Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, March 22, 1903, Page 29

Mu nicipal Ownership of Tenements | EW YORK, March 19.—(Special Correspondence of The Bee.) -Dr. George F. S8hrady believes the fu- ture will bring advances in the healing art as yet undreamed of by humanity at large. He bases his hope upon the work of the recent past, which, he says, has been chiefly along preventive lines and in help- ing nature to increase the individual's power of resietance against disease, He foresees the ultimate practical stamp- ing out of consumption, through the adop- tion of nature's own remedies which are free to all, and proposes the municipal ownership of tenements to hasten this re- sult “Great progress has been made with the microscope and the test tube,’ said the doctor to the writer the other evening. “In their discoveries concerning yellow fever and its spread by mosquitoes, Dra. Reed, Finlay, Carroll and Agramonte did the race an incalculable service. They accomplished more for Cuba than all the warehips and all the soldiers, though the gift of freedom from Spanish rule was a priceless boon. ““The lsland has been practically free of the fever since the American occupancy, for the first time in its history, and this has brought immunity to our own gulf ports Nothing more important than the work of these men, and Ross' similar work in England, has been done in recent years. This would be true if the prevention of yellow fever had been all. ‘““These investigations have pointed a way to the ultimate stamping out of malaria as well, since the germ of that disorder, also, I8 conveyed by the mosquito, and the pre- cise circumstances under which this is ac- complished have been determined. “It I8 not enough for the mosquito to absorb the organiem that produces malaria or yellow fever from the infected person and then bite one who is well. The germ must remain within the mosquito long enough to develop properly before its bite will convey the disease from the sick to the sound. “The most gratifylug progress has been made in the treatment of tuberculosis. “No cne need ask now {f consumption can be cured. It can be cured. It is cured, practically, every day. But it is not, and cannot be cured by drugs alone. Beyond stimulants and nourishing foods which build up the vitality and add to the patient's resisting power, no remedies are specially needed, excepting those which nature furnishes, These are as free as the sunlight and air of heaven. In fact, they are light and air, and nothing else. “Light and air can be had in the most crowded cities. The working man can take his fill of them when walking on the street, or even in the park. Tuberculosis cannot get a hold on the man or woman whose blood is energized with plenty of oxygen, whose skin is browned by the winds, and upon whom the light of the sun is al- lowed to play a good part of every day. “Under such conditions you may inhale tuberculosis bacteria, and yet bet unaf- fected. It is a question of seed and soil The latter is always the essential element of propagation. There is enough vital force, enough power of resistance in the individual of perfect physical condition to overcome any evil influences, To put it another way, the phagocytes—the white corpuscles of the blood, which act as de- tenders of the health—in the circulation of the sound and normal person are strong enough and numerous enough to defeat the bacterial hosts in the battle royal sure to follow the invasion. ““The old notion that consumption as such is hereditary in some cases has been found to be a mistake. Children of consumptives, however, often show a general physical weakness and lack of resistance which is, In effe®, predisposition to the disease. But with these, as with others, fresh air, light, proper nourishment and cleanliness will increase the power of resistance so that the effect of the bacteria may be overcome, even if taken into the system ““This suggests the course which medical sclence is pointing out today to the men of capital and the municipalities of the civilized world. Provision should be made for the proper housing of the workers. 1 am almost prepared to say that it would be true economy for the great cities to build tenements properly located and full of win- dows, through which light and air can pass freely, and rent them to their wage-earning citizens, “There may be some who would object to such an extension of the municipal own- ership principle. But municipal ownership of water works I8 neceesary, as they have learned to their sorrow at Ithaca. There foul water, served through company mains, has cost many lives and much human suf- fering. “Consumption coets enormously more in life and suffering and money in every American city than typhoid fever, and the municipal ownership of tenements is as logical as the municipal ownership of water works. The workings of the Peabody fund in London may serve to show how such a plan would succeed, and perhaps it is along similer lines that the movement should be conducted. But at all events, the building of enough homes of perfect sanitary char- acter to house those who earn low wages, and at rents which they can afford to pay, should be one of the great coming reforms. The plan offers an unexampled opportunity for wealthy philanthropists if the cities will not take it upn.” To the suggestion that preventive meas- ures will not help