CONSUMPTION. 157' 



this state is a man who has never practised medicine. 

 He is a man who gets all the knowledge he has on the 

 subject from a study of theoretical books. His knowl- 

 edge is the knowledge of the laboratory, and not of 

 the practical." 



"I have had some personal experience in my own 

 family with this disease. I had a very near and dear- 

 relative who had consumption for a great many years, 

 and who eventually died of it. She had a husband" 

 and four children who lived with her all that time in 

 the same house. Absolutely no precautions whatever 

 were taken. She lived for years in that house, cough- 

 ing as consumptives do. Not one of the household' 

 ever acquired the disease, nor have they to this day. 

 To have been obliged, as a medical man, to do to that 

 relative what the board of health has ordered shall 

 be done to other consumptives in this state, to me- 

 would have seemed cruel and useless beyond all 

 expression." 



Another physician said: "I am of the opinion that 

 tuberculosis is not contagious, and for that reason I 

 would oppose quarantine and isolation, as proposed by 

 the board of health." 



In an editorial appearing in the May, 1899, number 

 of the Medical Brief is the following: "Our local 

 medical dictatorship, ordinarily known as the board 

 of health, has succeeded in getting a bill introduced to- 

 the city council declaring consumption contagious. 

 This act is an outrage on both the medical profession 

 and the people of the community. By this bill the 

 health board arbitrarily assumes the authority to decide- 



