The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 17, 1898, Page 21

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JULY 17, 1898. S DA SCIALIL & @ D QUIR IRNCURARBILYY. IDDST gl P S | 4=m-..—...@fl DISCUSSED BY: DR. ROBERT @A. McLEAN, MRS. F. DISERENS, REV. W H. MORELAND, COL.J.J.LYON, REV. M. E. CRAMER, DR. FREDERICK W. D’'EVELYN, JEROME, A. ANDERSON, JUDGE WM. CRAIG, COL. WM. C. SMITH, WONG TAL F all the questions which are being put forward by advanced thinkers for general consideration and discussion that which embodies severe crit- jcism of the methods of civilization in regard to the treatment of the incurably sick is most sting. the highest skill of physicians and , and the most self-abnegatory care of ed and friends are exerted to prolong life, how- ever little of blessing the life so prolonged may be to f, to his family, or to the world at re not a few persons, however, who oneer a movement in a different di- e by no means sensationalists or al notoriety, but individuals who their present convictions after long st study of the subject and the different d. 1 that mere life is not desirable, and dy beco ly a torture-chamber ss would be to painlessly and speedily nes simy anifestation of the tolerant spirit ad- a theory should be boldly bated. t were given and beliefs 1 here in Each year of scientific med e limit of the te: tigation is re- so that the ble or incur- a very difficult one and would most rd just grounds cing tl K W.D'EVELYN ke's Hospita | e tanding and e not only in f the laity, but in the conclusions of the t of the victim of the disease, ief from his sufferings, onsidered as a reliable onclusion. »uld most certainly prohibit that mentality which would admit of nsidered in a right mind, whether wishes was the outcome of or the tremulous prostra- arently in ) isputable objections pre- tively little difficulty when contrasted , man’s humanity. humanitarianism,” a 1 class of auto-inflated to man and his wants bring s 2 hangman’s rope and no in the chilling beams of a December sun. are our brother’s keeper, not our brother's de- nd our duty is, at all stages of the tragedy 1Ipport, not to destroy; to maintain, not to »se relationship ace than d one the professional right to re- L grave error and a direct violation and human so far given to us. It 7 to reduce human suffering to a minimum, > the pangs of disea to cover up its loath- _h,u Ver our prerogative to adjudicate that ol feel justified in drawing my re- Ing through the still pulsating heart of who had fallen in the charge and whose body could scarce retain his soul than I ence-free to chloroform a poor victim e the horror of cancer had passed beyond enti.n. yet prepared to relegate humanity to a evel d not until the thunders of Sinai 1mand “Thou shalt not ki anism™ the last awful issues of n frailty, but I trust forever in- ¥ linked to human elity. o f e While the {dea may be a shocking one to many it §eems to me to be perfectly right, and T feel sure that - z e et U | R when its e expediency will LONEL J.J. LYON, e L G.A R totally unneces- sary anguish is endure 1 to such mat- at constitutes true rers from can- r paralysis and nsumption the in- and friends to keep the retched bodies s actual the lethal chamber, or the s of which the patient uld be a positive bles ng. 1lation of the world » In a somewhat dif- laws, and in future lowed to enjoy ex- now if sanitariums were *h should be gathered all persons so crippled or deformed as to make their promiscuous mingling in society unpleasant to themselves and to those brought in contact with them. Cripples. who look upon their misfortunes as stock in trade should not be allowed to prey upon the public; and those whose circumstances compel them to expose themselves to the gaze of strangers while their sensi- tive natures shrink from the thought of pitying com- ment should have a pleasant home provided for them out of the public moneys, where they could live se- cluded from all except those friends whom they wished to meet. ‘While few men would care to express themselves in favor of a law authorizing, even after rigid in- vestigation by a commission specially appointed, the removal of a hopelessly ill human being, there are very few men who would not prefer to have their own sufferings shortened under such circumstances. It is well to have the subject discussed, for In time we shall become accustomed to the thought, and our minds, through successive generations, will be pre- pared for the inevitable, for the time will surely come when the secret wish of the individual will become the law of the whole. o I cannot understand how any one can seriously put forward such an ldea in the present age of the world. "o} even ®hcpestithe ige sirability of legalizing | ROBERT A McLEAN, M.D.