those already afllicted with tuberculosis Dr. Shrady replied: “For them, either the municipalities or the wealthy citizens must build special hos- pitals and surround them with extensive grounds. There patients may take exercise in the open air with the sun shining upon them. There they may live out of doors. There they may even sleep with no roof over them. The cure thus offered must he furnished free to those who cannot afford to pay. “There are a few such municipal and DR. GEORGE state hospitals now, but more must be es- tablished. With the great preventive meas- ures that 1 suggest accomplished, however the need for hospitals and the withdrawal from productive activity of the patients, and the attendants and nurses who care for them, will gradually disappear.” In Dr. Shrady’'s judgment, the isolation of tuberculosis patients is nol necessary or desirable, providing ordinary care in meth- ods of life is cxercised, and the destruction of the sputum is attended to. “It is as easy for those of small means to care for their consumptives as for any- one else,” sald Dr. Shrady, “unless they are too crowded and are obliged to live in holes to which the light and air cannot have free access. There are tenementg, though, in every big city in this country, and many smaller ones, too, I am sorry to say, over the doors of which might well be inscribed: ‘All ye who enter here leave hope behind.’ It is the desite of the medical profession to educate the people, the city and the state to do away with these. “Light is one of the most remarkable of all the remedial agents at hand for the treatment of this class of diseases. Finsen, the Scandinavian, has shown this, through the things he has accomplished in the treat- ment of Jupus with those invisible rays which are termed ultra-violet. “Lupus is not common in America, though well known and dreaded on the other side of the Atlantic. It is a form of tubercu- logis, not of the lungs, but of the surface, and Finsen destroys it by subjecting his patients to the purely chémical rays. His rays have not. been made to penetrate deeply enough as yet, however, to be very efficacious in tuberculosis of the lungs. “Just how much prn&rosn can be made with similar treatments, no one knows as yet. In London and Paris, in Berlin and Vienna, in Copenhagen and New York, in- vestigators are studying the effect of the blue light and the ultra-violet rays under varying circumstances. They are also ex- perimenting with various lenses and other media through which to pass the light. ““There have been many experiments with the X-rays in fighting cancer, but these have not been successful except in super- ficial cases. Even then the rays have not been of much greater, if any, more benefit than the plan of scraping out the bed of the ulcer and using caustics. F. SHRADY, “The knife still remains the last resort for well-developed cancer. dven it fails when the disease is of such long standing as to allow thorough distribution of the discase through the systemn “There is promisc in the immense ac- tivity now being displayed in bacteriologic research. While it has not led to the dis- covery of remedies in a great number of instanc it has laid bare the causes of several disorders to which the fiesh is heir. In this way it has led the profession closer and closer to the plan of assisting nature in building up the power of resistance ana the adoption of the simplest treatment pos- glble, New Move in Warfare Against Tuberculosis “It is true that certain poisons (anti- toxins) destructive of the disease-producing bacteria have been discovered, but in more than one instance it has been found that these poisons would also kill the patient, or, at best, leave him much weakened. “It was so with formalin, in cases of blood poisoning. Formalin will, indeed, de- stroy the microbe producing thie disorder, but formalin's effect upon the patient is still very questionable. “An interesting thing which medical science has discovered concerning bacteria, but of which the general public, probably, is not aware, is the fact that microbes do little :or no harm to. the husnan system directly. They come into being, live their little lives and die, nourished by the vital forces of the greater life by which they are eurrounded, without destroying tissues or interfering with the functions of that life. “But in the course of their brief ac- tivity it has been found that they distill deadly poisons (toxins) and these poisons produce the disease. From this discovery rose the serum treatment—the invention-of the various anti-toxine, An anti-toxin, as its name ~indicates, is simply an opposing poison. The anti-toxins that have been found so useful in the treatment of such diseases as diphtheria, for iInstance, do their work by destroying the poisons which produce them . Into the system of the patient the proper anti-toxin is introduced by inoculation. As the circulation of the blood carries it cours- ing through the veins and arteries, it meets, opposes and, if the disease has not progressed too far, overcomes the bacterial poison, and the patient gets well. ““The acarlet fever antitoxin is the latest. It was developed in Germany by Aronson. Baginsky gave it the needful tests. It seems probable that it may yet take its place alongside the diphtheria serum. The latter is regarded by a majority of the pro- fession as almost a specific, “The antitoxin