Life — April 30, 1914 — page 16: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE PARSON'S DILEMMA “0 LORD, LET NOT PAPA’S WRATH DESCEND UPON ME” nently established. With your kind permission, I shall retain as souvenirs certain trinkets collected by me at random; but the pink silk suspenders, crocheted for me by the Queen of Prussia, the ‘Victory’ hat-band, sent to me by Lord Nelson, the zinc loving- cup, presented to me by the citizens of Moscow, and the toothbrush I pre- served from my trip to Russia, are at your polite disposal. “In vacating my present lodgings I wish to call attention to the fact that the roof on the extension over the maid’s room leaked when I took pos- session ; that I made repairs at my own expense, and paid for the new sink in the pantry out of my own pocket. “ Assuring you that I now seek noth- ing more than a low seat and a medium salary, I am, \ Gratefully yours, N. Bonaparte.” Yes, just a little over one hundred years ago Napoleon Bonaparte checked his baggage with a transfer company, handed the keys of Fontainebleu to the janitor, and gave the Maltese cat to a neighbor, But he came back later. Harry Grant Dart. Because They Are Helpless R. MET HOLT is quite in- dignant because he has been accused of inoculating babies with something reprehensiblé. Dr. Holt ad- mits that he does inoculate such babies constantly with tuberculin, but that it is harmless as soda water. Tuberculin is an extract of tubercle bacilli. These bacilli are first boiled and then the tuberculin from their dead bodies i injected into the circulation of the in- fants. This process, which Dr, Holt passionately insists is perfectly harm- less, enables him to tell whether they have tuberculosis or not. Lots of hal ¢ tuberculosis who don’t appear to have it. Does Dr, Holt contend that pump- ing tuberculin into babies and finding out in advance that they have incipient tuberculosis enables him to cure them any sooner? He appears to convey this impression. The truth about tuberculosis is that the only way to cure it is to teach people how to take care of themselves. That is the cure for not getting it, and for having’ it. Thousands of years ago it w discovered that “ consump- tion”, as it was formerly called, could only be cured by living a natural life in pure air with the right food. No succeeding generations of doctors have ever been able to add anything to that prophylactic. Dr Holt knows, as well as he knows anything, that tuberculosis is a disease of malnutrition, He also knows that if the medical profession should abandon their serums, their charlatanic tricks, all their obvious and criminal hypocrisies, and spend their time in teaching people to take care of them- selves, they would all soon be out of a job. That is the secret of the in- tense resentment displayed by any doctor when his statements are dis- puted. A simple test of Dr. Holt’s tuber- culin doctrine, one that anybody can understand, is all that is necessary to reveal its inconsistency. Let it be or- dained that the medical profession has the power to take any man off the street and compel him to be inoculated with tuberculin, All that would be comicbooks.com