| murder seems to me dia- metrically opposed to the ST e ~ spirit of the time; it is taking a great many steps backward from civilization into savagery. There are savages who kill their deformed or un- wished for children, desert their sick, and leave their useless old men and women to perish from starvation, but their example is not to be emulated. Speaking from a strictly professional standpoint, without regard to the religious, the ethical, or the social aspect of the question, I will say briefly this: The whole theory and practice of medicine are opposed to any such idea. It is the aim of medical men to save and prolong life under all circumstances. It is neither our mission nor our privilege to separate the soul from the body. It is not our business to decide whether or no a patient would be “better off” if he were dead; nor is it our business to listen to a patient’s own de- sires or to consider whether or no his relatives and friends would be happier relieved from the burden of caring for him. Our simple duty is the preservation of life and to that end we are bound to direct all our energies. Once the life is in the human body it is our one aim to keep it there, and no outside considerations could have the slightest effect upon a physician worthy of the name. To in any way lessen the sentiment as to the sacred- ness of human life would be productive of much evil. If murder, under certain restrictions, were to be con- sidered right and necessary those restrictions would in many cases be ignored and a haunting fear of enforced dissolution would add to tke sufferings of many a sick bed. While it is possible that the time may come when the earth will be so thickly populated that some plan to decrease its inhabitants may become necessary, that time is so far in the future that it is not worth while to discuss {t. Our duty now is to care for the lame, the halt, the blind and the suffering, and not to shirk our responsibility in that direction by taking upon our- selves the far heavier responsibility of sending them out of this world. This question is by no means a new one to me for I have often debated in my mind concerning what ought to be done in cases | where a human being is so JUDGE WILLIAM CRAIG* | 1l or so helpless as to be a burden to himself and to all around him. My conclusion is that it is almost impossible to decide as to the positive incurability of any disease, since almost miraculous recoveries, after all hope seemed gone, have been known to most of us. Phy- sicians of the highest standing are often astonished at the recuperative powers of the human body, and patients given over to death very frequently have a new lease of life given them, to the surprise of their medical attendants and hopeless relatives and friends. Such being the case it would be quite impossible for any commission, no matter how able and consclentious, to judge always correctly of the physical condition of sick or infirm persons. There would always be room for a doubt as to their coneclusions, and that doubt uld pave the way for serious complications. f a sick person expresses the wish to die that wish can be looked upon as nothing more than nature’s rebellion against pain. A man who has been thoroughly healthy during his entire life often feels so discouraged and alarmed by a transitory illness that he is lost to reason. Should such a man, because he foolishly prays for speedy death to end his sufferings of the moment, be removed from the world because his “‘consent” has been gained and his re.atives would be ‘“better off’ in the enjoyment of his life insurance than they are while sitting up nights caring for himr As to sequestrating the crippled and deformed and those marred by disease I think that we have no right to shut persons away from the pleasures of social in- tercourse simply because we do not enjoy seeing them, chest in their tenders. OOO00QOOOOOO0000000000000000000000 gold, by millions and millions of dollars’ worth, is packed away for safekeeping in New York this mmer than has ever been gathered here before, probably more than is at this time stored in any gther city on earth, excepting St. Petersburg - and Paris; certainly as much as the to- tal output of all the mines in the world last year. This n em an exaggerated state- ment, in view of the fact that the gold output of 1897 was the largest in his- ¢ being equal to at least $2 IE\\' YORK, July 9.—More coined yet it is well within the truth, since the gold coin holdings here now amount to between $200,000,000 and $210,000,000, and @ probably nearer the larger than the figure Moreover—and this tement is still more surprising—the world’s visible supply of gold, estimat- ed by the offic s of the New York as- say office, though now larger than ever before, amour only to a little more than $£5,000,000, , both coined and un- cained, so that, accepting $200,000,000 as of New York's present . it is quite equal to rt of all the precious w metal in existence. In addition to the vast sums repre- sented by the figures quoted there was stored in the 4 y office on this day ,000,000 worth of bar gold and led to the coin holding of $227,- n the clearing house and the swells the gross—aside ank and private holdings—to $282,000,000. Unquestionably there is enough more gold in New York at this time to raise the grand total to $300,- 000,000, or one-third more than the world’s output in the year of greatest production. The presence at the nation’s commer- clal center of so vast an accumula- tion of the world's andard money metal, due to no government’s efforts at concentration, is unprecedented, and, while it is in one sense a source of gratification, the situation i{s not with- out its embarrassing features. Perhaps the greatest embarrassment The gross weight of gold now stored in the public treasure s of New York amounts to 522 tons—$300,000,000. Were all o this gold placed in one side of a gigantic pair of scales it would heav- © 1ly overbalance ten fifty-ton locomotives, and the weight of the © chest alone in which it is kept would more than equal the coal carried o (-} arises from the lack of adequate stor- age facilities at the clearing house. Its great strong box, or treasure chest, was built to hold $165,000,000, and when it was erected three years ago there was little thought that its capacity would il coLo Il 4 S [ovoses B ,,,7////7/ Instead of shrinking from the sight of