1889
THE SMALLPOX CASE.
_______
Eagle Ford Stirred
From Centre to
Circumference Over It.
The building
from which the colored smallpox patient was moved yesterday was
burned down late in the afternoon under the special supervision
of Mayor Connor and Alderman Rowley. It was a frame shanty located
two doors east of the colored church on Young street, and was
valued at $25.
Eagle Ford, four miles west of
the city, became very panicky last night over the appearance
of several negroes who arrived on the train and took up their
habitations in the most populous portion of the little burg.
The first to arrive was a negro woman and her two children, who
stated that she was fresh from Dallas, and that the authorities
had just sent her sister and two children to the pest house because
she had a case of smallpox. This statement almost paralyzed the
inhabitants, who went to work and had the woman shipped back
to Dallas. Arriving here, she found the shanty burned to ashes,
and gathering a number of her sympathizers and relatives, they
all went over to Eagle Ford and established themselves there
during the night. The news of their arrival had been broken in
every household in the place before breakfast, and when a delegation
of angry citizens made demonstrations towards driving the unwelcome
emigrants from the place, they refused to go.
Mr. John Lucks, the station agent,
was then dispatched to the city on the morning train. He reported
the case to the authorities and desired on behalf of the community
that some wise disposition be made of the colored arrivals who,
it was thought, had been exposed to the disease.
As a simple and effective preventive
in the absence of anything better, is recommended the use of
pure apple vinegar. The faces, necks, chests and stomachs of
the suspects should be bathed in it, they should rinse their
mouths with it and keep it in plates in each room where it will
evaporate. It is said to be an unfailing preventative in small
pox epidemics.
- February 14, 1889,
Dallas Daily Times Herald, p. 5, col. 1.
- o o o -
A HEALTH ORDER.
_______
Ordering Everything
of a Decaying
Nature Removed.
The city
health officer has issued a proclamation notifying all parties
to clean their premises of everything that will decay or keep
the soil damp, or is otherwise offensive or liable to become
so--cesspools, backyards, privies, water closets, stagnant water,
swill, slop, cellars, stable manure, chicken coops, weeds, all
manner of trash or waste matter liable to decay or keep the soil
damp must be cleaned out, removed or destroyed in ten days time,
and every place disinfected with lime or copperas.
Weeds on sidewalks and in gutters
are included, also vacant lots.
It is given out that on Monday morning parties who have failed
to obey the order will be arraigned in court.
It is a matter which every citizen
should have pride enough to give attention.
- July 20, 1889, Dallas
Daily Times Herald, p. 8?, col. 3.
- o o o -
1890
THE CITY GOVERNMENT.
In his
annual report, Dr. Carter, the city health officer, recommends
the creation of a city board of health. He does not suggest a
plan, but he says he prefers the plan adopted in Memphis, where
the board is composed of the mayor, chief of police, health officer
and two members from the outside, who are to be selected by the
city council.
- April 7, 1890, Dallas
Daily Times Herald, p. 5. col. 3.
- o o o -
[CITY
HEALTH OFFICER'S REPORT]
HEALTH.
The general
health of the city has been, during the entire year, remarkably
good, though there have been a few deaths from the much and justly-dreaded
diseases of diphtheria and scarlet fever. Neither approached
anything like an epidemic in form, nor prevailed to an alarming
extent in any part of the city. Wherever these diseases occurred,
all precautionary measures were taken to prevent their extension.
During the summer months, malarial
fever prevailed in its intermittent form to a considerable extent,
caused in all probability by the vast extent of excavations throughout
the city in grading and paving streets, laying sewer and water
pipes, and in doing excavation work for all manner of improvements
that have been going on here on such a grand scale during the
last twelve months. By reference to the mortuary statistics (see
table No. 2) in this report, it will be seen, however, that the
death rate was remarkably small from this malarial disease.
Malarial fever has formerly been
considered peculiarly southern in its "habitat," and
that nothing was necessary for its production except a hot climate,
but observations in recent years have shown that it prevails
more or less in all temperate climates, and is as amenable to
sanitary measures as other epidemic diseases. Very recent investigations
have discovered the germ of malarial fever, and that it was found
in the atmosphere only about three feet above the surface of
the earth and only three feet below the surface soil. Higher
up, and lower down, no germs could be found. Consequently, in
malarial regions, sleeping apartments should be constructed at
a safe distance above the surface soil; then excavations, however
extensive, would not cause malarial fever. The
pan-epidemic of influenza (la grippe) that visited this city
about the middle of December and swept over the country like
a besom, cause very little mortality and a small amount of alarm.
Last year, the number of deaths from pneumonia was 43; this year,
the number caused by the same disease was 43. As this is the
disease that causes the fatal termination in so many cases following
influenza, these figures show that its evil effects in this city
were light. It lingered her about three months, then fled as
it came, like "a frightened spirit."
The mortality statistics in this
report (table No. 2) show that tuberculoses slew more subjects
in this community than any other disease. Some public scientific
bodies are seeking new methods of diminishing the number of victims
from this dreadful disease. In reference to guarding to some
extent against the increase of this incurable disease, the American
Public Health Association recommends that the community should
be instructed that the destruction of the sputum of tuberculosis
patients is absolutely an essential part of the means of preventing
the spread of this disease.
Smallpox we have escaped entirely
this year. Vaccination is an absolute protection against the
invasion of this disease. The neglect of this precaution, harmless
in itself, invites this malady. Though the city is well prepared
for taking care of its smallpox patients, no precaution should
be neglected that would have the least tendency to ward off an
invasion of this dreaded disease. But, recently, State Health
Officer Rutherford felt it his duty to declare quarantine against
some of the Mexican cities because of the alarming extent to
which smallpox prevailed in that country. Vaccination is a sure
protection and the neglect of it inexcusable.
Cholera and yellow fever do not
belong to our country. From the national government, assisted
by the state health authorities, we confidently expect protection
from these foreign foes, yet our surest defense is in our own
efficient sanitation. The germs, or the infecting causes of disease,
do not flourish where the atmosphere is uncontaminated and the
soil unpolluted.
The total number of deaths within
the city during the year was 557 (see table No. 2). Estimating
the population, by eliminating East Dallas, that was not attached
until January 1, 1890, at 45,000, we have a remarkably low death
rate---8 per 1000 inhabitants.
BURIAL OF THE DEAD.
The new
city ordinances furnish the means of securing reliable death
statistics. As information of so much importance, all the safeguards
should be used in securing correct death records. The cemeteries
are now all within the city limits. The council can now appoint
a city sexton, whose duty it should be to keep watch over the
burial of the dead and secure a record in every case. It has
now become an accepted fact that the death rate is the correct
public health measurement.
BOARD OF HEALTH.
There is
one other important measure in relation to the protection of
the public health that I wish to impress upon the city authorities
in this report: That is , the appointment of a board of health.
The protection of the health of a community deserves the greatest
amount of consideration. What is the condition of a community
without health? What is the condition of a populous city devastated
by disease? There are no conditions of society as different as
health and disease.
I state these conditions to show
the gravity of the matter of protecting the public health. A
city of the population of Dallas requires a board of health,
in my opinion, to aid in protecting it from the results of disease,
to keep its Argus eyes upon the causes and to give aid and counsel
in due time to prevent the evil consequences of fatal diseases.
SANITARY.
Sanitation
embraces such measures that have been adopted or employed for
the purpose of putting the city in a sanitary condition, or,
in other words, rendering it clean.
The disposal of all animal waste
and refuse material within the city limits by combustion or transportation.
The refuse matter that must be disposed of, are ashes, garbage,
offal, dead animals, stable manure, night soil and sewerage.
At present, these things are disposed of in divers channels.
Ashes are wisely gotten rid of in making roads and filling low
lands, provided they are unmixed with offensive stuff.
Offal and dead animals are cremated
in an Engle garbage furnace in the suburbs of the city. Manure
is destroyed by burning upon the dumping ground. Night soil is
burned upon this same ground too deep to be offensive. Sewerage
flows away into the river below the city, through a system of
Waring's sewer pipes.
A portion of the house offal is
now utilized by being fed to the animals beyond the suburbs.
A plan is now being organized in which all the house offal will
be consumed by supplying it for food to animals outside the city.
The sanitary force as now organized
is composed of four mounted special police officers, who are
under the entire control of the health officer. It is the business
of these officers to inspect the city continuously from house
to house and from day to day. Only by continuous work, perseverance
and vigilance can a city like this be kept in a decent sanitary
condition. This is the best organized force that has ever been
placed on duty in the sanitary department of this city. Active
sanitary work began two months earlier this year than usual,
and will be continued unto the end. L. D. Busbee is the chief
inspector of this force. He is energetic, efficient, and an officer
of large experience and good judgment. The other officers are
J. D. Ragland, R. J. Milner and J. N. Cowan. From two months'
experience with these three latter officers, I find them energetic,
efficient and reliable. (See table No. 3 for salaries).
