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SOME RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Consumption and Civilization.
By JOHN BESSEMER HUBER, A.M., M.D.
J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia.
One of the most marked steps in social progress
during the past decade or more is the tendency
which the scientific world is showing toward the en
lightenment of the masses of the people on subjects
hitherto deemed the exclusive property of the scien
tist. In no one subject is this tendency more mark
ed than in that of medicine, for it is only within
the very recent past has it been an accepted theory
that as much good can be accomplished by the edu
cation of the people in the matter of preventing dis
ease as by the intelligent treatment of it when it
appears. This is notably true in infected cities
where epidemics are threatened, as, for instance,
in New Orleans when the dreaded Yellow Fever
again made its appearance only last year. Had the
conditions been met in 1867, or in 1878, as they were
in 1905, two of the most deadly epidemics in his
tory would never have occurred. This is not due
altogether to the increased knowledge of precau
tions, disinfectants, etc., etc., on the part of the
physicians, but also because the public was instruct
ed in the manner of fighting infection and of pre
venting the spread of the disease.
Educating the People.
Philanthropists the world over are awakening to
the need of educating the people along sanitary and
hygienic lines, but in no one ill is this education
more necessary, and, in fact, more demanded by the
American people as a nation and by the people
of the entire civilized world than in the treatment
and the prevention of consumption—“ The Great
White Plague.” Henry Phipps, the Philadelphia
millionaire, has devoted a large part of his enor
mous fortune, not to the establishing of a tubercu
losis hospital, but to a sanitary bureau, as it were,
where patients suffering from tuberculosis have only
to make application in order to receive material as
sistance in the way of proper food, the few’ needed
medicines, but what is better still, the actual in
structures in the care of the disease for the afflicted
one and the protection of those around him. In ad
dition to these written instructions the applicant’s
address is taken and a district nurse makes regular
visits to his home in order to enforce compliance
with the necesary sanitary rules.
Lay Literature on Scientific Subjects.
The work done by this institution is indeed a
great step forward in the right direction, but it
is still another decided advantage when there ap
pears for the use of the layman as well as of the
physician a w’ork as perfectly fitted to instruct, to
guide and to educate the individual along scientific
lines as the volume we have under consideration,
“Consumption and Civilization,” by Dr. Huber.
This book may be said to be almost a pioneer in
its appeal both to the layman, the sufferer himself
as well as to the physician who has given careful
scientific study to the subject.
Complexity of the Subject.
A subject like the treatment and cure of con
sumption is one which, in its very nature, must be
complex, but the work of Dr. Huber deals with the
actual conditions as w’e know them today and no
space is given to any review of the many “theo
ries,” cures, etc., wihch have from time to time,
held the center of the stage when the subject of
consumption has been discussed. Os course credit
is not lacking to Dr. Koch, the discoverer of the
tubercle bacillus, but, knowing the presence of the
evil, the fight is on to conquer it.
Famous Victims of the Great White Plague.
In his introductory chapter, Dr. Huber calls at
tention to the fact that some of the world’s great
est men and women have died of consumption—
among these he cites the following: Bastien le
Page, of France; the great actress Rachel; John
Jongs, of our Revolutionary fame; Robert
The Golden Age for October 4, 1906.
Louis Stevenson, the writer of poems in prose and
verse; Schiller, the great German poet; Laurence
Sterne, Henry Cuyler Bunner, John Keats, Von
Weber, Chopin, Henry Timrod, Henry Kirk White,
Henry David Thoreau, Spinoza, Prosper Merime,
Artemus Ward, our own Sidney Lanier, and many
others who are well known to literary and historic
fame.
This list commands, at once, the attention of the
reader and carefully he follows the context of this
volume through page after page of stirring mat
ter.
Consumption Preventable and Curable.
Perhaps the greatest truths to be deduced from
the work of Dr. Huber are the paramount ones that
consumption is curable; that it is often preventable
and that it is always communicable. The latter is
one of special points made and dilated on, and as
much thought is given to it as to the further fact
that the disease is curable.
The modern theory for the treatment of tuber
culosis being that nature supplies that best, if not
the only remedy in the fresh air and sunshine so
freely offered to all who will accept it, much stress
is laid on outdoor treatment b Dr. Huber. This
gentleman together with many of his brother practi
tioners maintains that it is not necessary always for
patients to seek western climates and many points
are mentioned where sanitaria can be safely estab
lished, while even treatment in the patient’s own
home is explained and elaborated.
The work is illustrated with most attractive pic
tures of sanitaria as well as of unfavorable condi
tions, environment that conspires to produce the
disease, etc., etc.
Infection from Tenement Houses.
The question of infection through the work and
contact of the poorer classes in the great cities is
dwelt on at some length and the danger to the whole
population is impressed on the reader’s mind.
There would seem to be a great work still to do in
this line, despite the fact that societies are already
organized for this special purpose.
Consumption and. Christianity.
Under the head of “Sociological Resume,” Dr.
