Health-related Articles, Dallas County, Texas
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(Updated November 6, 2004)

 

1889
THE SMALLPOX CASE.

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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.
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A HEALTH ORDER.
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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.
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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.
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[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.
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1893
Added February 2, 2004:
SANITARY AFFAIRS.
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Interesting Interview With Dr.
Armstrong

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ON PRESENT NEEDS
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THE GARBAGE NOT REMOVED AS IT
SHOULD BE.

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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 T
IMES-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 T
IMES 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. P
ARSONS.

- 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. A
RMSTRONG, 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 T
IMES 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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[Bradford Memorial Hospital for Babies,
Lucile Burlew, superintendent, 3512 Maple ave.
- 1938 Worley's Dallas city directory, p. 189]