The sanitary garbage force now
on duty is entirely too small. The territory this force must
cover to secure the garbage is too extensive for such a small
force. This force did well when there were fewer and shorter
paved streets and fewer alleys to be kept clean, but it is now
entirely too small to do the work that is absolutely necessary.
The present force is composed of three wagons and three carts.
There is now over double the territory to clean than when this
force was put on duty. Fifteen yards of garbage is about all
this force can remove in one day, on account of the distance
to carry it. It will require, now, the removal of about 40 or
50 yards of coarse garbage to keep the city reasonably clean.
At least double the present force will be required to do this
work. It is much cheaper to keep a city clean than to battle
with adversity and disease. The latter produces the former. As
sure as you keep your city clean, will you be protected from
destructive epidemic diseases, depressed values and bursted communities.
NUISANCES.
The health
department has worked earnestly to secure the abatement of all
nuisances. We have been compelled to prosecute from time to time,
individuals who persisted in refusing to comply with the laws
requiring the abatement of nuisances. In prosecuting these cases,
the department received the full power of the city court, besides
much valuable aid and legal advice. Nothing is more agreeable
to an officer than to feel assured of the support of the court
during the performance of disagreeable legal duties. A large
class of nuisances that cause the sanitary officers much labor
and the citizens much annoyance, can only be gotten rid of by
the erection of a central market and a packery. Meat markets,
fish markets, chicken coops and places where vegetables are offered
for sale cannot be conducted without being more or less offensive,
except in a well-regulated market house. Of all the annoyances
that the suburban citizens are subject to, slaughter houses take
the lead. Nothing is comparable to the common slaughter-house
nuisance for offensiveness to the common sensibilities in summer
time. The packery now being erected will tend largely to the
abatement of this class of nuisance. The city authorities should
do everything in their power to encourage the erection of a central
market and packery. Stock pens for hogs and cattle are still
situated within the city limits, and some of them on prominent
streets and in populous neighborhoods. The committee on health
have investigated these pens and recommended that they be removed
beyond the city limits, but they remain. It is impossible to
conduct a stock yard so as not to be offensive to persons residing
in its vicinity.
POTABLE WATER.
The waterworks
for the city will be completed at an early day. The city will
then be supplied with an abundance of good drinking water free
from all earthy contaminations. The city has also let a contract
for a deep well. The wells that have been sunk here by private
enterprises furnish conclusive evidences that a pure article
of artesian water can be secured in abundance and good for all
purposes. The health of a city depends largely upon the purity
of its water supply.
FOOD.
This is
a subject that requires great consideration and much attention
from the authorities. There is no plan devised by which the amount
of disease caused by unsound or unwholesome food can be estimated,
but is it conceded to be large. Every article of food exposed
for sale in the markets of the city, or on the streets, should
be inspected by some authority competent to judge of its purity
or wholesomeness. As the city ordinances are now upon the statute
book, the city chemist is required to inspect the food supply
of the city. He has been giving a good deal of his time and attention
to the milk furnished by dairymen, and has succeeded in causing
them to furnish a much-improved article. He has also caused a
much-improved condition in the meat markets.
The offering for sale in the markets of food from unhealthy or
diseased animals for human food should be regarded as the same
character of offense as a homicide or other high crime. It is
generally known that when a person eats food from diseased animals,
that such person is liable to contract some fatal disease. When
a milk vendor sells milk from diseased cattle to parents to feed
to their delicate infants, they know that in some instances,
death is sure to result. Then, a penalty for such a crime---for
crime it is---cannot be too severe. The matter of inspection
of animals for human food deserves, also, your most serious attention.
The city chemist should be paid a salary sufficient to justify
him in devoting his entire time to food inspection and examine
all the food offered for sale as he does the milk food at present.
The present city chemist is entirely capable of performing this
duty, and has the nerve and integrity to do it according to the
most approved scientific principles.
The cattle, hogs and muttons that
are brought to the city for slaughter are, with very few exceptions,
a very inferior class of animals, unfit for human food. In every
other city of any consequence, food animals are subject to a
rigid inspection law before they can be slaughtered for sale
in the markets. The want of such inspection here forces all the
refused food animals upon this market. The only escape from this
unfortunate situation for our markets here is to carefully inspect
food animals before they are slaughtered. The safest way to determine
whether animals are healthy is to inspect them before they are
killed. The health department will aid the city chemist to the
full extent of its authority in protecting the people from the
effects of unhealthy or adulterated food.
DRAINAGE.
Dry soil
and freedom from pools of stagnant water are conditions that
conduce largely to public health. Drainage within the city where
the streets are graded and paved, where storm-water sewers are
provided, and where the ponds have been filled, is in fair condition.
The river bottom, running like a hem along the border of the
city, needs attention in this matter. There are a large number
of lakes in these low lands that require draining.
SEWERS.
The pipe-sewer
system of this city has been laid, to the present time, nineteen
miles, embracing the entire business portion of the city and
extending far out in the residence portion. Many improvements
are yet necessary to perfect the sewers already laid. In constructing
the Waring pipe system, there are two things as essential as
the pipes themselves almost. These are flush tanks and man holes.
The flush tanks are necessary to prevent the pipes from filling
with sediment and the man holes are required to remove obstructions.
Without these important improvements, the sewers are liable to
cause, at any time, a large amount of expense and a great deal
of trouble. A flush tank is required at the end of every branch,
and a man hole, at every 200 feet on small pipes, and every 400
feet in the larger pipes. These pipes are required to be inspected
daily to keep them in good working condition. At present, we
have one inspector, Mr. Peter Ross. He is very efficient, but
the extension of the sewers will furnish ample employment for
two inspectors, unless automatic flush tanks are substituted
for the hand flushed. I recommend that sewers be made a separate
department, and that an engineer be assigned to it, and that
he be required to report to the committee on sewers and drains.
I think this will cause less friction and give better results.
PLUMBING.
This is
another plague that requires your serious attention. Bad plumbing
must be one of the devil's own devices for increasing the number
of his victims. If there is one thing more disgusting to a sanitarian
than another, it is bad plumbing. It produces all the ills to
which housekeepers and sanitarians are subjected. While there
are good plumbers here and anxious to do good work, bad plumbing
is the rule. What is needed is protection to good plumbers and
honest work. This can be done only by the employment of an inspector
of plumbing who is an expert at the business, whose duty it should
be to inspect every piece of work before it is either paid for,
or covered from view. The plumbers, themselves, would be willing
to pay fees to remunerate the inspector. It is so done elsewhere.
While there is an endless complaint of bad plumbing, there is
perhaps nothing in the health department that conduces more to
the health, comfort and convenience of a city than scientific
plumbing.
CREMATORY.
Since my
last annual report, the city has erected a garbage furnace of
the Engle patent in the vicinity of the old dumping ground. The
location is a little further away from the centre of the city
than desirable, but no other location could be secured. The committee
from the council to select a location made every effort to secure
a more convenient place, but without avail. Every one objects
to having a concern of this sort next to them, though the only
offensive thing about it is the handling of the garbage while
being introduced into the furnace. It has now been in operation
since the 25th day of November, 1889 and since that time, has
given general satisfaction in disposing of most of the waste
material of the city. It burns to ashes without producing any
stink or disagreeable odor all dead animals, butchers' offal,
house offal and all coarse garbage. This amounts daily to fifteen
yards of garbage, two dead horses or cattle, and a half dozen
smaller animals. It consumes easily and satisfactorily, all the
waste material from the city, except night soil and stable manure.
The night soil is buried and the stable manure is burned on the
dumping ground without cost to the city. The night soil being
very much the most expensive to dispose of by combustion and
the quickest to disorganize by mixing with earth, it was selected
to bury, one furnace not being sufficient for the disposal of
all the waste. It has been found by experience with the handling
of the furnace, that it give the most satisfactory and economical
results by filling it during the day and burning it out at night.
The frequent openings that are required in introducing the garbage
while the furnace is in active operation reduce the fires and
delay the combustion so much that it makes the results unsatisfactory.
Start the fires at night after the furnace is full and it will
burn out in three hours. The other mode takes all day to burn
the same amount, making the difference in expense of a ton and
a three-hour fire.
The extent of the territory of
this city over which the garbage carts and wagons are compelled
to travel to secure and remove the animal waste and refuse matter,
the loss of time traversing such distance, and the disagreeableness
of transporting all manner of offal and dead animals across the
entire city, would go far to show that another furnace in a different
location would be economy. One furnace is not sufficient to destroy
the entire garbage and night soil. Two would be ample. The cost
of operating the furnace per month is five tons of coal and three
cords of wood and one day fireman and one night fireman (at $1.50
and $2 per day) without burning night soil.
CITY HOSPITAL.