the afflicted we should do our best to help them bear their burdens and should do all in our power to make them forget their sorrows. It is the knowledge of and sympathy with the sufferings of others that make us rise above the natural plane of selfishness. Super-sensitiveness is super-selfishness almost always, and if the sight of a distorted or suffering body is repugnant to us we should think how much worse it must be to be the owner of it and endeavor in every way to help the unfortunate person to bear his or her burden patiently. Christ found the world selfish and taught the other doctrine and his precept and example have helped us to rise t> our present plane. It i< inconceivable that we shall ever retrograde to the extent indicated in the proposition under consideration. sinete I can scarcely believe that in these present years people would seriously advocate any such proceeding e e as killing a ‘man for the reason that he is no pleas- ure to himself nor his ac- quaintances. A man should endure suffering with all patience and his friends should do everything possible to pre- serve his life until death can no longer pe prevented. No reputable Chinese would consent to the taking away of the life of a relative or friend; such a thing would be barbarous and monstrous, and would not be thought of by one properly. taught and reared. . H WONG TAl, Merchant, Under no circumstances should I think it allowable for a man to take it upon himself to deliberately end a human life for the reason that the encroachments of disease had made that life unpleasant to the owner and troublesome to his friends. I am a eoldier and I have been in more than one battle, but deliberate murder is something which I could not countenance. The aim of an army is rather to wound and thus remove from the fleld of battle, than to kill outright. It is only under the most ag- ravated circumstances that a soldier will deliberately shoot at a man to kill, and no one but a most cowardly murderer would attempt to injure a man who was unarmed and defenseless. Supposing that a law were passed legalizing the “helping” of incurable invalids to “a speedy death,” where is the respectable father or mother, or husband or wife who would give their consent to such a pro- ceeding? Of course there are mercenary and hard- hearted persons who would be only too glad to avail themselves of the right to send troublesome charges out of this life, but surely the small minority of such individuals should have no weight in the discussion of questions which affect the whole worid. Even on the fleld of battle I should not consider a man justified who would end a comrade’s life to save him from suffering. It is hard to resist the frenzied pleadings of an apparently mortally svounded man when he begs you to shoot or bayonet him to end his misery, but there is always a chance that he may be picked up and carried to a hospital and made able to hold his own in the battle of life even If he can no longer be a soldier, and that chance should be taken every time. A The very idea of a “lethal chamber” must be re- pugnant to persons who are possessed of hearts and consclences. A person who is sick or helpless has a special claim on us who are more fortunate, and to [ COL. WILLIAM C- SMITH, | First Tennesses Volunteers. even think of “putting away” man, woman or child who is helpless to resist us and dependent ‘upon our good offices is treachery of the basest kind. Let us all “die fighting,” whether it be the enemy in the field or disease in our chambers, and-let us die becawse our time has come, with our faces toward the foe, and with no shot or stab in the back given us by our own comrades ‘m arms. | . No, I do not think that because a person is in- curably sick he should be murdered. Besides, this universe is governed abso- lutely by the law of cause and effect, however much our materialistic scientists may declare to the con- — __ trary. Therefore any one suffering from an incurable disease is experiencing the effect of cause which he himself set in action either in this or some former life—probably the latter. The effects of a cause cannot be avoided by either man or God; but they may b: delayed or transmuted to some other plane of action. Thus the Christian Scientists and their congeners do really cure physical ailments by transferring the field of eimrects to the mental plane. and such cases are always followed by mental disease, either in this or some future life. Similarly the person who commits suicide to escape suffering, or who is murdered by his doctor or his friends by the permission of the community, will not JEROME A. ANDERSON, Theosophist. escape one single pang; because the effects of the’ causes have not been permitted to wear out. He will return to this earth, and nature, who never forgets nor forgives, will place him under such conditions that the old unsatisfied causes will begin to run and he will be obliged to pay his debt to the last farthing. This is a universe of order and justice, not of chaos and injustice. Merited suffering cannot be escaped in any way, neither by vicarious atonement nor by putting the sufferer ““out of his misery,” as the ‘Westerners often express it. Mercy demands, how- ever, that all unnecessary suffering be alleviated, and this means all suffering except that whose cessation can only be accomplished by the death of the body. I would smooth the path to the grave by every means known to medical science, but I would not cut life short by one single hour. Murder is unjustifiable upon any hypothesis whether philosophic or sentimental. s e . I consider it neither merciful nor justifiable to take a human life under any circumstances. Life does not e SN s 0 oome from man, nor should ‘ man presume to judge when it should be taken. Life is from God. He gives it and He withdraws it. It is a false mercy that would W. H. MORELAND, Rector St. Luke's Church. 