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A Talk on the Need of Laboratory
Work by Doctors and the Cause of
Failure in Many Cases of
T F you have any prejudice against an adver
tising doctor or against an advertising
doctor’s office, come and see me, take time
enough to investigate me, my associates and
our methods, bring your family physician with
you, and all I will ask him is NOT to keep his
criticisms for the “soap box
brigade,’’ but to state them
to me personally. If they
have merit in them he.can
rest assured I will try to
correct them.
I am writing this espe
cially for the reader who has
been trained and educated
into what I believe to be
the erroneous idea that phy
sicians should not advertise
and that all advertising doc
tors must necessarily be
quacks and humbugs. I am
writing this for the intelli
gent man and woman.
I am free to admit that
much has crept into the ad
vertising columns that might,
with benefit to suffering hu
manity, be eliminated. But
at the same time there is not
only a little, but a great big
lot of quackery—yes, I mean
quackery—among the so-call
ed regular profession, or the
non-advertising doctors. I
have believed always in
science being the real foun
dation of all that is best in
? doctor's practice.
The day has gone by when
new and marvellous cures
can be foisted on an unsus
pecting nublic.
CT
I COURT INVESTIGATION.
I might add, an ignorant public. For no
matter how brainy or how well educated the
layman may be, it is quite probable that when
it comes to discussing physiology or disease,
he is in all probability absolutely ignorant and
may be deceived by statements that, to the
man well posted on the subject, will be known
to be arrant nonsense.
What I want from anyone having doubts
about this office or its conduct, is a thorough
but unprejudiced investigation. For any of
fice, any personality that bids for the public’s
clientage and that does not bear the closest
scrutiny, is not worthy of the public's confi
dence.
I have certain opinions that I believe have
been pounded into me by experience—that
have thoroughly saturated every fiber of my
physical being. For instance, I believe that
the study of disease and the practice of medi
cine is so hard, and there is so much necessary
to be learned and our responsibilities to our
patients are so great, that it takes all the
brains and all the good health of the best and
ablest sort of man to keep abreast of the times.
I believe it naturally follows that no man can,
by dissipation, waste any of it and be a good
doctor. So no man can ever be a drinking
man and be a good doctor. I have heard of
them, but I never knew one in my more than
35 years’ experience in the profession.
Recently a gentleman spoke to me of a cer
tain doctor and said:
“What a pity he drinks! If it wasn’t for
that there wouldn’t be a better doctor any
where.’’
Now I happened to know this doctor’s abil
ity as a physician and know that among those
qualified to judge, his opinion would not be
worth the expenditure of enough energy to
snap your finger.
Then, too, I am a firm believer in the fact—
at least I believe it to be a fact—that true
morality and true physiology are hand maid
ens. Necessarily no true physician can coun
tenance or encourage in his patients anything
but the straight path physiologically or
morally.
THE IMPORTANCE OF DIAGNOSIS
I most earnestly believe that diagnosis is
the most important thing to the invalid who
has probably been in the hands of several phy
sicians without benefit, I have found this il
lustrated daily for the past four decades, and
so I KNOW it is true.
Only today a gentleman told me his expe
rience. how he had suffered with rheumatism,
how several doctors had treated him without
success, how he went to Hot Springs. Ark., and
took the baths for several months, how he
went home and a doctor after examination
(and the doctor was a celebrated nerve expert)
told him it was rest he needed. Then he went
to bed for weeks and hired an attendant to
feed, rub and massage him daily, but after all
he was unable to even walk. In desperation
he consulted a young physician who, after an
examination, found the arches of his feet
broken down, or what is popularly known as
flat foot, fitted him with arch supports. Then
his “rheumatism’’ was gone and he has been
walking ever since.
Now I was not the Doctor who discovered
the condition, so I do not tell this as a cure by
myself, but only to illustrate the truth of what
I have so long contended to be the most im
portant part of a doctor s education and prac
tice—diagnosis. ,
HOW THE SCIENTIFIC PHYSICIAN
WORKS
But diagnosis is not the easy thing it seems
to be to the layman. The time was when all
By DR. WM. M. BAIRD
Wil
I
DR. WM. M. BAIRD.
56 Marietta Street.
Brown-Randolph Building.
Atlanta, Ga.
that was thought necessary was to feel the
patient’s pulse, look at his tongue, possibly
listen to the breathing or the sound of his
heart, and give a decision. The scientific physi
cian of today knows there is much more than
this. He knows that the methods of the
laboratory are intricate and
complex and can only be car
ried out by one who has been
thoroughly trained in the
details of these methods.
There lies before me an
article by a doctor who ad
mits the value of these meth
ods, but says they are so ex
pensive and so complex and
often take so much time that
very few doctors can employ
them. I thought while read
ing it that here was an argu
ment in favor of advertising,
for it is only in seeing and
treating a large number that
it is possible to do this at
fees which can be paid by
the average person.