This hospital
is situated on South Lamar street. It is a good average two-story
frame building with a small attached one-story frame. It has
bath rooms and other conveniences, dining rooms, office, wash
house, etc., all in good average condition, clean and comfortable.
It is divided into eight wards--six for men and two for women.
It contains fifty beds of average hospital quality. The building
requires a new coat of paint inside and out and some repairs.
In this building were treated, during the year, 599 patients,
embracing all classes of injuries and diseases. Of these patients,
498 were men, 73 women, 13 male and 15 female children. Of this
number, 53 died, all adults. The diseases and injuries of which
they died are embraced in the general mortuary statement of the
city (See table No. 2).
The persons regularly employed
and residing in the hospital are: W. D. Sanford, hospital steward;
Mary A. Sanford, matron; Maggie McCraw and Max Shopes, nurses,
a cook and a laundress. Other help is employed from time to time
as needed. Several of these persons have been in the hospital
several years until their experience has become valuable. Their
salaries are small. I recommend a moderate increase in their
pay. (See table No. 3 for salaries).
NEW HOSPITAL.
It is scarcely
necessary to mention the fact that this city has outgrown its
presence hospital accommodations. A new building with larger
dimensions and better facilities, a building equal to the magnitude
of the city in every other respect, is the present demand. It
is proper to state in this connection that the committee on hospitals
and health, is, at present, actively engaged in devising ways
and means to secure the ground and erect the building.
SUBURBAN
HOSPITAL.
Since my
last annual report, this hospital has been repaired and much
improved. In addition to this, a neat three-room cottage has
been erected near the hospital, to be occupied by the physician,
in case of a small pox invasion. The grounds have been much improved
by the keeper, Mr. Moore. He is a good keeper and an expert nurse
in small pox. He takes care of the building and the grounds,
and keeps a wagon and team of his own on the ground, ready to
be used whenever needed in transferring cases from the city to
the hospital. I recommend that his salary be increased (see table
No. 3 for salary). The only other needed improvement at the suburban
hospital is a well to supply water. It is inconvenient to get
water. A well will cost about twenty dollars.
CITY PAUPERS.
The city's
poor, you hear of continually, but never of the city's paupers.
Several years since County Judge E. G. Bower, on the part of
the commissioners, and your present health officer, acting for
the city, made an arrangement in regard to the city paupers.
The city had accumulated large accounts against the county for
taking care of the county sick. These accounts could not be collected.
We agreed that the city would take care of the county sick, as
it had been doing. The county, in order to remunerate the city
for this, would take care of all the city paupers on the county
farm, and bury our dead, including those from the city hospital.
This arrangement got rid of the city undertaker. This plan has
worked well and has proven of mutual benefit.
After this brief review of the
operations of the Health Department, and of such recommendations
as are deemed advisable, this report is respectfully submitted.
Your
obedient servant,
J.
L. CARTER,
Health
Officer.
Table No. 1.
Adult, white, males.........153
Adult, white, female........113
Adult, colored, males........37
Adult, colored, female.......36
Children, white, males......97
Children, white, females....63
Children, colored, males....30
Children, colored, females..28
Total..............................557
This is a classification of the dead
by ages, classes and sex.
Table No. 2.
Nomenclature from the City Death Register.
Consumption...,54
Pneumonia.......45
Malarial Fever...28
Typhoid fever....22
Chol. Infantum..21
Premature birth.18
Dysentery.........16
Bronchitis.........15
Congestion........13
Inanition...........13
Measles............11
Diptheria..........11
Heart Disease....11
R. R. accidents...10
Diarrhea.............8
Teething.............8
Cancer...............8
Enteritis.............8
Inflam. of bowels..8
Influenza............7
Croup................7
Gen'l debility.......7
Entero Colitis......6
Morphine...........6
Puerperal fever...5
Spasms.............5
Scarlet fever.......5
Flux..................2
Hepatites Chron..2
Fits...................2
Rupture.............2
Inflamation.........2
Bright's disease...3
Congest. stom'h...4
Tris. nascintuna...2
Scalded..............3
Congest. bowels...2
Inflam. brain.......2
Uremic toxemia....2
Puerperal monia...1
Septic poison.......1
Pyemia...............1
Accd't (or fight).....1
Hydroperic rd'm...1
Caries of spine.....1
Asthma...............1
Asphyxia.............1
Hemorr. Lungs.....1
Catarrhal pneu.....1
Scrofula..............1
Strangulated hern.1
Apoplexy.............5
Sum'r complaint...5
Alcoholism..........7
Congestion.........4
Whooping cough..4
Septicemia.........4
Rheumatism.......4
Dropsy..............5
Meningitis..........4
Paralysis............4
Laryngitis...........3
Pernicious fever...3
Cholera Morbus...3
Typho Mal. Fev. ..4
Hepatitis acute....3
Peritonitis..........3
Gunshot wound..3
Convulsions.......3
Marasmus.........3
Brain fever........3
Abscess............3
Erysipelas.........4
Burn................3
Congest'n brain..3
Congestive fever.2
Black jaundice...2
Jaundice..........2
Spinal men'gitis..1
Angina pectoris..1
Softening brain..2
Child birth........1
Hemorr. bowels.1
Senile gangrene.1
Tabesemes.......1
Spinal fever......1
Tetanus...........1
Abscess of liver.1
Gastro enteritis.1
Cirrhosis of liver.1
Abortion...........1
Spider bite........1
Pernicious fever.1
Dropsy of heart..1
Inflam. of womb.1
Effus'n of brain..1
Incised wound...1
Bowel ulcer.......1
Bilious pnemo....1
Nervous prostra.1
Insanity............1
Suicide.............1
Diseases not stated...25
Total...............557
Table No. 3.
Expenditures and Salaries.
The amount expended in the Sanitary department for the year is.....$9,569.85
Expenses incurred at the suburban hospital for the year for repairs
and building...1132.36
Amount expended in building crematory....5042.70
Expenses for operating it four months....844.48
Expenses for operating and maintaining the city hospital for
the year.....4287.55
(This would make the cost of each patient per day 40 cents. While
this shows economy in the management, the patitents were well
cared for in every particular).
SALARY PER MO.
W. D. Sanford, steward......$30
Mary Sanford, matron..........15
Maggie McCran, nurse.........10
Max Shops, nurse...............15
Cook................................10
Laundress.........................15
L. D. Busbee, special officer..90
J. R. Ragland, special officer.60
R. J. Milner, special officer...60
I. N. Cowan, special officer...60
Pete Ross, sewer inspector...50
Cage Moore, keeper suburban hospital....15
- April 21, 1890, Dallas
Daily Times Herald, pp. 5, 8.
- o o o -
1893
Added
February 2, 2004:
SANITARY AFFAIRS.
______
Interesting Interview
With Dr.
Armstrong
______
ON PRESENT NEEDS
______
THE GARBAGE NOT
REMOVED AS IT
SHOULD BE.
______
The Death Rate of
Dallas -- A Crematory
Needed, but a Board of Health an Im-
perative Necessity -- The Hospital Issue,
Etc.
The spread
of cholera in Europe has awakened considerable apprehension in
the minds of the people on this side of the Atlantic. A representative
of the TIMES-HERALD, desiring to obtain a few points as to the sanitary
condition of Dallas called on Health Officer V. P. Armstrong
to obtain his views on that, and kindred topics, to-day.
"Doctor, in view of the reported
spread of cholera in the old world, can you give the readers
of the TIMES-HERALD any information concerning the present sanitary
condition of Dallas?"
"I am glad you have given
me an opportunity to speak upon this question, through the columns
of the TIMES HERALD. There are many important questions concerning
the public health to be discussed, both among the citizens, and
especially, the people's council. Let us leave out the question
of possible cholera visiting us, and ignoring that entirely.
Allow me to present my views upon the wants of our health department,
in order that the zimotic diseases which threaten this and every
other city every season of every year, may be deprived of a part
of their terrors. I am very greatly disappointed that more has
not been accomplished during the year in this direction. A part
of the honorable board of aldermen seem to be thoroughly alive
to the wants of our people in matters pertaining to the preservation
of the public health, but for one reason or another, others oppose
any improvement, and while our death rate last year was as low
as any city in America, I am persuaded, that by the proper legislation,
it could, and should, be reduced 25 per cent. For instance, during
February, March and April, the service of the garbage force was
excellent, I having, at that time, five wagons and three sanitary
policemen, sufficient to inspect all premises and remove all
garbage. As a result, the mortality was as follows: For February,
the deaths numbered 30; for March, 32; for April, 22. About this
time, there were taken from me, against my solemn protest, two
wagons and two inspectors, and the result was that, in May, the
deaths were 55, among which, there were 13 from bowel trouble
and 11 from malarial fever. I contend, sir, that these additional
deaths are directly attributable to a filthy condition of the
city. The accretions of decaying animal and vegetable matter
are the culture mediums for disease germs, and no community can
enjoy health, unless the conditions conducive to health, are
present. All micro-organism that produce disease are the legitimate
results of dirt and filth. They can no more live, propagate and
thrive among cleanliness than a fish can live on a dry rock,
or a human can live in the depths of the sea. They are not built
that way. Cleanliness is next to godliness, and if the demonstrable
laws of health are outraged, the inevitable result can only be,
and will be, sickness and death. All physicians recognize this
as a fixed law. There is no mistake on that score, and all along
the line of the germ theory must come, in the years that will
follow, every advancement that is made in sanitation and preventive
medicine. An ounce of prevention is worth the weight of the world
in curative agents."
