"'" "RECAP 
 
 COLUMBIA LIBRARIES OFFSITE 
 
 HEALTH SCIENCES STANpARD 
 
 HX64098095 
 R1 54.T7 C35 The beloved physicia 
 
 
 
 5) 1LJ'^'<N# en /f^ 1 
 
 II %3 i %-^ 11 / 
 
 EDWARD LIVINGS 
 TRUDEAU 
 
 BV 
 
 I 
 
 CHALMERS 
 

 W^dnma Htbrarg 
 
THE 
 BELOVED PHYSICIAN 
 
 Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive 
 
 in 2010 witii funding from 
 
 Open Knowledge Commons 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/belovedphysicianOOchal 
 
EDWARD LIVINGSTON TRUDEAU 
 
THE 
 BELOVED PHYSICIAN 
 
 Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 BY 
 
 STEPHEN CHALMERS 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 
 HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
 
 1916 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY COMPANY 
 COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY STEPHEN CHALMERS 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 Published January iqib 
 
TO 
 DR. J. WOODS PRICE 
 
 WHO HELD THE 
 LIGHT 
 
ILLUSTRATIOKS 
 
 Edward Livingston Trudeau Frontispiece 
 
 Dr. and Mrs. Trudeau .... 14 
 
 Dr. Trudeau's First House at Saranac 
 Lake (burned in 1893) and the 
 Church of St. Luke the Beloved 
 Physician, founded by him , .18 
 
 One of Dr. Trudeau's Prescriptions . 22 
 
 An Early Prescription in Tuberculosis 22 
 
 Dr. Trudeau with his Rifle ... 26 
 
 The "Little Red," built in 1884: 
 Nucleus of the Adirondack Cot- 
 tage Sanitarium 32 
 
 Beginnings of the Open-Air City of 
 the Hills, about 1890 ... 36 
 
Illustrations 
 
 Beginnings of the Open-Air City, 
 
 ABOUT 1892 36 
 
 The Saranac Lake Laboratory . . 48 
 
 When the Family Dog was ailing . 54 
 
 Dr. Trudeau in the Saranac Lake 
 
 Laboratory 60 
 
 The Adirondack Con age Sanitarium 64 
 
 Edward Livingston Trudeau . . 70 
 
IKTRODUCTIOK 
 
 TRUDEAU ON OPTIMISM 
 
 The last public utterance of Dr. E. 
 L. Trudeau, who died at Saranac 
 Lake, New York, November 15, 
 1915, was at Washington, May 2, 
 1910, when, as President of the 
 Eighth Congress of American Phy- 
 sicians and Surgeons, he delivered 
 some of his best philosophy in an ad- 
 dress entitled, '<The Value of Opti- 
 mism in Medicine," which was writ- 
 ten while he lay on a bed of suffering 
 and delivered at a time when he was 
 hardly able to stand up before his 
 colleagues. 
 
Introduction 
 
 " As I look back on my medical 
 life/' he said in part, ** the one thing 
 that stands out as having been most 
 helpful to me, and which has enabled 
 me more than anything else to ac- 
 complish whatever I have been able 
 to do, seems to me to have been that 
 I was ever possessed of a fund of 
 optimism ; indeed, at times optimism 
 was about the only resource 1 had left 
 with which to face most unfavorable 
 conditions and overcome serious ob- 
 stacles. 
 
 ** Optimism is a product of a man's 
 heart rather than of his head ; of his 
 emotions ratlier than of his reason ; 
 and on that account it is rather 
 
 c X ] 
 
Introduction 
 
 frowned upon by many physicians 
 whose scientific training naturally 
 leads them to depend solely upon 
 qualities of the intellect, and to look 
 with suspicion on any product of the 
 emotions. . . . Optimism is a mixture 
 of faith and imagination, and from it 
 springs the vision which leads one 
 from the beaten paths, urges him to 
 effort when obstacles block the way, 
 and carries him finally to achieve- 
 ment, where pessimism can see only 
 failure ahead. Optimism means en- 
 ergy, hardships, and achievement: 
 pessimism means apathy, ease, and 
 inaction. Optimism may and often 
 does point to a road that is hard to 
 Cxi J 
 
Introduction 
 
 travel, or to one that leads no- 
 where; but pessimism points to no 
 road at all. 
 
 *' The doctor, whether he be a sci- 
 entist and his life wholly given to sci- 
 entific investigation in the laboratory, 
 where reason and intellect reign su- 
 preme, or whether he be wholly a 
 practicing physician and surgeon in 
 daily contact with suffering human- 
 ity in its struggles against disease, 
 will need all the optimism he can cul- 
 tivate if his life is to be as fruitful in 
 results as it can be made. The sci- 
 entist without optimism may be an 
 admirable intellectual machine, who, 
 it is true, is not likely to be led astray 
 
Introduction 
 
 from the well-worn road of demon- 
 strable and generally already demon- 
 strated facts, and as such he will have 
 his place in life ; but he will never 
 climb above the ruck, he will create 
 and achieve httle in the field of orig- 
 inal research, unless faith in his own 
 powers furnishes the incentive to 
 constant effort and imagination leads 
 him into an unexplored region, to 
 new methods and untried lines of in- 
 vestigation. 
 
 "To the practicing physician and 
 surgeon optimism is even more nec- 
 essary than to the scientist, for be- 
 sides moulding the doctor's character 
 and guiding him in his decisions as to 
 C xiii :i 
 
Introduction 
 
 the case, his optimism is at once re- 
 flected to the patient and influences 
 his condition accordingly. How great 
 this influence may be we are learn- 
 ing more and more to appreciate. In 
 his hour of need the patient has no 
 means of judging the physician's in- 
 tellectual attainments ; it is the faith 
 that radiates from the doctor's per- 
 sonality that is helpful to him. Any 
 encouragement that emanates from 
 the physician will help keep up the 
 patient's courage and carry him 
 through long days of illness and suf- 
 fering to recovery; and where re- 
 covery is impossible, if the doctor's 
 optimism — that is, his faith — is of 
 [ xiv ] 
 
Introduction 
 
 the kind that extends to the future, 
 not only here but hereafter, it may 
 dispel for the patient much of the 
 darkness and despair which brood 
 over the end of life and perhaps even 
 illume for him that vast forever oth- 
 erwise so shrouded in impenetrable 
 gloom. 
 
 " Ian Maclaren's optimism was of 
 this kind, and Dr. Grenfell's opti- 
 mism is every day helping him to heal 
 not only sick bodies, but the broken 
 spirits of men as well. This is the 
 highest type of optimism the doctor 
 may attain to, as its influence may 
 reach not only to the physical, the 
 intellectual, and the psychical, but 
 
 c xv:i 
 
Introduction 
 
 even to that dim ethereal region of 
 the spiritual, from which spring man's 
 most sacred and cherished aspirations. 
 This side of the doctor's life of serv- 
 ice to humanity is known but to him- 
 self and to those who in the hour of 
 death have turned to him for help ; 
 to the world this is a closed book, 
 but what is written on its pages has 
 helped to make the medical profes- 
 sion a benediction to mankind. 
 
