What the Faculty is Doing for the State of Maryland. What the State Should Do for the Faculty The Pure Food Question in Maryland... The Faculty Bill-The "Big Stick'' in the Pure Food Campaign. Creighton is a large and substantial brick building, lighted by electricity, heated by hot water, and a large sun parlor, surrounded by eleven acres of land, with fine old shade trees, at the east end of and overlooking Green Spring Valley. Located in Lutherville, ten miles from Baltimore, on the Northern Central Railroad; twenty-five minutes from Union Station. A private sanitarium for the treatment of all forms of nervous diseases, Rest Cure Cases, and Convalescents from acute diseases and surgical operations. Attention is called to the fact that cases of Insanity are not received. The home surroundings are all that could be desired, and everything done for the patients to develop the esthetic, and restore them to the pleasures and beauties of health and life. Physicians sending their cases to Creighton may continue in attendance if they so desire. For terms and further information, address C. & P. Phone, "Towson" 139. DR. L. GIBBONS SMART, The Bulletin OF THE Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland PUBLICATION COMMITTEE Emil Novak, M.D., Editor J. A. Chatard, M.D., Associate Editor John Ruhräh, M.D., Secretary, ex officio Vol. II BALTIMORE, JANUARY, 1910 No. 7 WHAT THE FACULTY IS DOING FOR THE STATE OF MARYLAND. The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland has now been in existence for one hundred and eleven years, and during this long period its varied activities have always borne a close relation to the welfare of the people of the state. Representing as it does the organized medical profession of Maryland, it may logically be considered the natural guardian of the health of the state's citizens. Since a state's greatest asset is the health of its people, it would be impossible at the present time to point to any organization engaged in a work more beneficent than the Faculty. The splendid library of the Faculty is one of the finest collections of its kind in the United States. If a physician in a remote portion of the state is grappling with the perplexities of some baffling disease, perhaps involving the life of the patient, the library will place in his hand within a few hours powerful reinforcements in the form of the latest literature of the disease with which he is coping. The library is in constant use by large numbers of the medical profession, and with the educational influence of the scientific meetings held at frequent intervals by the Faculty and its various sections, there is a constant and strong tendency to a general uplift of the entire profession. The advantages of this to the public it would be unnecessary to emphasize. The magnificent new home of the Faculty, dedicated last May, has already become a veritable "health headquarters" for the state. Besides the purely scientific meetings there held, a course of public lectures is here given every winter by prominent medical men, under the auspices of the Faculty, upon matters relating to the preservation of health and the prevention of disease. In addition, large numbers of "health lectures" are given to organizations throughout the state by volunteers from the ranks of the Faculty. From the Faculty headquarters are issued the "health bulletins" published every Sunday by the Baltimore Sun and the Baltimore American. The nurses' association has taken quarters in the building, and much good should result in thus bringing it into close relation with the medical profession. The present Legislature will be called upon to consider a number of matters of much importance to medical men, and the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty is proud of the fact that in every one of these measures it has displayed the deepest and most active interest, this being all the more commendable in view of the fact that its motives cannot be other than those of pure altruism. In its efforts to protect the people from the insidious effects of adulteration and fraud in foods and drugs, the Faculty prepared an ideal pure food bill, for which it fought with its own funds and the best energies of many of its most active members. Knowing the lamentable. inadequacy of our present system of county care of the insane, it has put its heart into the fight for a square deal for the poor unfortunates who cannot plead for themselves. Against the grim cohorts of tuberculosis, the dread "white plague," the medical profession has long been hurling its ammunition, and now, with the assistance of an enlightened public, its efforts are beginning to bear fruit. In the crusade against the white slave traffic, the newly recognized horror of our cruel social system, it is the medical profession of the state which is taking the lead. And so the examples might be multiplied. Now, then, to use a common expression, What's the answer? This we have reserved for the next editorial. WHAT THE STATE SHOULD DO FOR THE FACULTY. In all the various lines of activity above outlined, the Faculty has been obliged to rely in large measure upon its own resources. The library of which it is so proud was not reared by the magic touch of a Carnegie's golden wand, but principally by the hard work and self-sacrificing financial contributions of the Faculty's own members. The original cost of the building was about one hundred thousand dollars, but the debt of the Faculty has already been reduced to less than twenty-eight thousand dollars. The last Legislature made a generous appropriation to the Faculty of twenty-five thousand dollars for two years, although the Governor, prompted by reasons of economy, reduced this appropriation by one half. WHAT THE STATE SHOULD DO FOR THE FACULTY 123 The generosity of the state has been of the greatest possible assistance to the state medical organization in its work, and was especially significant as showing that the state recognizes the Faculty as one of the most important of its institutions. The present Legislature will be appealed to for a similar appropriation of ten thousand dollars for two years, and with the precedent set by its predecessor, it is hoped that it will grant this request. It is of course. realized that each year heavy drains are made upon the state treasury and that there is therefore the fullest justification for the wise economy which has been so characteristic of the present administration. At the same time it would scarcely seem either wise or economical to cut off from the support of the state institutions and organizations which, like the Faculty, are doing a real and important work for the state. This would indeed be a policy of "Penny wise, pound foolish." Directly and indirectly the Faculty does much for the alleviation and cure of disease in the state, often with no hope of compensation, while in the even more altruistic sphere of the prevention of disease, the Faculty stands second to no other agency. When an individual is sick, the idea of economy is pushed aside by the desire to get well, and in the broader problem of the health of the state, a niggardly policy would be very much out of place. Estimating the value of a human life to the state as fifteen hundred dollars, it can be readily seen that such systematic efforts in the prevention of death and disease as the Faculty is carrying on will mean an annual saving to the state of thousands of dollars. From the standpoint of the state there can be no more important aspect of the present day problem of conservation of natural resources. Even now there are some benighted individuals who seem to regard the Faculty as a purely social organization, or as a sort of doctors' trust. Nothing could be further from the truth. Although one of its advantages, not by any means insignificant, is to bring into close and harmonious touch the physicians of the state, it has other and higher motives. One of its purposes, as expressed in its Constitution, is "to enlighten and direct public opinion so that the profession shall become more capable and honorable within itself, and more useful to the public, in the prevention and cure of disease, and in prolonging and adding comfort to life." The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty earnestly hopes that the State Legislature and the Governor in considering its request for an appropriation will appreciate, for the reasons above mentioned, that the Faculty is appealing, not for itself, but for the health and welfare of the citizens of Maryland that it asks the state for help in order that it in turn may help the people. |