"Doctor, tell us something
about the crematory?"
"Yes, I will do that. The
need has been apparent a long time for the reason that the old
crematory is utterly unable to dispose of all the filth, and
after a long and determined effort in the council by Dr. J. R.
Briggs, he succeeded in having the question favorably passed
upon, and his honor, Mayor Connor, appointed a committee to select
a suitable location for the erection of a commodious crematory.
The committee, Alderman Knight being the chairman, has not yet
been able to find a location that answers the purpose, but I
believe will report at the next council meeting, and then, actuated
by no earthly motive, but a desire for a model sanitary city,
I hope the furnace will be erected at once. It is a public necessity
and should be, to-day, an accomplished fact.
"Can there be no way devised,
whereby the garbage of all private families can be disposed of
without additional cost to each family?"
"In every city from which
I get monthly mortuary reports, or with which I am personally
acquainted, the garbage is removed from every house not less
than twice each week, at the public expense, and I must express
my belief right here, that Dallas' citizens pay for more and
get less than any city in America. The very thought that with
a tax rate of $1.85, they can not get a box of trash moved away
without paying from 25 cents to $1, and thousands of people in
Dallas, to-day, are not able to assume this extra burden; and
consequently, rather than go to that expense, they pile it up
in cellars, garrets, back yards and alleys, where it smells to
heaven, and in that way, they are led into temptation by the
very powers that should give them what they pay for. What advantage
is there in city life, other than those comforts that [are] afforded
by good streets, clean premises, clean alleys, cheap lights,
cheap fuel, pure and convenient water? I investigated very thoroughly,
this question of removing the garbage from all private premises
and incorporated my views in a communication to the council,
advocating the contract system, which would enable the city,
at a less expense than the garbage force is now being run on,
to clean every private premise in Dallas at least twice each
week. It was referred to a committee, and I would sooner try
to awaken an Egyptian mummy, than to attempt to resurrect that
document. It sleeps. The sanitary department, under the contract
system, can be run for 33 1/2 per cent less that it is being run under the
present arrangements, and in addition, the people everywhere
will have their premises kept clean of all accumulations, and
the public health would be promoted. Allow me to say that the
most important need to-day, in the city of Dallas, is a health
board. You can't imagine how great this need is. No city in the
world is so far behind as to attempt to efficiently conduct their
health department without a board of health composed of physicians,
who understand the questions which legitimately belong to this
department. The board of aldermen are not, and can not be, sufficiently
informed to act intelligently, or appreciate fully, the recommendation
of the health officer.
"Dr. Carter and Mayor Connor
commenced the fight for a board of health eight years ago. Dr.
Wilson took it up where Carter and Connor left off. Dr. Rosser
picked up the raveled ends that Wilson left, and I have worried
along as best I could with the remnant that Dr. Rosser left,
and have hammered away, but all to no effect. It is referred
every time to a committee. They invariably bury it in a political
potter's field, and it is no more heard of. You can readily see
that the health department cannot be successfully conducted without
he hearty co-operation of every officer in the city government.
We need the aldermen's sympathy in order that sufficient funds
may be appropriated; we want the mayor to appreciate our wants.
For, if he is not in line with sanitary improvements, he becomes
a great power to nullify all our efforts. We want the co-operation
of our city judge, in order that the city ordinances against
violators of the sanitary laws may be enforced. We want the city
engineer to assist us in compelling sewer connections. We want
the police to assist us in accordance with the city ordinances,
but over and above all, we want the co-operation of every citizens
in Dallas.
"What is being done in reference
to the hospital voted by the people at the last election, which
was carried by a majority overwhelming?"
"Well, the mater remained
dormant for some time, until the new council got in good working
order, and then upon motion of Dr. Briggs, the matter was taken
up, and is now in a fair way to secure a creditable hospital
for Dallas. The city council ordered an advertisement for fifteen
days for a location, and I am informed that a large number of
bids for a location will be presented, from which a good site
may be secured. A cleanly hospital, once secured, the hospital
death rate will be reduced, especially in operative cases, and
lives that are now being sacrificed at the present hospital,
will be preserved. The people have demanded, by an overwhelming
majority of 7 to 1, that Dallas shall have a respectable hospital.
Hence, it only remains for the council and mayor to obey the
behests of the people, which they will, no doubt, promptly do."
- June 15, 1893, Dallas
Daily Times Herald, p. 5, col. 1-2.
- o o o -
1894
Added
February 15, 2004:
DALLAS "SMELLS
BAD."
______
Odors That Suggest
Sanitation and Sights
That Call for Cleaning Up.
It seems
that all cities, in reaching their majority, pass through the
stage so popular to small boys, when dirt is considered far better
than the cleanliness that is next to godliness, and clean streets
and environments savor too much of provincialism to suit the
progressive city fathers.
The season has come when the mortal
remains of members of the canine and feline families cry aloud
for decent burial ;when the funeral pyre of passé fruits
and vegetables of an uncertain age, calls for recognition and
ignition, and the triumphal march of the autocratic sprinkling
cart should begin, doing harm to the best gowns and shoes of
the wayfarers, but fortified by a well-established belief that
the end will justify the means.
The large sink-hole that ornaments
the eastern vicinity of the Oriental, and lends to the neighborhood,
the bouquet that is so truly metropolitan, should he attended
to, as Dallas has passed out of the first stages of a city's
existence, where cheap dirt is inevitable, and has not yet reached
that grand old period when filth is a classic and historic distinction.
- May 4, 1894, Dallas
Daily Times Herald, p. 5, col. 3.
- o o o -
1895
Added
March 23, 2004:
SERUM HAS
REACHED DALLAS.
_____
IT WILL CURE THE
DIPHTHERIA.
_____
Dr. Behren's Wonderful
Discovery Has
Been Received by Dr. Armstrong and
Will be Furnished Free to the
Poor of the City.
Medical
science, which as made such slow progress through the ages, has
recently scored another victory, and a very important one, in
the discovery of a preventative and cure for diphtheria.
For some time, the newspapers have
contained accounts of the new remedy, which is obtained by inoculating
the horse with diphtheria bacilli, the same as vaccine virus
is obtained by inoculating the cow. For a period of about four
months, the horse selected for the purpose is, at regular intervals,
given an injection of a solution containing diphtheria germs,
and at the end of that time, his jugular is opened and the blood
drawn out. Then, the serum is separated from the other constituents
of the blood, and subjected to certain treatment to make it keep,
and bottled and labeled, and is ready for use by hypodermic injection.
_____
Dr. Armstrong,
City Health Officer, after having in an order for four months,
this morning, received the first shipment of the fluid that has
come to Dallas. It comes direct from the Pasteur Institute in
New York, and is guaranteed to be pure and reliable.
Dr. Armstrong says that one injection
of this fluid is an absolute preventive, and that two injections
within thirty-six hours of the onset of the disease will cure
95 per cent of cases.
_____
Dr. Armstrong
wishes the medical profession to know that he will furnish the
fluid free for all persons that are too poor to pay for it, and
he wishes them to make prompt application for the remedy in all
such cases, with a view of stamping the disease out of the city.
The medicine will not, however, be supplied free to those who
are able to pay for it.
_____
The importance
of this discovery will, at once, be realized by a large part
of the community who have had sad experience with the dread disease,
and by everybody, when it is understood that, heretofore, nearly
all cases of diphtheria proved fatal, many physicians doubting
whether there was ever a recovery from a genuine case.
- January 21, 1895,
Dallas Daily Times Herald, p. 6, col. 3.
- o o o -
ANTI-TOXINE
CURES DIPHTHERIA
______
ALSO MEMBRANOUS
CROUP.
_____
Dr. Armstrong Says
in Each of the Eight
Cases in Which it Has Been Tried in
Dallas it Has Produced
a Cure.
Referring
to the case of diphtheria near the Cedar Lawn public school in
South Dallas, Dr. Armstrong, City Health Officer, said to a TIMES HERALD reporter:
"There are two cases of diphtheria
in South Dallas. They are both being treated with anti-toxine
and are doing well, in fact, are on the road to recovery."