 " The most striking examples in 
 our time of the value of optimism, 
 each representing one of the two ex- 
 tremes of the medical profession, — 
 that is, experimental science and 
 practical medicine and surgery, — 
 [ xvi 3 
 
Introduction 
 
 are Pasteur and Grenfell. I have 
 chosen these two men as examples 
 of optimism, each in his own sphere, 
 because, widely different as have been 
 their fields of labor, they each repre- 
 sent a type of optimism in medicine 
 which, to a greater or less degree, 
 is the ideal of so many doctors' lives 
 — the humanitarian type. The mov- 
 ing force in both Pasteur's and Gren- 
 fell' s lives has been the relief of hu- 
 man suffering, and their intellectual 
 attainments have been consecrated to 
 this end. Personal ambition, the pride 
 of intellect, or the love of fame has 
 had little or no influence in urging 
 them to their great achievements. 
 C xvii ] 
 
Introduction 
 
 " The man must indeed have been 
 an optimist, who, standing at the 
 very threshold of the discovery of 
 the germ origin of disease, did not 
 hesitate to say, <It is within the 
 power of man to cause all infectious 
 diseases to disappear from the earth.' 
 Pasteur's optimism led him unerr- 
 ingly to the solution of every experi- 
 mental problem he started to solve, 
 because his faith made him see noth- 
 ing ahead but success, and his im- 
 agination led him to a solution of the 
 most difficult problems when his rea- 
 son alone would have failed. 
 
 " The moving force in the great 
 humanitarian achievements of Dr. 
 [ xviii ] 
 
Introduction 
 
 Grenfell is the highest type of opti- 
 mism ; a faith which includes not only 
 that which is seen and temporal, 
 but the unseen and eternal as well ; 
 and on this, which to the pessimist 
 would seem an uncertain and emo- 
 tional basis, he has built up a work 
 which has arrested the attention 
 and won the admiration of the civ- 
 ilized world. The kind of optimism 
 which extends to the hereafter is in 
 Dr. Grenfell no mere idealist's vis- 
 ion, but a very real force to be reck- 
 oned with in this world if it enables 
 a man in so few years to accomplish 
 what he has done. . . . 
 
 " Optimism is the one thing that 
 [ xix ] 
 
Introduction 
 
 is within the reach of us all, no 
 matter how meager our intellectual 
 equipment, how unpromising our 
 outlook at the start, or how obscure 
 and limited our careers may be. It 
 was about my only asset when I 
 built my first little sanitarium cot- 
 tage on a remote hillside in an un- 
 inhabited and inaccessible region. 
 Viewed from the pessimist's stand- 
 point, that little cottage as an in- 
 strument of any importance in the 
 warfare against tuberculosis must 
 have appeared as a most absurd and 
 monumental folly. Optimism made 
 me indifferent to neglect and oppo- 
 sition and blind to obstacles of all 
 
Introduction 
 
 kinds during the long years of strug- 
 gle before the value of sanitarium 
 treatment became generally recog- 
 nized. It enabled me to undertake 
 the culture of the tubercle bacillus 
 and delve in the complex problems 
 of infection and artificial immuniza- 
 tion, though I had no knowledge 
 whatever of bacteriology, no labor- 
 atory, no apparatus or books. It has 
 steadily upheld my faith in the pos- 
 sibility of ultimately attaining to an 
 immunizing treatment for tubercu- 
 losis, in spite of many discourage- 
 ments and years of fruitless work 
 
 " In a long life which has been 
 lived daily in contact with patients 
 C xxi 3 
 
Introduction 
 
 beyond the reach of human skill, 
 who through months and even years 
 of hopeless illness have looked to 
 me for help, I have indeed had 
 need of all the optimism I could 
 chng to. It has ever been a precious 
 asset to me, and I hope to those 
 about me as well, and has never 
 entirely failed me. 
 
 " Let us not, therefore, quench 
 the faith nor turn from the vision 
 which, whether we own it or not, 
 we carry, as Stevenson^s lantern- 
 bearers their lanterns, hidden from 
 the outer world ; and, thus inspired, 
 many will reach the goal; and if 
 for most of us our achievements 
 C xxii ] 
 
Introduction 
 
 must fall short of our ideals, if when 
 age and infirmity overtake us * we 
 come not within sight of the castle 
 of our dreams/ nevertheless, all 
 will be w^ell with us ; for, as Steven- 
 son tells us rightly, * to travel hope- 
 fully is better than to arrive, and 
 the true success is in labor.' '' 
 
THE 
 BELOVED PHYSICIAN 
 
 Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
THE 
 BELOVED PHYSICIAN 
 
 Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 There are, conceivably, quite a 
 number of persons who never heard 
 of Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau. 
 There are undoubtedly many who, 
 hearing of his death only the other 
 day, discovered themselves under 
 the impression that he died years 
 ago, that he belonged in human his- 
 tory with such figures as Pasteur, 
 Stevenson, and David Livingstone. 
 The medical world knew all about 
 him and bowed its head as one man 
 when the word was passed that his 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 brave light of optimism had flick- 
 ered for the last time and gone out. 
 The attention of the lay pubhc was 
 drawn to the golden afterglow and 
 learned, perhaps for the first time, 
 that the sun which had just gone 
 down marked the close of a splendid 
 day ; that with the words, "Trudeau 
 is dead," the last line had been 
 written upon a remarkable epic of 
 human endeavor and achievement 
 in the face of circumstances that 
 would have daunted many more 
 hale in body, if less strong in spirit. 
 For this martyr-laborer, whom I 
 come neither to praise nor to 
 bury, was a giant "in a general 
 
 c: 4 ] - 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 honest thought and common good 
 to aU." 
 
 The press, lay and medical, has 
 already done honor to the monument 
 of scientific accomplishment, and of 
 human faith despite adversity, which 
 Trudeau built with his own frail 
 hands, every enduring stone of it 
 laboriously carved out of his ov^n 
 sufferings. This mental image stands 
 in the most tragic and unromantic 
 battlefield of life as a great figure 
 of Hope, not harping upon a last 
 string, but sounding a song that has 
 brought, and must ever continue to 
 bring, renewed faith to hundreds of 
 thousands who, afflicted with tuber- 
 C 5 ] 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 culosis, lift their eyes unto the hills. 
 And at the base of this figurative 
 monument are engraven the words 
 of Trudeau, the beloved physician : 
 ** The conquest of Fate comes 
 not by rebellious struggle, but by 
 acquiescence/* 
 
 What manner of man this was 
 that, sick unto death over forty 
 years ago, could wield from a little 
 laboratory in the wilderness an influ- 
 ence which is materialized in nearly 
 five hundred sanitariums in the west- 
 ern hemisphere for the treatment of 
 consumption by fresh air, rest, and 
 a proper philosophy; what manner 
 [ 6] 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 of personality this was that, from 
 the prostrate depths of an invalid's 
 chair, could revolutionize the sanita- 
 tion of business offices where gold 
 seemed life's only worth-while, and 
 of homes where ignorance shrank 
 from pure air and sunshine — this 
 can be explained only by an inti- 
 mate personal revelation of the re- 
 markable human being that was 
 Edward Livingston Trudeau. 
 