1 consign to a lethal chamber the incurably ill. There are worse things than pain and sicknes and they who bear these in the right spirit win a Divine bless- ing, of which they would be robbed were they to be painlessly executed. We know but little of the mys- terious connection between soul and body, nor how much suffering of the body is necessary to the puri- fying of the soul. Since Christ has shown the value and sacredness of human life and that the state of the spirit is infinitely more important than the health of the body (which latter is always in a state of flux), Christian nations have changed the ancilent customs, such as exposing delicate infants to die, smothering the aged and putting to death the diseased. The present proposition is not in the line of progress. It is a proposal to return to an exploded custom, which the better judgment of mankind rejected centuries ago. "The mote of the proposers is &ood, i f o Judgment is poor. They think they are merc re mistaken. There making this suggestion, but they al a A is truer charity in the words of one of the deepest, truest thinkers, Robert Browning: I was fivell)- a flghtex;l, slo one fight more, ast! I wouAldehne(set 31?& flefnh bamthged my eyes and forbore, nd bad creep past. No! let me ta';txan?he wgore of it, fare like my peers. The heroes of old. The skill of science in relieving pain has become so marvelous that the suggestion of a lethal chamber is as unnecessary as it is superficial and mistaken. o e i From a Divine Science standpoint there aré many reasons why the “incurably sick” (so called) should not “be helped to a speedy death.” The claim that they are incurably sick is human judgment. It has been our privilege to witness, through the application of Divine Science, the rapid recovery of so many patients who have been judged incurable by councils of the best-known physicians that we know no human judgment would be a safe basis for any one to work from who indorsed the idea of “helping” people to die. This practice would lead to cruel exper{- ment and crime. Our experience in healing has proved to us that “incurables” are often quickly cured. Divine Sclentists do not believe in_murder under any name or pretense. The law is “Thou shalt not kill”; it is Just as much murder to kill a sick person as it is to kill a well one. There is no law by which it is proved that death, the ultimate of disease, leads to health. The Declaration of Independence is approved the world over. That all are born equal and have equal right to life and liberty. One portion of the com- munity is not justified in putting another portion out of the way because judged to be incurable. s heT M. E. CRAMER, | Pastor Flrst Divine Science Church. My experience for years on the board of directors of this institution and later as resident matron has = Toars FHON0D — proved to me that no mat- MRS. F. DISERENS, ’ ter how wretched and Mstron King's Daughters' | ;‘é’p"};‘ss e ibe S:e o e sufferer ere £ o e '""‘"”"J very little real longing for the relief of death among those who are incurably i1 We have here an average of seventy men and women, many of them as helpless as infants from Theumatism, paralysis or physical injuries, one’ of them—even those who are utterly alone in the world and dependent upon the charity of strangers— seem to feel that they have something to live for. One man, a good Christian apparently, way afraid of death except as it meant th;e earthly life, though afflicted with a most ho cer of the face which had destroyed one e; and made him a most dreadful sight to end of his rrible can- ye entirely look upon, death in his sleep, something which al might esteem a blessing under the cire such a death would be absolutely from excruciating suffering, and arrangement of mirrors at his be him to keep watch of the disintegr: all the hours of the night. ums(ances, as painless and a relief he insisted upon an dside which enabled ating tissues through A STORE OF GOLD THAT WEIGHS OVER 522 TONS. ever be tested. But though the esti- mated storage limit has long been over- run, no surplus millions are kicking around loose on the floor of the institu- tion. On the contrary, by crowding the treasure chest, its capacity can be in- creased over per cent, and the un- expected millions are to-day stored quite as safely and guarded as care- fully as any of the stock on hand. The great strong box of the New York clearing house, by the way, is the only treasure chest of its kind in the world, and competent judges say it is also by all odds the best, exceeding In security the vaults of the Government at Washington and those of the Bank of England in London almost as much as a modern burglar-proof safe exceeds the iron key safes of our grandfathers. = i i \ R\ The doors can be opened representatives of lwopsets ofozll%cg?:-r—l- one from the clearing house itself and one from the associated banks, which own the gold—are present. When it is desired either to withdraw o gold, they both go et Before the box itself can [ they must unlock the slldin:edor?r:nsg the grill, each official working a sep- arate combination. Asg these doors move aside, a little drawbridge swings into place. Pacsing over this they open one of the treasure chest’s outer doors, each using a separate combination as before. So delicately are these doors adjusted that they swing at the slight. est touch thougn each is fourteeninches !hlck' and(\\'eighs ten tons. opening of this door does not ag the men to the presence of the treas!