"Doctor, how many cases have
been treated with anti-toxine in Dallas?" asked the reporter.
"You may say in your paper
that we have tried the new remedy in eight cases, and in every
one of them, the patient has recovered."
"Doctor, is the remedy good
for membranous croup, as well as diphtheria?"
"Of course. The two diseases
are so nearly alike, that they are often hard to distinguish
one from the other and anti-toxine is given with equal success
for both."
- February 8, 1895,
Dallas Daily Times Herald, p. 6, col. 5.
- o o o -
Diphtheria, Anti-Toxine
and the Doctors.
DALLAS,
Tex., Feb. 11, 1895.
Editor Times Herald.
In justice to myself and other
physicians of Dallas, I wish to correct a statement made by Dr.
Armstrong in your Saturday's issue, in which he says that, "all
the doctors in Dallas were saying there was nothing in anti-toxine--that
it was a humbug," etc. From what source the Doctor got his
information, I do not know, but I do know that a very large majority
of Dallas physicians, myself included, believe it to be a great
addition to our remedies for diphtheria, and are ready to give
it a trial as soon as opportunity offers -- some having already
done so with good results. The doctor is also mistaken in saying
that "every doctor in Dallas knows that eighty per cent
of diphtheria cases resulted fatally before anti-toxine was brought
here." I have consulted quite a number of our doctors, and
none have put the mortality higher than fifty per cent, while
some put it much lower. The statistics of Europe and America
put the average mortality of diphtheria, under all former treatment,
from 40 to 50 per cent, about the same as here in Dallas. Summing
up all the statistics I have been able to obtain from Europe
and this country, I find the absolute mortality under the anti-toxine
treatment about 24 per cent, so that the Doctor will find it
is not "an absolute specific." Behring believed he
had found in it a specific, but afterwards, he and Kossel reported
30 cases treated with it, with a mortality of 20 per cent.
Prof. Hare, of Philadelphia, in
a recent and very able address on the treatment of diphtheria,
shows very clearly, from a general summary of trials of anti-toxine
in Europe and in this country, that it is the duty of every physician
to try it if opportunity offers, but not to the exclusion of
other remedies.
That anti-toxine will prove a great
boon to our race, seems to be the general opinion among physicians,
but that it, or any other remedy, is "an absolute specific,"
has yet to be prove.
J.
D. PARSONS.
- February 11, 1895,
Dallas Daily Times Herald, p. 8, col. 2.
- o o o -
Added
April 5, 2004:
NEW ISSUE FOR
THE DOCTORS.
______
AS USUAL, THEY DISAGREE
______
Opinions of Members
of the Medical Profes-
sion of Dallas on the Proposition
to Establish a Medical Col-
lege in This City.
A number
of Dallas physicians were interviewed to-day for an expression
of opinion on the idea of establishing a medical college in this
city. Here is what they said:
__________
Dr. H.
K. Leake: "While I have always been much opposed to the
multiplication of medical colleges in the country, which recently
has been rapidly going on, and which I have looked upon rather
as a professional vice than a virtue, I recognize the inevitable
tendency in the direction, and would lend what support I could
to the establishment and perfecting of a medical school for Dallas
on, for the present, the preparatory plan -- for this latter
only is now possible. Such clinical facilities as could be afforded
here, and which are as good as can be found elsewhere in the
State, would, of course, be utilized to the fullest extent; there
is no question, however, but that a first-class didactic course
of lectures could be delivered here, since we have had several
professional men who have already had experience as teachers,
and others, who by education and zeal, are well fitted to become
such. Consequently, a first-class faculty could be obtained,
and, in the public would lend its assistance in the way of providing
suitable buildings and other requirements, which need not cost
a large sum. I have no doubt, but that a medical college in Dallas
would be an ultimate success; and, if so, the city would derive
much benefit from such an enterprise. If small cities and towns
throughout the country are allowed by the profession and encouraged
by the public to start and maintain medical colleges, I see no
reason why Dallas may not enter the list as well, for, without
hesitation, I contend that we have among us, as good teaching
talent as can be found in the State. This seems to be a rustling
age in every occupation of life, and much of the old-time sentiment
concerning our own profession is apparently wearing away. Medical
colleges, in some parts, have proven to be a curse to the medical
profession, but they are being multiplied, all the same. It would
remain for Dallas to disprove this assertion, so far as this
city is concerned, should a medical college be located here."
____
Dr. S.
D. Thurston said: "A medical college, in connection with
the hospital, would certainly add very much to the facilities
and importance of the hospital."
_____
Dr. James
Montgomery: "Instead of starting new medical schools, I
believe that about three-fourths of those in existence ought
to be suppressed, and students be required to study five years
before they are permitted to practice. It is a fact, that a man
can get a diploma to practice medicine on less study, and in
a shorter time, than is required to get a certificate to teach
in the common schools."
____
Dr. J.
D. Parsons: "It wouldn't do at all. There is really no need
for the Galveston medical college. In fact, there are entirely
too many medical colleges in the country. The doctors here who
are competent to become professors in such a college could not
afford to give their time to it. More over, it takes a great
deal of money to run a college. I am quite sure that the move
would be a bad one."
_____
Dr. A.
M. Elmore: "It is a matter I have given no consideration.
But, it seems to me that if Fort Worth can make a success of
such an enterprise, Dallas ought to, with her superior facilities,
make even a greater success."
_____
Dr. M.
M. Newsom: "There is no room for another medical college
in the State. The State could not furnish a sufficient number
of students to support it, and we could not expect any students
from outside the State. You can count on the fingers of one hand,
all the Dallas county young men who have studied medicine in
the last ten years. Let's see: There are Rawlins, Dickason, Fittrington,
Gano, Leeman and perhaps one or two others. But, even when you
have the students, it requires a good deal of money, ability
and enterprise to build up a medical college; and, upon the whole,
my opinion is that there is no pressing need for a medical college
here."
_____
DR. ARMSTRONG PROTEST.
_____
Editor Times Herald.
I noticed your editorial upon the
propriety of establishing, in connection with the institution
that I have the honor of controlling, a medical college. I ought
not to trust myself to write or speak upon this subject, but
it would be affectation in me if I should ignore the exceptional
circumstance of my doing so, or fail to be guided in what I shall
say, by a recognition of that circumstance. I would not pluck
a laurel from the brow of my adopted city, or ought I to write
or say that which would retard her progress, though, too great
progress, sometimes, in my judgment, covers with the shadow of
the palace, a hundred beggars.
In any event, I could not subscribe
to the spirit of progress in the direction that you suggest;
and while my reasons probably will not appear plausible to some,
they are, to me, sufficient.
First, there is no place in this
wide, wide world that needs a doctor. Nature abhors such a vacuum.
Doctors are as countless as were the locusts of Egypt, and the
profession of medicine has kept pace with the degenerate times.
The standard of excellence in the profession at large has degenerated,
and outside of four or five cities of this county, the requirements
for authority to practice would disgrace a kindergarten. Absolutely
nothing is required but to sit on the benches for so many months
,and in the end, possess $30 to pay for a diploma.
In the times of the old Transylvania,
Jefferson, Bellevue and the New York College of Physicians and
Surgeons, there were giants to teach, as well as practice. Where,
to-day, are our Flints, Dunglisons, Pancoosh, Gross, Yandells,
Sims, Sayers, Emmetts. Faded from our visions like the fabric
of a dream. But, their accomplishments in the art of teaching
the mysteries of their beneficent calling linger with us like
the melody of a sweet song. Those apostles are gone, and few,
there are, who can fill their places.
The so-called medical colleges
of this country are, every year, turning out about 8000 doctors,
and very near as many practice without any approval, other than
their own sweet conscience. There is scarcely a "Jim Crow"
doctor at any road crossing that does not consider that Providence
intended him for a teacher; when, in fact, he does not know,
and cannot tell, mumps from measles, or the side of his body
his heart is in; too lazy or ignorant to succeed in the legitimate
practice of medicine, he appoints himself a professor; and, putting
on an owl look, sets to work to commit to memory, some text book,
"chestnuts," and poses, henceforth, as "Professor."
It is not every man who can teach;
neither can every city afford the necessary facilities. No city
in Texas, and few out of Texas, has the clinical or dissecting
material; and without these two great desiderata, no man living
can qualify himself for the tremendous responsibilities of an
active practitioner of medicine. Many men carry pill pockets,
but there are few doctors. Many are called, but few are chosen.
Many knock, but few enter to illustrate, in a homely way, the
necessity for clinical advantages, let us say, that an individual
never saw or heard of a muley cow or a mule. Suppose some one
describes them both to him, and, say six months after, he meets
one of each. I have not the least doubt, but what it would puzzle
him to tell "tother from which," but having seen them,
and had their distinguishing qualities pointed out, he would,
forever after, know them when he should meet them. And so, it
is in medicine. It is only by bedside experience, and by post
mortems, that we can know the pathology of disease and recognize
it when we meet it.
