BEGINNINGS 5 



had a hemorrhage with evident signs of tuberculosis at the age 

 of thirty-five, succeeded in arresting the disease by a prolonged 

 journey with horse and buggy, living and sleeping in the open 

 air. Another remarkable case in that early period was one 

 treated by Dr. Henry Ingersoll Bowditch after the example given 

 him by his father. An old man at the age of ninety-two wrote in 

 1917 to Dr. Vincent Y. Bowditch that sixty years before, being 

 declared tuberculous, he had followed the advice of Dr. H. I. 

 Bowditch, who had sent him to the wilds of Minnesota with the 

 following injunction: "Have pluck and patience and don't be 

 afraid of the cold open air, it is the coming treatment." 



Among the early pioneers in the rational treatment of pul- 

 monary tuberculosis we must not forget to mention Dr. William 

 A. McDowell, the distinguished nephew of his distinguished 

 uncle, Dr. Ephraim McDowell, who, without the aid of an 

 anesthetic, performed the first ovariotomy in Danville, Ky., in 

 1809. In the year 1843 Dr. William A. McDowell published a 

 book entitled, "The Curability of Pulmonary Consumption in 

 All its Stages," based on the results of his own experiments and 

 investigations. When we consider that blood-letting, purging, 

 an invalid diet of weak broth, and protection from cold air con- 

 stituted the treatment for tuberculosis in those days, we cannot 

 help admiring young McDowell for his courage in opposing the 

 ideas then endorsed by high medical authorities. He disap- 

 proved strongly of blood-letting and purging, and approved of 

 four meals a day, outdoor air, and graduated exercises. He 

 opposed violent exercise, which some of his colleagues recom- 

 mended. "A Heretic of the Last Century," a name bestowed 

 upon him by his daughter, Mrs. Madeline McDowell Brecken- 

 ridge, in an admirable article which appeared in the Journal of 

 the Outdoor Life of November, 1916, seems to be appropriate. 



The communicability of pulmonary tuberculosis had been 

 recognized by American physicians even before the discovery of 

 the tubercle bacillus by Koch. Dr. Edward G. Janeway pub- 

 lished an article on this subject as early as 1882. 1 It is of historic 

 interest to note that the idea of making tuberculosis a reportable 



1 Janeway, Dr. Edward G.: "Possible Contagion of Phthisis," Archives 

 of Medicine, 1882, vol. viii, p. 219. 