treatment for tetanus or lockjaw, is not so often successful, because the disease is usually well advanced, the central nervous system frequently being in- volved by the.time its presence is shown through its characteristic symptoms. “It is so, too, with hydrophobia. As it is wise to take treatment at ‘once when bitten by a dog, whether or not he be known to be rabid, so it is wise to take remedial meas- ures without delay after such an injury as a wound from a rusty nail or toy pistol. “Much of the recent progress in medical science hzs been the result of vivisection, to which so much objection is made in cer- tain quarters. But even if vivisection en- tailed all the suffering on the part of the lesser animals which these gentlemen at- tribute to it it would still be right, Even then it would be only the sacrificing of the Inwer to the higher animals, and this is in accordance with the inexorable law of na- ture that insists on the compensatory sur- vival of the fittest. “But, in truth, vivisection docs not entail suffering. The life of the physician is given over to the alleviation of human suffering, snd he would be the last person to inflict pain needlessly upon any living creature. ““As I have already indicated the foun- dation of the progress recently accom- plished, as well as that greater progress which is hoped for, lies in assisting nature to effect her own cures by adding to the patient’'s power of resistance. Drugs are sometimes a help, but pure air, pure water, light, more light—these are the great agents, the use of which, properly directed, are now the physician's chief reliance. “As we learn and practice more along these lines, the number of diseased per- sons in proportion to the whole is sure to diminish steadily and markedly. The race of the future with better education along these lines will be stronger, healthier and, therefore, on a higher level mentally, morally and physically, than it now Is or ever has been. “The many medical congresses now being held and the discussions and the inter- change of views which thes~ give rise to, the eager s#tudy which the physicians are giving to their profession, and the wide general interest taken in everything pertaining to health, are big factors in the progress of the present aund the future. To these should be added the vast influence of the modern press which is always ready to open its columns for the spread of such infor- mation amcng the people.” OSBORN SPENCER. Woman Stops a Runaway and Puts Men to Shame EDESTRIANS on Seventh avenue yesterday morning at 10 o'clock were startled by the clatter of hoofs, and the next instant a light runabout drawn by a fright- ened horse dashed down the Carroll street hill in the direction of Flatbush avenue, reports the Brooklyn Eagle. In the car- riage was a small boy, crying from terror, The child was in imminent danger of be ing hurt, and yet none of the numerous men on the street made any attempt to stop the runaway. Suddenly a woman sprang from the curb and placed h-rself in the way of the approaching horse. She grabbed the bridle and, after being dragged aver 100 yards, brought the trembling horse to a standstill. This woman who put all the men to shame by her bravery was Mrs, Talbot of 398 First street Mrs. Talbot is a well known resident emong the fashionable set on the Park Slope and lives in a handsome light s‘one house on First street. She was an ex- ceedingly modest heroine when seen by a reporter, and would say very little ebout the affair, ‘It was nothing,” she said, simply, “and 1 hope you won't exaggerate it. I was on my way to market when I saw the horse coming with the frightened child in the runabout I love animals and have not the slightest fear of them, so | made an attempt to ston the horse I heard some one say that the little boy was the son of a Mr. Kent, on Fifth street, but 1 don't know, As soon as he was in safe hands I went on my way to do wmy shopping. That's all there is to it.” All the while she spoke in the most mat- ter-of-fact way, as if she had been in- dulging in a description of a favorite pas- time There is no doubt, however, that she saved the child's life, even though she was too modest to admit it, A woman eye witness gives quite a differ- ent version of the brave act. Thus she de- scribed the incident: “Yesterday | was on Seventh avenue, when I heard a commotion, and, turning around, I saw a crowd of men running after a runaway horse. The animal was dragging a light runabout and lurching dangerously from side to side. The only occupant of the carriage, a child, made matters worse by hanging desperately on to one rein, “There were several men ahead of me on the sidewalk, but not one of them seemed to understand the situation. Then Mrs. Tal- bot, attired in her short walking skirt, took up her position in the middle of the street and awaited calmly the coming of the horse. “l expected to see a catastrophe, but she grabbed one rein near the bit and hung on. She was carried fully two blocks before the horse stopped. A large crowd gathered and wanted to know who she was, but she re- fused to reveal her identity. She brushed the dust from her skirt quietly and when she had seen the little boy safely in the hands of a man who knew him, she walked quietly away, “l do not know the boy's name, but he belongs to a wealthy family on the Park Slope, as I see him repeatedly in the vi- cinity.”