A college in Dallas could not afford
the student anything but didactic teaching, and that, as every
well-posted physician knows, cannot touch the hem of the garment.
It would be a blessing to humanity if every medical college west
of the Alleghenies was suppressed. New York stands, to-day, preeminently
the first city of the world in clinical medicine. New York, Philadelphia
and Chicago can furnish the world with doctors; and, while the
quantity would be diminished, the quality would be improved.
What necessity exists for a medical
college in Fort Worth? And, what was it gotten up for? The medical
college in Galveston is costing the tax-payers of this State,
$25,000 a year for salaries, alone. Do the citizens need it?
What was it instituted for? A pension roll; nothing more. Sending
out circulars everywhere, inviting the illiterate and feeble
minded to come and be made a doctor, taking them from the plow,
the anvil and the ditch.
"Lay down the
shovel and the hoe,
Take up the scalpel and the probe."
It is a
crime against humanity; and I am persuaded that the twentieth
century enlightenment will deal with the subject in such a way,
that any man who attempts to live off of the credulity of the
public, under the guise of a medical advisor, will wish he had
never been born; and, I know if the American people could know
and appreciate the conditions as they exist, they would rise
as one man and wipe from the face of the earth, nine-tenths of
the colleges of this country and demand laws for their protection.
The trouble is that only the few think; the others follow the
bell wether. But, thank God, the bad have not leavened the whole
lump. A great many true and good still remain; men whose lives
have ornamented the century, and whose affiliation with the noble
profession of true medicine and surgery is a benefaction. No,
the people want no more medical colleges. I am for improvement,
but not at a sacrifice of human life. But, we do want a training
school for nurses. They are becoming more and more a necessity;
and, we have here, every facility for their education and competent
physicians and surgeons who can teach them the art. If such an
institution was established in connection with the Parkland Hospital,
it would be a measure of economy and be the means of qualifying
great numbers of young women for useful and lucrative employment.
V.
P. ARMSTRONG, M. D.
- February 26, 1895,
Dallas Daily Times Herald, p. 6, col. 2-4.
- o o o -
Added
April 11, 2004:
ONLY ONE CASE
OF SMALLPOX.
_______
A DALLAS COOK THE
PATIENT.
_____
He is Removed to
the Pesthouse and Those
Who Came in Contact With
Him Are Under Quar-
antine.
Late Saturday
evening, a case of confluent smallpox was discovered by Dr. Newsom,
county health officer, in a boarding house, on the southwest
corner of Main and Pearl streets.
The patient is McFay, who was employed
as a cook in a restaurant. McFay has not been out of the city
in a long time, and how he contracted the disease, is a mystery.
The patient was, soon after dark,
taken to a pest house on the "Katy" railroad, two miles
from town, and two negroes employed to nurse and attend to him.
The pesthouse was comfortably furnished and all arrangements
have been made to get milk and provisions to the patient and
his nurses without danger of spreading the disease.
There are about fourteen inmates
of the boarding house, where the case originated. They were are
all vaccinated and placed under strict quarantine, and will not
be permitted to leave the house until all danger is over.
The house will be guarded by two
policemen, both day and night.
- March 11, 1895, Dallas
Daily Times Herald, p. 6, col. 4-5.
- o o o -
Added
April 14, 2004:
SMALLPOX AT
CITY HOSPITAL.
____
THE INSTITUTION
QUARANTINED
____
City Health Officer
Armstrong Tells How
the Disease Was Introduced There by a
Man From Hot Springs -- Eight
Patients in the Pest House.
Smallpox
has broken out at the City Hospital and City Health Officer Armstrong
has quarantined that institution. He made the following statement
to-day for publication in the TIMES HERALD:
"On the 3d day of March, a
man named William Hill arrived in Dallas from Hot springs. On
the 5th of the month, he applied to me in the City Hall for admittance
to the City Hospital. He was suffering with a sprained knee,
cause, he said, by a runaway horse. He remained in the City Hospital
until the evening of the 6th. In the meantime, he had his clothing
washed in the Hospital. He went out on the evening of the 6th,
and on the 20th day of this month, he was brought out to the
Hospital in a buggy and applied for re-admittance. I noticed
a rash on him and refused to admit him. He went back to where
he was working on Akard and Marilla streets, and on the 23d --
last Saturday -- I was called to see him. I diagnosed the case
as smallpox and had him removed to the pesthouse.
"I have, to-day, in the City
Hospital, four cases of smallpox. These patients will be removed
to-day to the pest house. I attribute the infection in the hospital
to this patient, Hill, coming there on the 5th of the month,
for the reason that the City Hospital wash-woman was the first
attacked.
"There are twenty-three patients
in the hospital, including the four with the smallpox. I am going
to have every patient in the hospital vaccinated, and, in fact,
am busy doing so now; and, I am also destroying everything in
the wards where the patients with the smallpox have been sleeping.
I would have made this statement sooner, but I wished to be absolutely
certain of my facts. Dr. Newsom, the County Health Officer, has
seen all the patients with me, and is assisting in taking care
of them. The Hospital is quarantined now against everybody, either
coming or going.
"We have a regular physician
staying at the pesthouse all the time. We have nine rooms and
two nurses. These four patients from the City Hospital will make
seven patients, all told, now in the pest house. We have two
trained nurses. They are young colored men and have both been
nurses through two smallpox epidemics -- one here, and one in
New Orleans.
"It is left to the discretion
of the City Health Officer to say who shall go to the pesthouse.
I will send them all there, and make no distinction. A rich person
who takes the smallpox will be sent to the pesthouse, just the
same as a poor person."
____
Joe Veal,
colored, who has been employed as cook at the city hospital,
has been sick at the home of his sister on Peak alley, a short
street parallel to, and west of, the Central railroad track,
and extending north from Flora street.
To-day, the doctors decided he
has smallpox and had him removed to the pesthouse.
This case makes eight, now, under
treatment at the pesthouse.
____
This morning,
Dr. V. P. Armstrong, Health Officer, addressed the following
to Superintendent J. L. Long of the public schools:
"I consider it necessary that
you require every pupil attending the public schools to exhibit
a certificate from his or her physician, indicating a satisfactory
vaccine scar or a recent vaccinate. Allow no exception to this
rule."
Professor Long stated to a TIMES HERALD representative
that the request of the Health Officer will be complied with.
He further said that, so far, there has been no falling off in
the attendance, on account of the existence of smallpox.
____
JOE RECORD ON THE
SMALLPOX.
Capt. Joe
Record, in conversation with a TIMES HERALD reporter to-day, said:
"There is not much use in
quarantining smallpox patients and burning their property and
fumigating the sky over their houses, if the doctors who attend
them are allowed to circulate freely in the community. The doctors
are very particular to quarantine every person that has been
near a case of smallpox and keep them under strict guard for
several weeks while their business goes to the mischief or somebody
else gets their jobs, but the doctors, themselves, go right out
of a smallpox room and visit a dozen or more patients the same
day, and then they wonder how on earth isolated cases of smallpox
originate. Because a man knows more or less about the science
of medicine is no reason for assuming that smallpox germs will
not lodge in his clothes precisely the same as they would in
the cloths of the commonest white man or negro in town. Those
germs, as I understand it, go it blind, anyhow, and don't care
much how they travel, just so they get there.
"As a precaution for the public
health, one doctor or more, if necessary, ought to be employed
to look after smallpox, and as long as they have a case under
their care, they should be forbidden to mix with the people.
I understand that half a dozen or more doctors examined each
of the two patients that have taken the disease."
- March 25, 1895, Dallas
Daily Times Herald, p. 1, col. 3-5.
- o o o -
1899
STILL ANOTHER CASE.
_______
Smallpox Breaks
out in the
T. & P. Lodging House.
A case
of smallpox was found yesterday afternoon in the Texas and Pacific
lodging house, on the north side of Elm street, a few doors west
of Poydras street. The patient was removed to the pest house,
and all persons who had been exposed were placed under quarantine.
______
Alf Qualls,
who is guard over a party of thirty-five woodchoppers camped
in tents on the West Dallas pike, wrote a note to Mr. J. L. Jackson,
clerk of the commissioners' court, yesterday afternoon, to the
effect that the groceries were holding out, but they were very
shy on hay for the horses and tobacco for the men, and that unless
he, at once, sent out something for them to chew on, he would
not promise to hold the camp together, as some of the men were
already getting rebellious. The hay and tobacco were promptly
sent out. A case of smallpox appeared in this camp, and the health
officer is holding the entire outfit in quarantine to see if
any more cases are going to develop, and in the meantime, the
county is paying for the keep of the outfit. These people say
the smallpox was brought to Dallas by a horse trader from Arkansas.
- February 12, 1899,
Dallas Daily Times Herald, p. 3, col. 1.
