318 A HISTORY OF NATIONAL TUBERCULOSIS ASSOCIATION 



Henry Barton Jacobs then took hold of his arms and marched him 

 up to the platform. The audience stood and would not listen to 

 his declination, but on the contrary a loud and continued "No" 

 arose from the vast assembly. At the International Congress 

 on Tuberculosis in September, 1908, in Washington, Trudeau 

 received an ovation whenever he appeared on the platform, and 

 what he said as greeting to the delegates illustrates the man's 

 labors and great modesty. Speaking of the achievements in 

 tuberculosis work from the time when he started his professional 

 career up to that date, he said : 



"For thirty-five years I have lived in the midst of a perpetual epidemic, 

 struggling with tuberculosis both within and without the walls, and no one can 

 appreciate better than I do the great meaning of such a meeting. I have 

 lived through many of the long and dark years of ignorance, hopelessness, and 

 apathy, when tuberculosis levied its pitiless toll on human life unheeded and 

 unhindered; when, as Jaccoud has tersely put it, 'The treatment of tubercu- 

 losis was but a meditation on death.' But I have lived also to see the dawn 

 of the new knowledge, to see the fall of the death-rate of tuberculosis, to see 

 hundreds who have been rescued, to see whole communities growing up of men 

 and women whose lives have been saved, and who are engaged in saving the 

 lives of others. I have lived to see the spread of the new light from nation to 

 nation until it has encircled the globe and finds expression to-day in the gather- 

 ing of the International Congress of Tuberculosis, with all that it means to 

 science, philanthropy, and the brotherhood of men." 



During the last years of his life Trudeau suffered a great deal 

 from his old tuberculous lesion. When artificial pneumothorax 

 came into vogue a few years ago, he submitted himself to this 

 treatment, and for a time it gave very gratifying results. Later 

 he gave it up, feeling that it did not help him. Though illness and 

 the loss of two beloved grown-up children a son and a daughter 

 had left an impress of sadness on Trudeau, he kept up admir- 

 ably, was optimistic and cheerful most of the time, and until the 

 very last took the keenest interest in the institutional and lab- 

 oratory work of the sanatorium. 



We are indebted to him for a most remarkable address on "The 

 Value of Optimism in Medicine," which should be read and 

 reread by every physician. This wonderful address was delivered 

 before the Congress of American Physicians and Surgeons in 

 1910. To give the full weight and meaning to the address on 



