The Wilmington morning star., 1947-02-09

be nursed in the private homes and
with kindly but unframed neighbor
nursing or by inexperienced color
ed women.
When Dr.. Charles T. Nesbitt,
County Health officer, made the
bold published statement that "any
one who had typhoid fever had
taken something into their mouths
that had passed through someone
else's bowels" the town went wild
with indignation. but they held out
their arms to us by the hundreds
for typhoid innoculation.
Later, when DR.. Charles W.
Stiles-of the U. S. Public Health
Service-made the statement that
40 per cent of the school children
in New Hanover County from all
classes were infected with hook
worm, many people denied his
charges, but DR.. Stiles had the fact
and his statements could not be re.
futed.
AS you probably know, the treat
ment for the hookworm disease at
that time was thymal - now Of
course it is refined tetrachlore:hy-
lene. tuberculosis, "captain of the
men of DEATH" as Sir William Os.
Ter called it, had its victims by
the hundreds. Colitis, known to the
u1educated laity as bloody flux,"
vas rampang. Malaria was every.
where, and SO was venereal dis
ease We were not alone in this
dreadful state of affairs. The whole
state was the same way.
I cannot refrain from saying here
that even with our present we'll
regulated and efficient health de-
partment, the younger generation
has not been convinced that there
are ''other affairs than those OF
Venus upon which the young can
kindle fires" and %venereal disease
is still n of our worst problems.
I would also like to mention the
Influence epidemic of 1918 that orig.
mated in Spain and soon became
paademic, which was the worst
scourge this country has ever had,
with II, 900 cases here in 10 weeks,
and over 600 deaths. This was far
worse than the Yellow Fever cpl
demic in 1862. 1 should also like to
mention in passing the Smallpox
epidemic which occurred a few
years before the Influenza epidem-
ic.
To go back to the practice of
medicine in the early part of this
century, most of the accidents were
taken care of in the offices of the
physicians. and until the opening
of the Marion Sprunt Annex, the
obstetrical cases were handled in
private homes. l have a tabulated
record made 20 years ago Of 2,0N
obstetrical patients, IS per cent Of
whom were delivered in the home.
The road to Castle Hayne hao
just been completed when 1 came
here, but we had to ferry across
the Northeast River and the Caps
Fear River as well. The Market
Street road was paved for only
seven miles out. There were no inn
proved roads in the southern part
Of the county. Many of the princi-
pal streets of the city were unim-
poved, and in some cases were
impossible in bad weather.
From 1905 to 1909 1 practiced
medicine with a horse and buggy.
1t might interest you to know that
Wilmington, after a heavy rain, was
entirely inaccessible from any di-
rection except by boat or rail by
reason of swollen streams.
There were no airships in those
days. You will recall that the
Wright Brothers made their first
flight on the wind-swept beaches Of
Kitty Hawk in 1908. My first auto
mobile was bought in 1909, a Max
well, of the progressive transmits
sion type and one had to be care
fully on the watch for "scarey
horses along the streets and or
the country roads. The horse-drawn
vehicle had the right of way. There
was no State tax on cars or gas.
and gasoline sold at nine cents per
gallon.
With the construction Of the
James Walker Memorial hospital
and the addition some years later
of the Marion Sprunt Annex, and
with the organization of the Con
solidated Board OF Health" the pic
ture began to improve rapidly, and
some of you have been able to
watch the great changes that have
been made in health, sanitation and
transportation, in the car of the
sick and injured, and in all things
surgical, medical and in the gener-
al advancement of medicine in all
of it's branches. I would like to
state that the late DR.. Charles P.
9oles and l were members OF the
Consolidated Board Of Health in a
period when the sessions were both
tense and strenuous. To contrast
the conditions as they now exist
and as thew were when l came
here, is calculated to make one
believe that we are rapidly ap-
preaching the millennium.
Our profession has made more
,rogress in the last 40 or so years
than in the 1900 years preceding
this era, and l am conceited enough
to believe that the men who have