- o o o -
1903
SEEK AND YE
SHALL FIND.
_______
Dr. Cabell's New
Discovery
is Agitating Local
Medicos.
_______
Experts Give Their Testimonials
and Report Miraculous
Cures. Excitement
Intense.
Ponce De
Leon vainly sought the fountain of youth and died in East Texas.
"Seek and ye shall find" did not hold good in his case.
Prospectors have been making all sorts of rich or alarming discoveries
in Texas of late, but it remained for Dallas men to strike a
deposit of epsom salt nearly 2000 feet below the surface of the
earth.
The new 1,000,000 gallon artesian
well is said to be more convenient than a medicine chest on board
a ship on the high seas. Mayor Cabell is authority for the statement
that the well is flowing a river of salty medicine, and that
unless it is corked, drug stores will be compelled to close up
their offices for want of business.
Drs. Morgan, Illingworth and Conroy
went out to the well yesterday and tested the new cure-all.
"It is superior to red raven
splits," said Dr. Morgan.
"Its medicinal properties
are amazing," said Dr. Illingworth. "The city should
establish a free dispensary out here. In all the years of my
life, enjoying a lucrative practice, I've never tasted its like
before."
"It bates the divil,"
said Mr. Conroy. "Me friend, Tuley, of the Frisco, drinks
eighty glasses of Mineral Wells searchlight springs water daily.
He should come here. One glass would satisfy his thirst. We have
the quality as well as the quantity. Once a month, we can turn
the flow into the city mains and cure all diseases men are heir
to. In my opinion, speaking from a medical standpoint, it is
the greatest discovery of the age and will close up all the water-cure
sanitariums and make the old young, and the young spacheless."
Mayor Cabell is something of a
practitioner himself, and firmly believes that a cure for Salt
River ailments has come to light. "Passengers on the boat
bound for the headwaters of the river should lay in a liberal
supply of this sparkling water," he said. "and all
the ills of life, real and imaginary, will dissolve as the dew
dissolves in the morning beneath the blistering heat of a Texas
sun. Dr. Chester B. Davis agrees with me that this water, taken
as prescribed, will make the maimed walk and the peg-legged man
hop for joy. Even Peachstone liniment must go into a far corner
and give Salt River Splits a clear field."
Many miraculous cures were reported
yesterday. A policeman went into the pool fresh and came out
salt. City Health Officer Smart declared malaria-afflicted mosquitoes
came, limping, in droves, drank of the life-giving water and
departed, singing "The Girl I Left Behind." Not since
the days of Oofty Goofty, or Schrader, the healer, has excitement
run so high in the city of Dallas and contiguous territory.
Sharp-eyed medicos, with an eye
on the main chance, and to stave off the forces of total annihilation,
are arranging to have the water piped to their offices, and all
the jag-cure proprietors in the state have their agents here
watching developments.
For more than sixty years, Sour
Lake was "the fountain of youth" for weary and demoralized
jagsters. After long tussles with John Barleycorn and his satellites,
the worn and weary soldiers hied themselves away to Sour Lake,
drank the water and rolled in the mud. The medicine and the baths
were death to boose and the boose microbes. Now, it transpires
that the stuff was one part water and two parts kerosene oil.
The jagster never caught on. Now that the "cat has escaped
from the bag," Sour Lake as a health resort, has been dealt
a staggering blow.
All the municipal doctors are agreed
that the discovery of Nature's own restorative in North Dallas
will send joy to the hearts of jagsters the country over.
Contractor Sharpe will continue
to go deeper. There is no telling just what hidden mysteries
his drill will unearth. Perhaps the next find will be a subterranean
lake of soothing syrup, ready to bottle for family use.
There is no record of a municipal
government having embarked in the proprietary medicine business
for profit, but the marvelous discovery made by well drillers
opens up a new field for the talent, and Mayor Cabell and his
advisers may attempt something in the sensational line shortly.
- July 19, 1903, Dallas
Daily Times Herald, p. 2, col. 5.
- o o o -
1911
SURPRISED AT
THEIR ACTION
_______
CITY COMMISSIONERS
DISAPPOINT-
ED AT DECISION OF COUNTY
COMMISSIONERS.
The city
commissioners are somewhat at a loss to understand why the county
commissioners should have turned down the proposition for a joint
establishment of a tubercular colony somewhere near the city.
The proposition was unanimously refused yesterday by the county
officers. Water Commissioner Nelms was outspoken in his disapproval
of this action today. He said:
Nelms Disapproves.
"It looks to me that, since
the city is paying over eighty per cent of the county taxes,
the county ought to be willing to stand for its pro rata share
for the proposed tubercular colony. Not a single road do the
county commissioners bring into the city. They don't even fill
a hole. If a sick man comes to the city from the county, as frequently
happens, and hasn't any money to pay for medical attention and
for a bed on which to rest, his disease-wrecked body, the city
pays his expenses, furnishes him with competent medical attention
and takes care of him. Hardly a day passes that someone is not
sent into Dallas for medical attention by the county.
Finance Commissioner W. T. Henderson
also stated he thought the county officials ought to have acted
favorably on the proposition to furnish a suitable place for
city and county patients to whom open air might mean the restoration
of health. The commissioners were of the opinion that, on humanitarian
grounds alone, the county officials should have said yea, and
not nay, to the plan.
Alleged Reason for Refusal.
Although the county commissioners
have not made public their reasons for refusing the request,
beyond the formal statement that they acted for the good of the
city and the county, it is said that one reason that influenced
them was the fear that this tuberculosis colony would be made
the dumping ground for white plague victims from various towns
in Texas, and perhaps from Oklahoma.
"Carrying out the argument
in that respect to its logical conclusion," said one of
the city officials this morning, "it might be said that
the city ought not to have a city hospital, since it is unquestionably
called on at times to care for non-residents of Dallas."
It is not thought likely that the
city can carry out this plan unaided by the county, since the
expense would be great. The plan originated following protests
from Oak Lawn residents against the tuberculosis colony on the
city hospital grounds.
- October 3, 1911,
Dallas Daily Times Herald, p. 11, col. 3-4.
- o o o -
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
REJECT OFFER OF SOCIETY.
______
Do Not Think it
Best to Establish Tu-
bercular Colony -- Rejected by
Unanimous Vote.
By a unanimous
vote, the Dallas county commissioners have refused to accept
the offer of the Dallas Red Cross society to establish a tubercular
colony. It was proposed by the Red Cross society and the city
commissioners to run the colony jointly by the city and county.
The county commissioners have had the matter under consideration
for some time and have had several discussions. The proposition
was refused on the grounds that it was not best that such a colony
be established at this time.
- October 4, 1911,
Dallas Daily Times Herald, p. 7, col. 3-4.
- o o o -
1919
P. P. MARTINEZ
DALLAS PHILANTHROPIST
URGES
CONSTRUCTION OF TUBERCULAR
HOSPITAL; HAS PLEDGED $5,000
By BEN FORD
Some weeks
ago, a Mexican laborer, the father of eight children, called
on P. P. Martinez, well-known Dallas cigar dealer, begging for
assistance. He told him that he had a little daughter, 3 years
old, who was afflicted with tuberculosis. He said he was without
funds and the little girl was slowly dying, and the other children
were in constant danger of contamination with the disease.
Mr. Martinez assured him that he
would render all assistance in his power. He went to city officials,
having in charge the handling of the Martinez relief fund, and
asked that they wire for a reservation at the State Tubercular
Hospital at Carlsbad. The wire was sent. The answer came back
that the hospital was full to overflowing and could not take
another patient.
An appeal was then made to the
city health officer for a place for the little sufferer at Woodlawn
hospital. Mr. Martinez was informed that no children could be
taken there. He offered to erect a building on the grounds at
his own expense, where the child could be cared for. He was told
that this was impossible.
The philanthropist found that there
was no place in the state where he could send the afflicted child.
He found that in the city of Dallas, his money could not buy
relief for her.
From this, he conceived the idea
of the erection of a hospital at Woodlawn, where children suffering
with tuberculosis could receive the proper attention and be restored
to their parents and country as normal human beings.
He went to county officials. He
told them he would make an outright donation of $5,000, if the
county would donate $10,000, and the city, $10,000, for the erection
of the hospital. He was informed that the county had no money
with which to do the work, though the idea was indorsed.
He next called on Mayor Wozencraft,
where again, the idea was indorsed, but where, once more, he
was told that no money was available for the appropriation.
Who Will Match Mayor?
But, Mayor Wozencraft had a proposition
to make. He told Mr. Martinez that is he would allow his $5,000
offer to stand, that he would donate $100 toward the fund and
call upon 149 other men to match his donation, making $15,000,
and would call upon some wealthy citizen or organization, or
number of organizations, to match Mr. Martinez' donation of $5,000.
