56 



others were greatly modified, both in severity and number. One day, after 

 tbe patient bad been with me for some time, she told me that I was the 

 eighteenth physician she had consulted. This individual could write a book 

 on her experiences among doctors, and it might make painful yet beneficial 

 reading to many who prescribe purely on a statement of symptoms. 



BIOGRAPHY B. Next in order would come a history, a biography, 

 in the making, of a bright boy of fourteen years, but for certain reasons 

 it was thought best not to put this case in the form of a chart. This boy 

 reacts to his environment, but the chronic illhealth under certain conditions 

 promptly subsides under other conditions. At the International Congress 

 on Tuberculosis, at Washington, two months ago, Dr. Koch made a state- 

 ment which I have repeatedly verified. He said it was very important to 

 teach school children the important facts connected with tuberculosis, 

 that they will learn readily and remember, whereas the old learn with 

 difficulty and forget readily. I have frequently met elderly people whom 

 I attempted to instruct, but after a time I would ask myself, What is the 

 use? One is apt, on the other hand, to take unusual pains in instructing 

 the young and intelligent, who are both willing and capable, and it will 

 be interesting to read the biography of an individual who keeps a daily 

 record of what he does and where he is, and of the conditions relating to 

 health and illhealth. 



The question at times arises : Should an individual in chronic ill- 

 health be asked to keep a daily record of events and of symptoms? I 

 have had persons tell me they had so many symptoms that it would be 

 impossible to keep track of them — yet in a short time there would be only 

 a few to record, if they heeded rational advice. When the sick begin to 

 realize that there is a relationship between symptom and cause, they no 

 longer lie awake at night 'wondering what it all means.' 



One can readily understand why the individual brought up in the 

 country under good air conditions should suffer on removing to the crowded 

 city, and why the individual who is chronically ill in the crowded city 

 may quickly regain health on going to the country, or by merely exchanging 

 a dirty city for a clean one. We can also see how a study of biography in 

 the light of air influences, of coniotics, so to speak, may be 'both interesting 

 and profitable. 



BIOGRAPHY C. The influence of environment crops out in several 

 ways in this case, a man of 57. His father and mother were Irish ; he 

 was picked up as a waif in New York City when a small child, and, with 