 It is with a painful sense of inca- 
 pacity that one approaches the task ; 
 yet there is no alternative but to 
 fulfill it. For some reason but dimly 
 comprehended after many years. 
 Dr. Trudeau chose to reveal to the 
 
 c:73 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 writer a phase of his inner self 
 which he was perhaps compelled to 
 keep hidden more or less from many 
 others, on account of his position, 
 on the one hand, as a kind of Nestor 
 in his profession, and, on the other, 
 as physician-confessor to the sick. 
 Like the captain of a ship, he was 
 much alone amid his great com- 
 pany ; only with some odd passen- 
 ger, in whose tastes he found an 
 echo of some of his own that he 
 must ordinarily suppress, could he 
 reveal the more vague hues of his 
 heart and mind ; for he was not, 
 even to those who held him in high- 
 est esteem, a demi-god, not all a 
 
 C 8 ] 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 hero, and if there was one thing he 
 frankly detested it was a hero- wor- 
 shiper or a poseur in the heroic, al- 
 though he loved praise where praise 
 was sincerely accorded. 
 
 This preface is considered neces- 
 sary to what follows. I was not a 
 physician with whom he might be ex- 
 pected to discuss pulmonary symp- 
 toms. I was not his patient, although 
 sufficiently under the common shad- 
 ow to have sympathy in that which 
 was his thought day and night. He 
 merely found in the writer, I think, 
 a sort of Holmes's Watson to whom 
 he could discourse of strange mat- 
 ters, who could utter sufficiently in- 
 C 9] 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 telligible fallacies that he might turn 
 and rend. In no other way can one 
 explain a relationship which caused 
 him at intervals to write down, on 
 tom-ofF scraps of paper, and mail to 
 one who lived not two hundred yards 
 away, bits of philosophy that reveal 
 more of the real man than all his pub- 
 lic utterances ever did, or could. For 
 instance, he sent to me one day the 
 following statement upon that which 
 was to him the everlasting riddle of 
 existence : — 
 
 <* The ideal is the beautiful in life ; 
 the facts are hideous." 
 
 It was as if he turned to the former 
 as a relief from studying the latter. 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 It may be well at the outset to 
 sketch briefly his voyage through the 
 world which benefited so richly from 
 his journeying. He was bom in New 
 York City in 1848, of French par- 
 ents. His mother was a daughter of 
 Dr. Frangois Eloi Berger, a Parisian, 
 practicing in New York, and his 
 father a descendant of a Huguenot 
 family which, leaving France for 
 Canada, later drifted down the Mis- 
 sissippi to New Orleans. Near the 
 Southern city James Trudeau, who 
 was an intimate friend and fellow 
 traveler of the naturalist-painter 
 Audubon, owned a plantation which 
 was confiscated by General Butler 
 
 n 11 ] 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 in the Civil War. He died of wounds 
 received while in command of a Con- 
 federate post, Island Number Ten, 
 on the Mississippi, and when Ed- 
 ward L. Trudeau, the youngest of 
 three children, was little over two 
 years of age, his mother went with 
 her father. Dr. Berger, to Paris. 
 Here the boy was educated at the 
 Lycee Bonaparte. When eighteen 
 years of age Edward returned to New 
 York, and found himself hardly able 
 to speak the language of his native 
 city. 
 
 He attended the Columbia School 
 of Mines, and after graduation en- 
 tered the United States Navy. An 
 
 1 12] 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 elder brother who had preceded him 
 to Annapohs was stricken with tuber- 
 culosis. Edward nursed his brother 
 up to the hour of the latter' s death, 
 six months later, and thus first came 
 into personal contact with that dis- 
 ease to the extermination of which he 
 devoted the rest of his life. He en- 
 tered the New York College of Phy- 
 sicians and Surgeons, and in the year 
 of his graduation, 1871, practiced 
 medicine in New York City, in part- 
 nership with Dr. Fessenden Otis. In 
 the same year, unconscious that he 
 was doomed to his brother's disease, 
 he married Miss Charlotte Beare, of 
 Douglaston, Long Island, to whom 
 
 c 13 n 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 he ever attributed the inspiration of 
 his labors through nearly half a cen- 
 tury. The marriage was a perfect 
 one, although attended by many sor- 
 rows. Three of their four children 
 died. One son survives — Dr. Francis 
 B. Trudeau. The death of Dr. Ed- 
 ward L. Trudeau, Jr., in 1906, was 
 a great blow to his father and a loss 
 to the medical profession. 
 
 It was in 1873 that Dr. Trudeau 
 left New York City with the doom 
 of tuberculosis pronounced upon him. 
 He was only twenty-five ; the gates 
 of life seemed shut in his face, for it 
 was believed that he had less than six 
 months to live. Hardly able to stand 
 
 c 14 3 
 
w 
 
 Pi 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 alone, he was taken to Paul Smith's 
 in the Adirondacks by a friend who 
 was also a distant relation, Louis Liv- 
 ingston. Smith's was then a hunters' 
 inn in the heart of the wilderness, 
 forty miles from the nearest railway 
 point at Ausable Forks. The guide 
 who carried Dr. Trudeau upstairs 
 and put him to bed described his bur- 
 den as " weighin' no more 'n a lamb- 
 skin." The same guide lived to 
 see that lightweight defeat a local 
 champion in a backwoods ring ! 
 
 A college-mate of Trudeau' s, Ed- 
 ward H. Harriman, was then stay- 
 ing at Paul Smith's. Harriman, Liv- 
 ingston, and '' Uncle " Paul Smith 
 
 i: 15 3 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 took turns nursing the sick doctor 
 through nights which he was not 
 expected, in nature, to survive. And 
 yet he outhved them all ! He im- 
 proved at Paul Smith's, then tried 
 a winter at St. Paul, Minnesota. 
 Here he suiffered a relapse and was 
 brought back to the Adirondacks, 
 where he again improved. It was 
 at about this time that, being joined 
 by Mrs. Trudeau and their two chil- 
 dren, Ned and Charlotte, the family 
 passed through a terrible ordeal on 
 a journey from Malone to Paul 
 Smith's. A blizzard arose, and the 
 trip, which usually occupied less than 
 a day, took over forty-eight hours. 
 
 i; 16:1 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 Paul Smith handled the team and 
 wagon. After plunging through 
 miles of snowdrift in the teeth of a 
 biting norther, the horses fell down 
 exhausted. The family's baggage 
 had previously been abandoned at 
 Barnum Pond. Paul Smith made 
 the sick man as comfortable as pos- 
 sible, wrapped the children in blan- 
 kets, and buried them for warmth 
 in the snow. When the blizzard 
 abated, the family reached the hunt- 
 er's place, after two days of un- 
 speakable hardship. 
 
