GENERAL PAPERS 63 
twelve years ago a young man of athletic build and apparently 
in vigorous health was doing the work of a class in bacteriol- 
ogy, and when the subject of identifying the organism of tu- 
berculosis came up he, as a matter of curiosity and none other, 
prepared material which he managed to cough up himself. 
To his astonishment and that of others there was unmistak- 
ably the dreaded bacillus. This was in March of his senior 
year. From that time on he did everything believed to be 
helpful for one so infected, but in June of the same year a 
diploma was conferred upon him while he was in the hospital 
under the most vigilant attention of a physician and nurse 
owing to an entirely unlooked for hemorrhage from the lungs. 
But from this last he soon recovered and then devoted himself 
sensibly to the recovery of his health. He is today a strong, 
effective and honored member of the faculty of an agricultural 
college in a neighboring state instead of what he might have 
been, a suffering and slowly doomed man and a menace for 
some years to those nearest and dearest to him. And this dif- 
ference came about by that early accidental discovery. How 
many were there at this same time in similar condition whom 
mere fortune did not so favor? 
I am exceedingly glad to be able to report that beginning 
with the present year the happy-go-lucky state of things has 
been changed to rational examination and authoritative pro- 
cedure. 
But such facilities as Dr. Bain describes should be available 
in every community and the absolute necessity of such exami- 
nations should be thoroughly and widely appreciated, as the 
best practicing physicians do appreciate the aid thus afforded. 
