was quoted at e
length by the senator. condemning the Il
modern craze for removing children's 5
AbASiAS ~ SUI gerry lHu4SGIlulludtt
and uselessly. DR.. Cabot was again
referred to as saying that an appalling
number of operations for appendicitis "
and enlarged tonsils. two fashionable fl
diseases" were wholly unnecessary. 81
Seventeen per cent of the appendices e.
in a Boston hospital, he said b.
were shown by autopsies to be abso- -
utely normal. W
\ long list Of newspaper clippings h
was presented by the senator telling
II fatalities resulting from operations OF
many Of them needless ";
Splitting Surgical Fees CT
The custom OF splitting surgical fees IN
between the physician who advises an as
operation and the surgeon who per IN
'orms il. the senator condemned. and lii
cited the condemnations of the prac- al
ice, by a number of the profession. on
The prospect of a share in the large az
zee. gagged according to the size of ri
he patients purse. he showed. often no
'esulted in operations that might 9th
arwise be avoided. &c
The only pro- ctiou for an abused GU
ublic" he quoted one doctor as say eff
ne, lis legislation which Will make en-
urgeons and physicians legally as tn
veil as morally responsible for errors co
n diagnosis, as well as in deliberate
asses where the knife is resorted 10 tu|
or big fees" W
DR.. George r. Cruickshank of Wind pc
or. Ont, Canada, was quoted as say cr'
ng that many operations are made aft
olely for the fee involved, and that of
. per cent of the operations for APP SUI
are unnecessary. The ap- he
endix is in the body for a purpose, pos
nd is not a useless appendage,' said Ian
he doctor "TonsiIs are necessary in be'
lie throat otherwise they would not Of
o there. But happily customs are bee
hanging. Ten years from now the ma
perators of today viii be looked upon diu
5 barba rians" sal
Serun1s Are Protested. IA
4 protest against the compulsory
Sc OF serums and vaccination was
ade by Senator Works the
No one knows" he said. whether mil
lev have ever healed a single disease dru
r prevented IL But it is known be me
1nd the possibility of a doubt that any
lousands of people, many of them &c
,lpless and innocent children, have ana
zen killed and thousands of others Sci
noculated with the loathsome dis in
lses by their use. All kinds of ex sho
Ises are made for the consequences tive
a doctors fatal blunder. Serums eriI
@ forced on whole armies and navies fist
I'd on school children. with fearful the
suIts We 20 on experimenting and the
skiing our lives and health and die I
tion of the doctors in obedience to doc
uel laws upon mere theories of The sch
ctors. Every soldier and sailor is re- hea
tired ? submit 10 this incubation lens
senator Works submitted with his size
marks the correspondence between con
mself and the secretary of the navy not
the case of Joseph Kapsa, a gun rep
CON