 Surviving this ordeal, seeming 
 even to have thrived upon it. Dr. 
 Trudeau began to consider seriously 
 
 C 17 3 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 the possible advantages in pulmo- 
 nary diseases of exposure to pure 
 cold air. He proposed to spend a 
 winter in the Adirondacks, where 
 the frigid season is prolonged and 
 the thermometer occasionally stands 
 at 40° below zero. His friends and 
 medical advisers considered his pro- 
 position as a kind of suicidal mania, 
 all except Dr. Loomis and Mrs. 
 Trudeau. Dr. Trudeau had been 
 impressed with the theory of Breh- 
 mer, the Silesian, and of Dettweiler, 
 a patient and pupil of Brehmer, that 
 the consumptive was not harmed by 
 inclement weather, provided he ac- 
 customed himself to living out of 
 
 C 18 ] 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 doors, at rest. With the approval 
 of Loomis and Mrs. Trudeau, the 
 doctor carried out his experiment, 
 the results of which practically rev- 
 olutionized the science of treating 
 tuberculosis. Trudeau so improved 
 that presently he began to practice 
 medicine among the Adirondack na- 
 tives. He continued to do so for 
 several years, often traveling forty 
 miles in a day or night and in all 
 sorts of weather to usher, perhaps, 
 some little woodsman into the world, 
 or even to allay anxiety by his mere 
 presence. It has been said that his 
 bedside manner did more than physic 
 in ninety per cent of his cases. Half 
 
 c 193 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 of his bills were never rendered and 
 a quarter of the other half never 
 paid ; but tears w^ould come into the 
 eyes of many a woman when she 
 saw him in after years ; and men 
 called him "the beloved physician." 
 I have beside me as I write some 
 old prescriptions that were found in 
 the ragged ledger of a general store 
 in the wilderness of forty years ago, 
 when stovepipes and pills were sold 
 over the same counter. There are 
 three of them that reveal as many 
 phases of this humane country doc- 
 tor, who often came in the night, 
 dressed in mackinaw, pontiacs, and 
 moccasins . Apparently, if the family 
 
 C 20 ;] 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 pig or cow or dog was ailing. Dr. 
 Trudeau was summoned through the 
 wilderness. Here is a prescription 
 calling for carbolic, oil tar, sulphur, 
 and olive oil — which, a veterinary 
 doctor tells me, could not be im- 
 proved upon to-day as a cure for 
 mange. " Sig : " v^ites Trudeau at 
 the end of the prescription; then, 
 remembering that his patient might 
 lack appreciation even of dog-Latin, 
 he dashes his pen through the word 
 and adds, <^Rub on the dog several 
 times " ! 
 
 There was no liquor license in the 
 woods in those days, and little whis- 
 key, licit or otherwise ; yet there was 
 
 C 21 J 
 
T*he Beloved Physician 
 
 an all-abiding thirst, and men made 
 their own poteen if they could get 
 pure alcohol and some spirits of rye. 
 Trudeau believed that, if a man liked 
 an occasional drink, it was his human 
 right to have it — in reasonable meas- 
 ure. But if the man abused the doc- 
 tor's confidence, from that day on 
 he went parched and prescription- 
 less. 
 
 Again one finds an early prescrip- 
 tion for a common symptom of tu- 
 berculosis. I brought this prescrip- 
 tion to Dr. Trudeau not very long 
 ago and asked him what he would 
 prescribe now — after thirty-five 
 years. 
 
c//a, ^ /,f '•^-'■ 
 
 
 ONE OF DR. TRUDEAU'S PRESCRIPTIONS 
 
 7o^/^ ^^^^ 
 
 
 >?^ 
 
 AN EARLY PRESCRIPTION IN TUBERCULOSIS 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 **That — if anything," he said; 
 " but probably nothing — no physic 
 at all. Open the window — go to 
 bed — and keep your nerve ! " 
 
 During these early years Trudeau 
 lived the Ufe of the people in many 
 ways. Being restored to health, he 
 hunted and fished with the other 
 sons of the wilderness. Every year 
 up to 1913 he brought home his 
 string of trort and killed his buck. 
 His skill with the rifle was remark- 
 able. It was a natural gift. On one 
 occasion he outmatched all competi- 
 tors, then, upon a challenge, picked 
 off his own empty cartridge shells 
 suspended from the branch of a tree 
 
 c 23 :] 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 on strings. And as for boxing, it is 
 said that one evening at Paul Smith's 
 a local champion coaxed the doctor 
 to put on the gloves. 
 
 ** I promise not to hurt ye," said 
 the amateur bruiser. 
 
 Where the doctor acquired the 
 gentle art no one seems to know, 
 but v^hen the local champion picked 
 himself up at the end of the bout, 
 he allowed that " the doctor 's the 
 quickest thing with the mitts I ever 
 run up ag'in' ! " 
 
 In 1877 Dr. Trudeau left Paul 
 Smith's and moved into the adjacent 
 hamlet of Saranac Lake, which was 
 then a lumber center with six houses 
 
 C 24 3 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 and a sawmill. The railway was not 
 constructed to that point until 1888. 
 But when the doctor came to the 
 village, gradual developments began. 
 He was followed by a few patients 
 who had placed themselves in his 
 care as a last hope of cure or pro- 
 longed life. The town to-day is a 
 small city, the metropolis of the 
 Adirondacks, which grew up around 
 the beloved physician and his great 
 work. It has a remarkable sanitary 
 system, and a health code after one 
 particular portion of which New 
 York is said to have reformed its 
 own. 
 
 c: 25 J 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 It was at Saranac Lake during his 
 first winter there that Dr. Trudeau 
 literally dreamed a dream. Loomis 
 had published a paper in the " Medi- 
 cal Record/' drawing attention to 
 the climatic value of the Adirondack 
 air for pulmonary invalids, citing the 
 theories of Brehmer and Dettweiler 
 and, no doubt, having in mind Tru- 
 deau' s own case. Shortly after read- 
 ing this paper. Dr. Trudeau fell 
 asleep while leaning on his gun on 
 a fox runway on the side of Mount 
 Pisgah, near Saranac Lake. He 
 dreamed that the forest around him 
 melted away and that the whole 
 mountain-side was dotted with houses 
 C 26 J 
 
