EDWARD LIVINGSTON TRUDEAU, M.D. 315 



A mind like that of Trudeau's could not be idle, and a heart like 

 his could not see a suffering patient without offering help; but 

 he had his own notions of how to prescribe for the poor. It is told 

 of him that once, in the early days, Fitz Hallock, his guide, friend, 

 and neighbor, came in to tell the doctor that a poor family who 

 lived back in the woods were in trouble and had sent him to get 

 them medicine. The doctor took a prescription pad and wrote 

 on it "A sack of flour and a strip of bacon," and said: "Here is 

 some money ; get that prescription filled at the store and take it 

 to them." 



The writings of Hermann Brehmer, of Germany, on the open- 

 air, hygienic and dietetic treatment of tuberculosis in closed insti- 

 tutions (sanatoria) and the discovery of the tubercle bacillus by 

 Koch awoke in Trudeau an ardent desire to devote his entire life 

 to the study and cure of tuberculosis. The story of how he estab- 

 lished his first laboratory to confirm Koch's experiments of iso- 

 lating the tubercle bacillus in sputum, and of his later original 

 experiments in the hope of producing artificial immunity, is full of 

 romance. He selected a little room in his own house which he 

 called a laboratory, and made his own thermostat, which was 

 heated by a kerosene lamp. The laboratory was heated by a 

 wood stove, which on many a cold night the doctor had to get up 

 to replenish. Yet in spite of all these difficulties he succeeded in 

 isolating the tubercle bacillus. In 1893, while Trudeau was on a 

 visit to New York, word reached him that the lamp which was 

 connected with the thermostat had exploded and his home and 

 laboratory had burned to the ground. When Osier heard of the 

 misfortune, he wrote the following characteristic lines: "Dear 

 Trudeau : Sorry to hear of your misfortune, but take my word for 

 it there is nothing like a fire to make a man do the Phoenix trick." 

 In reality it was not very long before a magnificent building 

 of stone and tile was erected at Saranac Lake which compares 

 well with any of the best equipped laboratories of the country, 

 and which has been a Mecca for students from all over the world. 



There has, perhaps, never been a physician who had so many 

 kind-hearted and wealthy friends and grateful patients as Trudeau. 

 Mr. George C. Cooper built the laboratory, Mr. A. A. Anderson 

 endowed it, and Mr. Horatio W. Garrett, of Baltimore, presented 