MY NEW SCIENTIFIC
EQUIPMENT.
Right now I am adding to
the equipment of this office
certain laboratory facilities
that will cost several hun
dred dollars. They will not
make any great show. There
will be no brilliant display of
electrical fireworks—no fake
violet ray business. But
they will be useful adjuncts
which no doctor with an av
erage practice can afford to
employ.
There are tests we can make here at a rea
sonable price, because of the large number of
patients we see daily. If, however, we were
seeing only a few patients each day it would
be so expensive as to be prohibitive. Bacte
riological tests, examinations and laboratory
methods are today revolutionizing medicine
and surgery, and I can say without fear of
contradiction that 90 per cent of physicians
are not keeping up to date.
When I was recently forced to move on ac
count of lack of room I thought when I took
5,000 feet of floor space, subdivided into 12
rooms, with other space making practically 3
rooms more, that I was amply provided for.
But I soon found that I had to give up my own
consultation room in order to make room for
increased laboratory equipment which I was
determined should be the best in the South.
Under the methods for caring for patients in
vogue even 10 years ago, four or five small
rooms would have been amply sufficient.
WHAT I THINK OF “606.’’
That bacteriological examinations are nec
essary has been very forcibly illustrated during
the past couple of years in the history of Ehr
lich ’s Salvarsan, or ‘ ‘ 606. ’ ’ I have been quot
ed as being opposed to it and as condemning
it which is not true. I simply told the public
the absolute truth, and every criticism I made
has been shown to be absolutely true in every
respect. I have said it was only another one
of the arsenic preparations, all of which we
knew to be of value in relieving symptoms, and
nearly all were dangerous.
The methods used at first have all been dis
carded on account of its danger, and every day
we see in this office evidences of the results of
its use by incompetent physicians, who see m
it only a means of adding to their bank ac
counts. But what the public does not fully
understand as yet is that there are very few
of the men who give it who are really compe
tent to prepare it.
Ehrlich pointed this out long ago and has
always expressed a fear of this being the cause
of bad results that would follow its use. This
has been proven to be the case, and then there
are a few so unscrupulous as to use it and
promise the patient that one, or at the most,
two doses would be a cure, and they gamble on
its relieving temporarily and long enough for
them to collect their fees. Then, too, in the
treatment of this disease, certain tests must be
made to determine the result and here is where
the bacteriological laboratory comes in.
I NEVER HAVE SOLD CURES.
BUT come to see us—see whether I tell
the truth in my advertisements or not. All
ordinary examinations and tests are made free
of charge. Go and see first whether or not you
like the methods and equipment of others.
Then come to me and use your common sense.
We don’t promise you a cure for a certain sum,
and neither does any honest doctor. And if
there is anyone who does this I dare him to
come out in print and deny that he is anything
but a fraud and a faker.
But YOU, who have been under the care of
several physicians for a long time without
success, come and see me, and the evidences of
your own sense will, I believe, convince you.
The chronic invalid needs and has a right
to demand not only the best that science can
give, but the attention and conscientious service
and intelligence of those who think of the good
of the patient above all else. This kind of ser
vice I have been giving and shall always be
determined to give my patients.
I am the public’s obedient servant for add
ing to its health and strength (and that means
happiness).
WM. M. BAIRD, M. D.
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN AND NEWS: MONDAY, MAY 6, 1912.
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" I j STEVE R.
Z'zzzx IfIUNgTHN
PLASTER ESTATE »IDN,
Auctioneer
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£>C- Z'o //> <Ta
Administratrix’s
SALE
Auction
fiiESOAY
MAY?
1912
At 10 A.M.
Before Courthouse Hum
19
Beautiful
LOTS
Ranging in size from 2 tt
to 15 acres, as shown by
accompanying plat.
Fronting on Plastei
Bridge Road or
Piedmont Avenue
One of the prettiest
drives in Fulton county.
Most of these Lois
are beautifully shaded
with virgin forest and
several of them have
fine springs.
AN IDEAL PLAGE
FOR A COUNTRY
HOME.
About a mile north of
Piedmont Park and
street ear line and
about 15 minutes from
the center of the city
by automobile.
This property has
been in the Plaster fam
ily since it was first
granted by the state,
and this is the first op
portunity to buy any
part of it.
Take this and go out
and examine the prop
erty before Sales Day,
so that you can bid in
telligently.
Signs are on each lot
giving dimensions and
acreage.
Terms, 1-4 Cash
Balance 1,2, 3 Years
at Seven Per Cent
For Plats and Informa
tion, Apply to
EDWIN P
ANSLEY
Forsyth Building
9