EDWARD LIVINGSTON TRUDEAU 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 built inside out, as if the inhabitants 
 lived on the outside. As he said 
 many years later, at the twenty-fifth 
 anniversary of the founding of the 
 Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium, " I 
 dreamed a dream of a great sanita- 
 rium that should be the everlasting 
 foe of tuberculosis, and lo ! — the 
 dream has come true ! " 
 
 Shortly after a reception held on 
 January i, 1915, at which all of the 
 sanitarium patients came to shake 
 hands with the founder, I happened 
 to remark to the doctor on the 
 quaintness of his speech for the oc- 
 casion. He had spoken of the 
 strange new faces before him, and 
 
 1 27 3 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 how there had been a time when he 
 was personally acquainted with each 
 and every one, " his hopes, his fears, 
 and very often the state of his bank 
 account"; and how the girls even 
 told him of their love affairs and of 
 womanly dreams that too often were 
 never fulfilled. The doctor suddenly 
 leaned forward in his invalid's chair 
 and said to me in a confidential 
 stage-whisper, — 
 
 " Would you believe it ? I did n't 
 know what my tongue was saying. 
 I felt strangely aloof for the mo- 
 ment. I saw a younger man thirty 
 years before, leaning on his gun, 
 waiting for a fox. There was not a 
 
 [ 28 :i 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 house, not a sign of a human being. 
 Now—" 
 
 His face was all aglow as he 
 spread out his hands, and the mind's 
 eye saw that panorama of inside- 
 out houses which was no longer a 
 dream. 
 
 But even after the dream the be- 
 ginning of the fulfillment did not 
 occur for five or six years. He had 
 built a house in the village. There, 
 in that wonderful year, 1882, when 
 Koch announced his discovery of 
 the tubercle bacillus, Trudeau, who 
 could not read German, received, 
 as a Christmas present from his 
 friend, C. M. Lea, of Philadelphia, 
 C 29 ] 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 a translation of that document which 
 the doctor termed "the most far- 
 reaching, in its importance to the 
 human race, of any original com- 
 munication " — Koch's " Etiology 
 of Tuberculosis." This was young 
 Trudeau's immediate inspiration. He 
 had an " indifferent medical educa- 
 tion, " — to quote himself, — " no 
 apparatus, no books," and the re- 
 moteness of his surroundings had 
 removed him from contact with 
 medical men to whom he might 
 apply for instruction. 
 
 During brief visits to New York 
 (sometimes at the expense of his 
 health), he learned some of the first 
 
 c: 30 3 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 principles of bacteriology ; and " I 
 taught myself the rest as best I 
 could/' His laboratory was a little 
 room in Saranac Lake, heated by a 
 wood stove (there was no coal). 
 He had a home-made thermostat 
 heated by a kerosene lamp, and in 
 this he succeeded in growing the 
 tubercle bacillus, although he had 
 to sit up o' nights to see that the 
 living organism was not destroyed 
 by varying temperatures. To regu- 
 late this, he invented a little shutter 
 arrangement which could be opened 
 or closed. He obtained the bacilli 
 in pure cultures, and with them 
 repeated all Koch's experiments. 
 
 c: 31 3 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 The guinea-pigs used for immu- 
 nizing tests he had to keep in a 
 hole underground which was heated 
 by another kerosene lamp. He again 
 proved that fresh air and natural 
 hygiene were the deadly foes of tu- 
 berculosis, by turning loose on an 
 island rabbits that had been innocu- 
 lated with the disease. Running 
 wild, they soon recovered; while 
 others, similarly innoculated and 
 kept in unhygienic places, died of 
 the disease in a very short time. 
 
 While his enthusiasm was thus 
 running high, he built, in 1884, on 
 the side of Pisgah — on the place of 
 the dream — a little shack which is 
 
 C 32 3 
 
THE "LITTLE RED," BUILT IN 1884 
 Nucleus of the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 still there and which is known among 
 the great buildings now around it 
 as "The Little Red." This was the 
 nucleus of the present vast sanita- 
 rium. He began with two patients, 
 whom he apparently cured by mak- 
 ing them sit all day and sleep all 
 night practically in the open air, 
 the windows being open, with the 
 mercury courting the thermome- 
 ter bulb. 
 
 Meanwhile he himself was labor- 
 ing with his cultures, his home-made 
 thermostat, his guinea-pigs and rab- 
 bits. During the week in 1 890 when 
 Koch announced his tuberculin as a 
 "cure" for tuberculosis. Dr. Tru- 
 
 c 33 3 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 deau published in the " Medical Rec- 
 ord" an article describing failure to 
 obtain any appreciable degree of im- 
 munity by injections of sterilized and 
 filtered liquid cultures of the tubercle 
 bacillus (tuberculin). Later experi- 
 ments with Koch's tuberculin by 
 thousands of others proved similar 
 failures. 
 
 Not long after this, while Dr. 
 Trudeau was lying ill and depressed 
 in New York City, there came from 
 Saranac Lake the news that during 
 the night his house, cultures, guinea- 
 pigs — everything — had been de- 
 stroyed by fire ! It was the last straw. 
 The sick man was in despair ; but his 
 C 34 3 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 indomitable spirit came to the rescue 
 again, and a letter signed by William 
 Osier helped him to accept fresh 
 battle. 
 
 '^I am sorry, Trudeau," wrote 
 Dr. Osier, "to hear of your mis- 
 fortune, but take my word for it, 
 there is nothing like a fire to make 
 a man do the phoenix trick ! " 
 
 The phoenix arose from its ashes, 
 with the financial help of George C. 
 Cooper, of New York. Near the 
 ruins of Dr. Trudeau's first house 
 was built the first and best-equipped 
 laboratory in the United States for 
 the study of tuberculosis. Here 
 Trudeau labored for years, search- 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 ing, as he often said, *' in the hay- 
 stack for the needle that we know 
 is there." Here his followers still 
 work at all hours in immunizing 
 experiments and in the testing of 
 proposed specific remedies for the 
 cure of tuberculosis. Here many a 
 ** patent remedy '* of the ** cure 
 consumption " order has met its 
 Nemesis. Here, years before either 
 Friedmann or Piorkowski tried to 
 commercialize his so-called remedies 
 through tile press of two continents, 
 the turtle germ of both was weighed 
 in the scientific balance and discarded 
 as useless. It is not a breach of con- 
 fidence now to reveal the fact that 
 
 i: 36] 
 
liEGINNINGS OK lllK OP£N-AlR CITY ()K THE HILLS, ABOUT 1S90 
 
 BEGINNINGS OF THE OPEN-AIR CITY, ABOUT 1892 
 The original "Little Red" to the right of Administration Building 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 an article entitled '' Has Dr. Fried- 
 mann Found a Cure for Tubercu- 
 losis ? '' which appeared on two pages 
 of the New York "Times" on the 
 very morning when the Berlin phy- 
 sician landed in New York, came 
 from the Saranac Laboratory and 
 was the work of several scientific 
 brains, with Dr. Trudeau's as the 
 master-mind on the subject. That 
 article changed overnight the opin- 
 ions of many in the medical world 
 regarding the merits of Friedmann's 
 " specific." Dr. Trudeau had ex- 
 amined the turtle organism years 
 before, and had labelled it not only 
 harmless, but quite useless, as an 
 C 37 : 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 immunizing agent in human tuber- 
 culosis. 
 