Huber treats of the duty of the Christian to this
subject, which phase of the question will appeal
strongly to the readers of The Golden Age. One of
these chapters is entitled “Phthisiophobia,” and
deals with the morbid fear which the discovery that
consumption is communicable has created in the
average mind. Dr. Huber tells of an incident in
which a young woman was refused a night’s lodg
ing at an institution in a great city—an institution
which bore over its door the “name of the Poor
Nazarene.” This senseless fear of possible conta
gion is justly scourged by Dr. Huber and the mania
of those who experience it is condemned as it de
serves.
Yet another chapter is devoted to “Consumption
and Christianity,” and the subject is treated most
tactfully and a high tribute paid to Christianity.
Dr. Huber says: “It is the spirit of Christ which
has been the supremest influence in shaping civiliza
tion during twenty centuries past—a spirit which
has on the whole prevailed over all else that has been
antagonistic to it. . . . What reason need one seek
why this spirit endures, beyond such as is revealed
in the gospel of this Christ ? . . . His noble altruism,
His tender sympathy for men and women who suffer
and are in anguish; His self-abnegation, even unto
death To the good fruit which this spirit
has borne every man who lives in the world and is
of the world must give grateful testimony. Such
testimony is most insufficiently described in this
book. However, some instances to the contrary have
been set forth and to these must be added the fol
lowing.” Dr. Huber then sets forth the obstacles
to the passage of governmental legislation in regard
to consumption and he also urges on the Christians
of the world the urgent need which, as fol
lowers of the Savior, all should feel, to make
better social conditions; to protect the people by
establishing sanitaria, by inspecting personal prop
erty and in every way aiding the few who are mak
ing a good fight toward the desired goal. In con
clusion, Dr. Huber says: “And is it not woeful,
0 Christ, is it not infinitely woeful when, in all this
tawdry fabric of civilization, a piece of money is so
often set against a bitter tear, a shrewd bargain
against a sick and tired heart; a phariseeism, such
as Thou didst hate so much, against a life crushed
out before its time?” S. T. D.
The Mayor of Warwick.
By HERBERT M. HOPKINS.
(The Cole Book Co., Atlanta, Ga.)
If the story of The Mayor of Warwick, from the
press of Houghton, Mifflin & Co., were a melo
drama, the most natural criticism would be that it
is entirely too “mellow.” It is a long drawn out
relation of events in which politics and romance
are mixed. It fails, however, to give any insight
into political methods, and presents situations in
romance that are not of the uplifting tendency.
The Mayor of Warwick is a baseball player in
summer and a street car conductor in winter. The
daughter of a bishop, head of a famous college,
imagines herself in love with and secretly marries
him. While she inspires him to attempt to reach
a higher station, he continues, even as mayor, an
intrigue with a servant girl in the bishop’s house
hold, and his evenings seem to be filled with clan
destine meetings, alternately with mistress and
maid. The situation is presented of a young col
lege professor, making love to and forcibly kissing
the bishop’s daughter, at the first meeting after he
has discovered that she is another man’s wife, and
he is supposed to be in love with her, too I But the
limit is reached when the bishop is made to conspire
against his own daughter’s life’s happiness and
send her to a nunnery, that the college may be en
larged through the use of her personal fortune.
The story is of present times and in away discusses
class prejudices. Accepting the story as a correct
presentation, or even plausible, if it teaches any
thing at all, it is that the one class, figuratively
has the disabilities of the leopard and the other
class is far from being what it is cracked up to
be.
Quiet Talks on Service.
By S. T. GORDON.
(Published by the Fleming H. Revell Co., N. Y.)
“Quiet Talks on Service” is one of three vol
umes uniform in style and similar, in away, in tone
and purpose. The other “Quiet Talks” are on
“Power” and “Prayer,” but the one on “Service”
is so decidedly helpful, strong and in many ways
unusual, that it deserves special mention. There
has seemed, at times, a most unfortunate sameness
in the treatment of serious theological subjects when
designed for the lay mind, but in the volume under
consideration there is a freshness of conception and
a “personal note” of helpfulness that cannot be
disregarded or treated lightly. Each chapter bears
a special message of helpfulness, while the ones on
“Worry, A Hindrance to Service,” and on “Mon
ey, The Golden Channel of Service,” are worthy
of special notice. We could wish that these sepa
rate chapters might be furnished in tract form and
widely scattered throughout the Christian world.
All the “Don’t Worry” clubs in the world must
sink into insignificance beside this beautiful con
ception of trust in the divine promise that “He
Has You on His Heart,” and the person remember
ing this, must, after reading this chapter, take up
the burden of life with renewed energy and a deep
inspiration toward better and nobler living.
Mr. Saunders, a former schoolmaster, told the
British House of Lords’ Committee on Juvenile
smoking that he could detect smokers by their
handwriting—that of boys who smoked being of a
loose, flabby kind. Handwriting, he said, was a
cinematograph of the heart.
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