Thus, the appeal was submitted
to the people of Dallas some days ago. The response has not been
made and Mr. Martinez is deeply disappointed, but he still believes
that when the people of Dallas are shown the absolute necessity
of an institution of this sort, that they will respond, as they
have always done to worthy appeals.
He has a plan for its operation.
that plan would provide that up to the capacity of the hospital,
every little child applying shall be admitted, regardless of
nationality or the creed of its parents. He would have the best
of care given them. He would have the institution conducted under
the direct supervision of the city and county, and he would have
every penny of the $2,000 go directly into the great work of
rebuilding little bits of wasted humanity.
At this institution, Mr. Martinez
would also have a school in which the little patients could carry
forward their mental education, while they are being cured physically.
In this way, he argues, when they leave the hospital cured, they
will be in [a] position to enter the public schools in the same
classes with other children of their age.
As he recited the case of the little
Mexican child, Mr. Martinez declared that he was convinced that,
like it, there were many other little children in Dallas who
were slowly dying amid insanitary surroundings and where they
are contaminating other children, solely because, in his opinion,
a great city has neglected the one large opportunity presented
to it to do a real constructive work in reclamation of the country's
biggest asset. Its child life.
He urges prompt action by the people
in this matter. As he contemplates the suffering of little children,
he becomes impatient. He believes that there is an opportunity
for doing good seldom given people, and he is anxious that his
fellow townsmen act promptly and generously.
Interest in tuberculosis sufferers
is no new thing of P. P. Martinez. For years, in his quiet and
unassuming way, he has given largely of his means to the cure
of those afflicted with the great white plague. For a number
of years, he has annually donated a fund of $2,000 for the relief
of indigent sufferers in Dallas county. This fund is administered
by a group of city official and business men, and no worthy person
is ever sent away without assistance. If the fund becomes exhausted
during the year, it is always replenished. The work is never
allowed to stop.
Mr. Martinez told the other day,
of the event which centered his mind upon the unfortunate position
of tuberculosis victims.
He had a nephew who became afflicted
with the disease. He sent him to Colorado, where he remained
until the weather became so cold that he was forced to return.
He was then sent to Kerrville, on the Texas-Mexican border.
But, when the guests at the hotel
there learned he was a tubercular, they objected to his presence,
and the proprietor told him he would have to leave. He applied
at another hotel, with the same result. Then, Mr. Martinez built
for him a cottage near Kerrville. He hired a Cuban woman to care
for him. She nursed him back to health and he has had no symptoms
of the disease in years.
Helpless Without Funds.
This circumstance convinced Mr.
Martinez that the tubercular victim who is without resources
is helpless. He is shunned by the world. He becomes an outcast.
He has no chance to come back. He immediately set to work to
remedy this condition so far as his own resources would permit;
and today, there are, throughout the southwest, hundreds of men
and women who look upon him as their benefactor and the man who
saved their lives.
"The state tuberculosis hospital
at Carlsbad is doing a great work," Mr. Martinez said. "But,
it ought to be large enough to care for every person in Texas
afflicted with tuberculosis. The state has wasted hundreds of
thousands of dollars in unprofitable enterprise, and in extravagant
appropriations. What a pity that some wise legislator does not
demand that the state doe its plaint duty and care for its stricken
people.
"Reclaim Human Beings."
"The City of Dallas is great
and prosperous. Her city government is spending a large sum of
money in creating a park at the union terminal station. Large
appropriations are made for other purposes. They are all good.
I have no objection to them. But, some of this money ought to
have been spent in reclaiming human beings.
"The churches have erected
costly buildings. Some of their members spend much money for
fine dress. I have no objection to this, but the churches ought
to hear the call of the unfortunate tuberculars and come to their
assistance."
Considering the vast number of
people he has helped back to health, it is to be expected that
occasionally, Mr. Martinez will encounter one who is at least
temporarily ungrateful to him.
He tells of the case of a little
orphan girl at Little Rock, Ark. Through friends where he was
rooming in Dallas, Mr. Martinez heard that this little girl was
suffering from tuberculosis and that her foster parents were
preparing to send her to an orphan asylum to die. He sent railroad
fare and had her brought to Dallas. He rented as airy a room
for her as possible. He employed the best doctor he could find
to wait on her. In twelve months, she was nursed back to health.
He then placed her with a family
in Dallas, where he knew she would be properly cared for. But,
the call of the little friends she had made in Arkansas became
too strong for the girl. Without asking Mr. Martinez'' permission,
or without telling him she was going, she went back.
He did not hear from her for years.
But, three years ago, when she had reached an age where she could
realize his great benefaction to her, the girl wrote him a letter
from San Francisco, where she was then living, in which she thanked
him for what he had done, and in which, she apologized for her
sudden departure from Dallas. The letter is treasured by Mr.
Martinez, because it shows that even in the one lone case, appreciation
for his services came in time.
Remembers the Orphans.
There are two classes of people
to whom Mr. Martinez' pocketbook is always open. They are tuberculars
and orphan children. For some other forms of charity, he has
but little patience. He does not approve the manner in which
many of them are conducted.
Each year, at Christmas time, every
little orphan child in the homes, in and near Dallas, is remembered
by him with substantial presents for themselves and money for
the upkeep of the institution.
And, race is no bar in his benefaction
to orphans. Down at Gilmer, there is a negro, W. L. Dickson,
who is devoting his life to raising and educating orphan negro
children. Those who have investigated the institution declare
that Dickson is doing a great work, one standing out in a class
entirely to itself. He has received substantial support from
many white men, and perhaps the most substantial of that support
has come from P. P. Martinez.
The little negro orphans had no
park in which to play. They finally secured the park. Then, they
had no swings, slides, etc., so dear to the child's heart. Mr.
Martinez heard of this. He sent them. Now, they call it "Martinez
Amusement Park."
The name Martinez is held in reverence
by the little negro orphans. Dickson asserts that when one become
unruly, he only has to say: "Now, I am going to tell Mr.
Martinez how your are acting," and instant results are secured.
Though he has received numerous invitations to visit the home,
Mr. Martinez has never found time to do so.
Loaned Farmers Money.
A few years ago, the bottom fell
out of the cotton market. Farmers over the state were being forced
to sell the staple at a s low as five cents a pound--below the
cost of production, and at the sacrifice of winter clothing for
the hard-worked mother and the little children.
Statesmen talked of a way in which
to relieve the situation. While they were talking, Mr. Martinez
was acting. To secretaries of chambers of commerce in all sections
of the cotton belt of Texas, he sent his personal check. These
checks ran into the thousands of dollars. With them, went the
instruction that all money was to be loaned to poor and deserving
tenant farms without interest and for an indefinite length of
time, or until the market became stable.
In this way, many farmers were
enable to hold their cotton until the market was restored. There
are farmers in all sections of Texas who will never forget the
name of P. P. Martinez.
He is an unassuming man. He talks
of his benefactions only grudgingly. He talks of them not all,
except to use them as examples of what can be accomplished with
a little money property applied in a worthy cause. He is in the
evening of life. He is a bachelor. His wants are simple, his
pleasures few. He makes no pretentions to being a better man
than his neighbors. He thinks he has only done his duty when
he helps his fellowman, who is in need. But, who can imagine
a life more wisely lived, or a fortune applied in a better cause?
- July 6, 1919, Dallas
Daily Times Herald, Sec. I, p. 8, col. 1-7.
- o o o -
1937
Added
November 6, 2004:
CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL
HELPS
REHABILITATE AILING BABIES
Rapidly
recovering from a serious attack of pneumonia, Little Dave now
laughs for hospital doctors and attendants, presenting an altogether
different picture from that of the sick baby that entered Bradford
Memorial Hospital ten days ago. Eighteen-months-old Dave is one
of many Dallas babies who are being cared for through summer
illnesses and diseases by Bradford Memorial Hospital treatment,
Miss May Smith, superintendent, said Friday, in pointing out
that an increased number of patients were cared for last month.
Excluding emergency service, 205
babies received medical aid during July, with visits to the clinics
totaling 750 and hospitalization given to 103 patients.
When his mother brought him to
the hospital, Dave was underweight and undernourished and seriously
ill with pneumonia. Given oxygen and special treatment, he passed
the crisis and soon began to throw off the disease. Now, he is
beginning to gain weight and is fast becoming a healthy, normal
baby. "Dave is our only remaining case of pneumonia, and
very soon, he will be well again," Miss Smith said.
One of the 25 specialized agencies
supported by the Dallas Community Chest, Bradford Memorial Hospital
offers care and treatment to babies from birth to five years.
- August 20, 1937,
Dallas Daily Times Herald, Sec. I, p. 4, col. 6-7.
- o o o -
[Bradford Memorial
Hospital for Babies,
Lucile Burlew, superintendent, 3512 Maple ave.
- 1938 Worley's Dallas city directory, p. 189]
|