 To go back to the early days of 
 sanitarium work, the success Tru- 
 deau achieved by his open-air and rest 
 methods attracted great attention. 
 The sanitarium grew swiftly. Other 
 States of the Union built institutions 
 of somewhat similar design and for 
 similar treatment. To-day, as already 
 remarked, there must be fully five 
 hundred sanitariums for this method 
 of treatment of pulmonary tubercu- 
 losis throughout the United States and 
 Canada. The valley of the Saranac 
 itself with the adjacent Adirondack 
 region contains several private and 
 
 i: 38 J 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 state sanitariums that owe their in- 
 ception, directly or indirectly, to the 
 influence of Trudeau. 
 
 The Adirondack Cottage Sanita- 
 rium is, and has been from the first, 
 a semi-charitable institution which 
 treats patients at a sum that does not 
 cover the cost of their board and 
 housing. The annual deficit of the 
 institution is comparatively large, as 
 a result, and up to the time of his 
 death it was Trudeau' s personality 
 that attracted voluntary contributions 
 for the continuance of the great work. 
 Such names as Harriman, Sage, SchifF, 
 Rockefeller, Tiffany, have figured in 
 the contributors' lists. E. H. Harri- 
 [39 3 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 man was ever a friend and admirer 
 of Trudeau and of his altruistic la- 
 bors for humanity. In the days when 
 ministers of money sat in Harriman's 
 antechamber, they were allowed to 
 cool their heels while a frail country 
 doctor was ushered in, and the rail- 
 road king let great affairs hang fire 
 while he heard the latest yarn about 
 "Uncle*' Paul Smith, or became en- 
 thralled by the idealism of the prac- 
 tical dreamer who sat opposite him, 
 — a great head on an emaciated body, 
 a voice resonant with faith's enthusi- 
 asm, even while it broke short in a 
 gasp. This man was sending back to 
 life and usefulness twenty per cent 
 [ 40 ] 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 of his patients apparently cured, fifty 
 per cent with the disease arrested, 
 and the other thirty per cent with a 
 fighting chance. And while the rest- 
 less ministers of finance consulted 
 their watches in the antechamber, 
 Harriman listened— and reached for 
 his check-book! 
 
 As for that annual deficit, a friend 
 who merely sought information once 
 
 wrote to me as follows: 
 
 " What sort of a man is Trudeau ? 
 Is he what so many say he is, or just 
 a clever doctor who has made a for- 
 tune out of the Adirondacks?" 
 
 In a rash moment I referred this 
 to the doctor himself I do not know 
 
"The Beloved Physician 
 
 that he was ever more upset. He 
 promptly sent me this: — 
 
 "I am always puzzled to know 
 why people cannot understand the 
 spirit of the sanitarium work. To 
 give a patient for $7 what costs $12 
 or $12.50 and to have a deficit of 
 $27,000 on running expenses for 
 the year can hardly be a business 
 way to make a man rich ! Perhaps 
 it is the imposing appearance of my 
 equipage which makes the world 
 think me a coiner of money ! ! " 
 
 The "equipage" to which he re- 
 ferred with irony was a regular coun- 
 try doctor's buggy, just large enough 
 to accommodate himself (and Mrs. 
 
 C 42 ] 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 Trudeau, at a pinch), and drawn by 
 a shaggy mare which the townspeo- 
 ple affectionately termed "the old 
 plush horse." In his later years 
 some one presented him with a fine 
 carriage and a high-stepping thor- 
 oughbred. When Trudeau was called 
 out to inspect this real equipage, he 
 looked worried. 
 
 "I — I can't ride in that thing!'' 
 he said. "People will think I don't 
 need any money for my sanitarium ! " 
 
 He agreed to accept the gift, how- 
 ever, when it was pointed out that 
 the ancient mare was on her last 
 legs. Thereupon the "old plush 
 horse" was pensioned and given a 
 C 43 ] 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 comfortable stall for life. On the first 
 day of her long holiday Dr. Trudeau 
 visited the stable. 
 
 « Well, Kitty," he said, patting the 
 old mare, " your troubles are all over. 
 As for me — I expect this old horse 
 will have to keep plodding along until 
 his left ventricle ceases to contract." 
 
 But the matter of that "fortune '* 
 troubled him for some time. A month 
 later he sent me another letter, ac- 
 companying a financial report under- 
 scored in places. 
 
 "This," he v^ote, "is for the 
 
 gentleman who sized me up as * a 
 
 clever business man who has made 
 
 a fortune out of the Adirondacks.' 
 
 L 44 3 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 Tell him I begged all this money 
 personally, but not for myself, as I 
 don't own a cent of it and draw no 
 salary'' 
 
 The italics, needless to say, are 
 not the doctor's. 
 
 Whatever he earned from private 
 practice barely covered his living ex- 
 penses. He raised the money to 
 cover that deficit by what he called 
 his "begging letters." I remember 
 he said to me one day after an anx- 
 ious silence, — 
 
 " I 've got a young fellow up 
 
 there [^at the sanitarium] who is a 
 
 first-class radiographer. Then there 
 
 is a bacteriologist, too. As soon as 
 
 C 45 3 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 they get to feeling well they 11 go 
 off and leave me. They 're married, 
 or are going to be, I 've no doubt. 
 If I could only build houses for them 
 and get their wives settled — That 's 
 it ! " he broke off. " I Ve got to raise 
 the money for it somehow ! "' 
 
 He raised it, of course. Now there 
 are two new cottages in the sanita- 
 rium grounds, and a permanent X- 
 ray operator and a clever bacteriolo- 
 gist have been added to the colony 
 and its cause. When the doctor's end 
 had been achieved, he told me of his 
 success. He was proud to think he 
 had a radiographer and a bacteriolo- 
 gist. 
 
 [ 46 ] 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 " But why is every one so good ? " 
 he asked. "Why do people work 
 for me ? '' 
 
 "They work for — you," was 
 suggested. 
 
 " No, no — I hope not," he 
 protested. "They work for my 
 work." 
 
 " Well, did you ever consider how 
 much your own personality inspires 
 this work ?" 
 
 " Oh, come, come ! " said he, as 
 pleasurably confused as a girl com- 
 plimented for the first time on her 
 looks. 
 
 " What do people call my work ? " 
 he presently asked. 
 
 [47 3 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 I had never heard it given a name. 
 It v^as unique. But I ventured the 
 word " philanthropy." He shook his 
 head. 
 
