422 A HISTORY OF NATIONAL TUBERCULOSIS ASSOCIATION 



year of internship he took up the general practice of medicine. At 

 the same time he began the study of law to gratify an old ambi- 

 tion, registering as a student in the office of Benjamin Harris 

 Brewster, of Philadelphia. The strain of practising medicine and 

 studying law, however, was too much for him, and he again broke 

 down. Hoping to improve his health by life at sea, he applied for 

 assignment in the United States Navy, but was rejected on phys- 

 ical grounds. The naval physicians advised him to go west. With 

 a few dollars in his pocket he started for Colorado, and after 

 countless hardships and calling upon several of his friends for 

 assistance he reached Los Angeles by way of Texas and Arizona 

 in December, 1881, with $25 in borrowed money as his total 

 assets. He was thrown from a horse while looking for work the 

 day after he reached Los Angeles, and was taken back to his 

 boarding-house in a grocery wagon. For somewhat over six 

 months he struggled for existence, all the time, however, improv- 

 ing his health. He says that his poverty was the principal reason 

 for his cure because he was compelled to live largely on milk, 

 drinking as much as six quarts a day. From this personal experi- 

 ence he gathered many interesting suggestions in regard to diet 

 in tuberculosis that he put into practice in later life. 



In September, 1882, he resumed his practice in Philadelphia 

 and rapidly began to develop a reputation as a specialist in tuber- 

 culosis. From that time on he did not suffer seriously on account 

 of tuberculosis. He married and reared a family of seven chil- 

 dren, all of whom are living at this time. 



Dr. Flick's early contributions to tuberculosis excited a con- 

 siderable amount of opposition, not only because of the fact that 

 his general views regarding the communicability and curability of 

 the disease were counter to the notions of most of his professional 

 brothers, but also because he had developed from his own personal 

 experience very positive convictions regarding the climatic treat- 

 ment of tuberculosis. 



As early as 1888 he developed and presented a paper on the con- 

 tagiousness of phthisis, and began to advocate the registering and 

 reporting of living cases of tuberculosis in Philadelphia. 



His daily practice in one of the most congested districts of 

 Philadelphia convinced him of the necessity of free treatment and 