}?-:: since there are inner folding doars tg be unlocked and passed, and after these have been swung there are small steel chests: which must be unlocked before the gold itself is accessible, The internal arrangement of the great treasure chest is admirably suit- ed to its purpose, there being three rooms, each entered by its own doors, These rooms are each six feet wide, and each contains 70 steel chests' for the storage of gold. They are ran ~ed along the side walls in tiers exactly like big pigeonholes. Each pigeonhole is 18 by 24 by 20 inches in size; each has its own door and individual key and each will hold one ton, or $500,000 in gold coin of any denomination. It is the custom to store the coin in strong duck bags, much like ordinary shotbags in material and make and each large enough to hold twenty pounds avoirdu- pols, or $500, so that {t requires 100 bags to fill each pigeonhole. Of course, all are now filled, and besides, a tler of extra boxes have been arranged down the center of each room, until the total dead weight of gold now contained in the big chest amounts to 392 tons. Add the gold coin in the sub-treasury and the bar gold in the assay office to this and the gross weight of the pre- cious yellow metal at this time stored in what may be termed the public treasure chests of New York would amount to 522 tons. Were all this gold placed in one side of a gigantic palr of scales it would heavily overbalance ten 50-ton locomotives; and the weight of the chest in which it is kept would more than equal the coal carried in their tenders. Located somewhat lower than the sidewalk it is about as large as a good- sized private dining-room, having a frontage of 25 feet and a depth of 20 feet. Its ceiling is 12 feet high. The floor rests on a platform of steel rail- road rails. Like the sides and top, it is 63 Inches thick, and composed of layers of chrome steel plates, each plate being 3-16 of an inch thick, so tempered as to be of almost diamond hardness, and all bolted together in such a manner as to “break joints” at every point. Were there no other safeguards, the material used and the methods of construction would form an almost perfect guaran- tee against loss by theft, for it would take the most expert burglar using perfect tools, more than twenty-four hours to make a hole through either floor. top or side. As a matter of fact, the additional safeguards are so elab- orate that the gold would be secure even were the wa..s of the treasure chest made of wood instead of laminat- ed chrome steel. In the first place, and here is the point in which the clearing house strong box excels all others, it is en- tirely enclosed in a large underground apartment 40x50 feet in size and 20 feet high, which is at all times brilliantly - lighted by electric bulbs Thus the walls of the treasure chest are entirely free from contact on the top and sides, while on the bottom there is uo contact save at four points only. These are furnished by solid masonry plers, set on the bedrock which forms Manhattan Island's foundation. These piers raise the great chest six feet six inches from the main floor to the level of a narrow platform reaching quite round the apartment, but separated by quite a space from the box itself. By this arrangement it is possible for the watchmen who guard the treasure night and day actually to walk under it at will. This arrangement also fur- nishes an absolute safeguard against burglars working from the bottom by means of a tunnel, and it would, of course, be impossible under the circum- stances for any one to break into the box at any other point. In ordinary circumstances it is impossible to touch the chest at all, excepting at the bot- tom, since it is separated from the sur- rounding platform exactly as a feudal castle is separated from the immediate territory by its moat, while the roof is two feet lower than the celling of the inclosing apartment. As an additional safeguard the treasure chest is sur- rounded by a grating or grill of finely tempered two-inch steel bars, which reach from floor to ceiling, making it impossible for any one to get nearer than four or five feet without unlock- ing the grill doors, It is evident from what is sald above concerning the construction and sur- roundings of the clearing house treas- ure chest that the thief who should succeed in robbing it of any of its pre- cious contents would be a very ingeni- ous and persevering fellow indeed. -Yet the half of the safeguards have not been told, nor will the custodians of the strong box explain them all. It is a fact, however, that even were two light-fingered gentlemen to accomplish the impossible and secure the double combinations, it would be maorally certain they would come to grief the moment they began to manipulate the locks of the grill doors. For they are fitted with electrical contrivances cal- culated to bring disaster upon any un- authorized and therefore unfamiliar person who should touch them. At the same time alarms would be sounded in a dozen different quarters and arrest would be made before the burglars could get out of the place. “I see, Munchausen,” sald Boswell, “that you object to having Ananias a member of the Assoclated Shades.” “I do, of course,” sald Munchausen. “Jealous?" “Of my profession, yes,” sald Mun- chausen. “We want the real thing. An- anias was an amateur,”