 " A distrustful word these days. 
 Still — yes — say philanthropy, plus 
 science. The sanitarium is the phi- 
 lanthropy — to cure or console ; the 
 laboratory is the science — to find a 
 means of further immunizing toward 
 ultimate, permanent cure." 
 
 It was, as a whole, a science and 
 philanthropy of Christ; a sort of 
 Christian science without intellectual 
 sacrifice. To this philanthropy Tru- 
 deau would never permit his name 
 to be attached. It was the Adi- 
 
 [;48 :] 
 
> 
 Pi 
 o 
 
 < 
 
 o 
 
 < 
 
 u4 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 rondack Cottage Sanitarium — not 
 "Trudeau." It was the Saranac La- 
 boratory — not " Trudeau '* Labora- 
 tory. It was usage and the postal 
 authorities that labelled a little branch 
 post-office, " Trudeau, N. Y." 
 
 His work and worth were recog- 
 nized, however, during his lifetime. 
 Among the honors conferred upon 
 him were Master of Science, Colum- 
 bia University, 1889; Honorary Fel- 
 low of the Phipps Institute, 1903; 
 LL.D., McGill University, 1904; 
 and LL.D., University of Pennsyl- 
 vania, 1913. The last-mentioned 
 degree he received in absentia, Yale 
 offered to confer the degree of LL.D., 
 
 c 49 :i 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 but the doctor was too ill to be pres- 
 ent at the exercises. 
 
 I had intended to omit anecdotes 
 in this brief sketch of Trudeau's life, 
 from the time that he was carried 
 into Paul Smith's *« weighin' no more 
 'n a lambskin '' up to the latter days 
 when he lay on a final bed of suffer- 
 ing. But the anecdotes would creep 
 in; and now they may stay just 
 where they are, for it was charac- 
 teristic of Trudeau, even when ad- 
 dressing a grave body of physicians 
 and master-surgeons, to lighten his 
 most serious discourses v/ith anec- 
 dotal humor ; although the first time 
 
 L 503 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 he ever tried to address his colleagues, 
 — at Baltimore in the eighties, — he 
 fainted from illness, and, while others 
 restored him. Dr. Loomis read the 
 frail doctor's address to the gather- 
 ing. 
 
 Even in his ossirv sufferings he 
 found a text for interesting discourse 
 that w^as flavored with the grim hu- 
 mor of grit. It does not seem long 
 ago that I stood by his bedside while 
 he, with one poor portion of a single 
 lung, labored for breath. The possible 
 benefits of artificial pneumothorax 
 had not yet been fully estabhshed, 
 yet the doctor had been one of the 
 first to submit to the operation, of- 
 
 c 51 :i 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 fering himself, it seemed, as a vic- 
 tim of experimentation, although he 
 told the operating physician that he 
 expected no good results, — "for, 
 after all, my dear fellow, the age of 
 miracles is past/' Yet it eased his 
 sufferings for several years, although 
 at the time he was very ill. He as- 
 sured me that he was not going to 
 die right away. 
 
 "No such luck!'' said he in the 
 most cheerful manner. "But," he 
 continued, as connectedly as breath 
 would allow, " what is the scheme of 
 this business — of life — suffering — 
 death ? I don't understand. 
 
 " It reminds me of this English 
 
 C 52 ;] 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 *Cat and Mouse' bill for suffragists. 
 They put a woman in a cell till she 's 
 near dead of starvation. Then they 
 let her out for a square meal — so 
 she can get strength enough to suffer 
 some more. You've got to have feel- 
 ing, you know, to suffer. There's a 
 philosophy, by the way, for those who 
 fear the agony of death. As you lose 
 the enduring powers of life, you lose 
 also the sensibility to suffering. It 
 must be so. It is so. I have seen it 
 many times. . . . 
 
 " Cat and mouse," he half-mused, 
 — " life and death. Death 's the 
 cat — comes and paws until poor life 
 is about dead to all feeling. Then 
 
 1 53 :i 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 the cat retires into a dark corner and 
 purrs while the mouse gets a httle hfe 
 back, so as to be more sensible of suf- 
 fering when the cat comes pawing 
 again. I don't say there 's no reason 
 behind it — but I can't see it — can 
 
 you?" 
 
 The last active labor of Dr. Tru- 
 deau was the writing of his autobiog- 
 raphy. The doctor was seized with 
 his mortal illness just after the last 
 pages were written and before he had 
 decided upon a title for his work. 
 The single word, " Acquiescence," 
 was proposed as descriptive of the 
 life of a man who accepted adverse 
 conditions and, like the master of a 
 C 54 3 
 
Thjut^ 
 
 ■A 
 
 C^cyt^^V^ e.' O-CeM^ 
 
 cnji 
 
 ^' 
 
 r 
 
 ^"^^^t^ ^^^5 
 
 
 U^\Asu^:Uk 
 
 X 
 
 WHEN THE FAMILY DOG WAS AILIISTG 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 ship, turned the ill wind to advan- 
 tage. The word was taken from a 
 sentence which he had once written 
 to me, " The conquest of Fate comes 
 not by rebellious struggle, but by 
 acquiescence." 
 
 When the title was suggested to 
 the doctor by one of his associates, 
 he was unable to speak, but smiled 
 and shook his head. Later, when he 
 was a little better, he dictated to his 
 secretary, " If the world finds a ser- 
 mon in my life-story — good; but 
 I don't want any one to think I was 
 trying to preach one." 
 
 I may be pardoned personal in- 
 trusion for a moment to relate when 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 and where I first saw this remarkable 
 man. I had gone to Saranac Lake in 
 ill health. I asked why there was no 
 statue in the community to the great 
 Trudeau of whom I had read in Stev- 
 enson's "Letters.'* Being reminded 
 that it was not customary to erect 
 statues to the Uving, I decided to see 
 this (to me) resurrected person. It 
 happened to be about the time of the 
 twenty-fifth anniversary of the found- 
 ing of the sanitarium. When he stood 
 up on a platform and, in a voice tense 
 with emotion, told of his dream that 
 was now materialized, I was filled 
 with a sudden comprehension of the 
 amazing thing that was happening 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 — the celebration of that which this 
 frail man had lived to achieve I I 
 wrote several verses and gave them 
 to my own physician, merely as one 
 way of expressing what I thought 
 about it all. The next morning I was 
 called on the telephone. It was Dr. 
 Trudeau himself; some one had 
 pinned the verses on his pillow on 
 the previous night, and they had 
 added to the happiness of the doc- 
 tor at the end of one of the proudest 
 days of his life. He asked me to come 
 and see him. 
 
 " Do you know/' he said, when we 
 shook hands, " writing verses is some- 
 thing beyond my comprehension. I 
 C 57 ] 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 understand poetry, but not how one 
 can write it. My case is like that of 
 Zeb Robare, a guide over at Paul's. 
 He was asked by some ladies he was 
 rowing the name of a certain moun- 
 tain up here. * That's Ampersand/ 
 said Zeb. * But, guide, how do you 
 spell it ? ' ' Ah,' said Zeb, ' that 's the 
 hell of it, ma'am. I can climb it easy 
 enough, but I could n't spell it to save 
 my life ! ' That 's how I feel about 
 poetry ! " 
 
 Oddly coincident, Clayton Hamil- 
 ton, a writer engaged on a book about 
 Stevenson, called upon Dr. Trudeau 
 to ask about Robert Louis's sojourn 
 in Saranac Lake. Mr. Hamilton later 
 
 CSS ] 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 confessed in cold type, " I had come 
 to ask of R. L. S. and remained to 
 admire this hero of innumerable, un- 
 noted battles, — this maker of a City 
 of the Sick, who, because of him, look 
 more hopefully on each successive 
 rising sun." Trudeau marveled at the 
 feat of juggling English ; yet this au- 
 thor vv^rote in conclusion: " And the 
 best of our tricky achievements in 
 setting words together dwindle in my 
 mind to indistinction beside the labors 
 and spirit of this man." 
 
 Stevenson, by the way, produced 
 some of his greatest essays during 
 the wdnter of 1887-88, while he 
 was under Dr. Trudeau's care at 
 
 c 59 ] 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 Saranac Lake. Stories of the rela- 
 tionship of the two men have been 
 told and retold. At one time I sent 
 a version of the oft-repeated "oil" 
 story to the doctor for confirmation. 
 It v^as to the effect that Stevenson, 
 after he had written '' The Lantern- 
 Bearers" for the Scribners, w^ent to 
 see Trudeau's "light" in the la- 
 boratory. Stevenson was shown, in 
 the effects of tuberculosis in guinea- 
 pigs, the ravages of the disease that 
 kills one human being in every 
 seven. The sensitive author bolted 
 out of the house, declaring that 
 while Trudeau's lantern might be 
 very bright, to him it " smelled of 
 
 ceo;] 
 
DR. TRUDEAU IN THE SARANAC LAKE LABORATORY 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 oil like the devil." Fearing that the 
 anti-vivisectionists might make capi- 
 tal of the story, I took the liberty of 
 modifying it. Dr. Trudeau wrote : — 
 "I thank you for your motive in 
 changing the end of the oil story. 
 I had never thought of the anti- 
 vivisectionists. Had I thought, I 
 could have told you a little more 
 about it. Stevenson saw no muti- 
 lated animals in my laboratory. The 
 only things he saw were the dis- 
 eased organs in bottles, and cultures 
 of the germs which had produced 
 the disease. These were the things 
 that turned him sick. I remember 
 he went out just after I made this 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 remark: *This litde scum on the 
 tube is consumption, and the cause 
 of more human suffering than any- 
 thing else in the world. We can 
 produce tuberculosis in the guinea- 
 pig with it ; and if we could learn 
 to cure tuberculosis in the guinea- 
 pig, this great burden of human 
 suffering might be hfted from the 
 world; " 
 
 It is true that Trudeau and Ste- 
 venson differed a great deal on a 
 great many subjects, but so far as I 
 have been able to judge from much 
 that the doctor has told me, they 
 agreed on so many of the greater 
 things of life that they had to dis- 
 
 1 62 ;] 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 agree about trivial matters for the 
 sake of something to discuss. They 
 actually got into heated argument 
 over the great issue as to which was 
 superior, the American system of 
 transferring baggage, or the British 
 method of handling luggage ! 
 
 Dr. Trudeau assured me, inci- 
 dentally, that Stevenson had no ac- 
 tive symptoms of tuberculosis while 
 at Saranac Lake, but had apparently 
 had the disease and may have devel- 
 oped active symptoms after he went 
 away. He did not die of tuberculosis, 
 although this might have been a con- 
 tributing cause. Trudeau had a full 
 report made to him regarding the 
 
 CSS ] 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 circumstances of Stevenson's death 
 at Samoa in 1894. 
 
 This paternal interest in ex-pa- 
 tients was characteristic of Dr. Tru- 
 deau. Particularly he liked to address 
 a word of parting advice to a young 
 man going back, apparently cured, 
 to a life of continued usefulness. 
 Here is atypical letter of this kind : — 
 
 "Do take my advice and don't 
 presume upon your physical endur- 
 ance. When you have once been in 
 the grip of the tiger you ought not 
 to give him a chance to get you 
 again, for he has downed many as 
 good a man as you are ; and you must 
 not act on impulse, but use your head 
 
THE ADIRONDACK COTTAGE SANITARIUM 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 and self-control, even if you can't 
 accomplish all you want to in life. If 
 you can't have a whole loaf, try and 
 be satisfied with a half one, or else 
 the graham bread will get burned in 
 good earnest and you won't have 
 any loaf at all !" 
 
 His attitude toward the patients, 
 who came from all lands, ranks, and 
 conditions, was ever eloquent of the 
 man's human kindness and sympa- 
 thy. Many came as broken in spirit 
 as in health, and often with but two 
 hopes : one, that Trudeau would per- 
 form the great miracle; the other, 
 that a physician of his reputation 
 would charge no more than this latest 
 C 65 3 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 victim of tuberculosis could scrape 
 together. I know of one case in 
 which the new patient said, "Doc- 
 tor — before you do anything — I 
 have n't much money. How — how 
 much will it cost?" 
 
 " Much depends on how much 
 you've got, and how bad you are," 
 said Trudeau, himself assisting to 
 unbutton the patient's collar. " You 
 see," he went on disarmingly, "if 
 you are not very bad, it will cost 
 you quite a lot, so I can use the 
 money for those who are. If you are 
 a really bad case — Well — Say 
 * ninety-nine,' please, and keep on 
 saying it while I listen to your chest." 
 L 66 ] 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 The doctor's face became grave 
 as he noted the vibrations caused 
 by the reiterated "nine-nine-nine." 
 When the examination was over the 
 patient asked, — 
 
 " How bad — I mean — how much 
 will it be, doctor?'' 
 
 For reply Trudeau — and one can 
 comprehend the great sympathy 
 that flooded the beloved physician's 
 face — handed the patient a ten- 
 dollar bill. 
 
 *' I owe you — that much — at 
 least," he said. 
 
 One can imagine the rest — that 
 speech which he employed so often 
 and to so many : — 
 
 c: 67 :] 
 
T'he Beloved Physician 
 
 "Don't take it too seriously, but 
 just seriously enough. I am no bet- 
 ter off in health than you are, and 
 both you and I, old man, will be a 
 great deal worse before we 're bet- 
 ter." 
 
 When, however, he sent some 
 promising young man back into the 
 battle of life, a repaired asset to the 
 world, he liked to refer to him as 
 " another young gladiator with a new 
 blade in his sword.'* The following, 
 which he sent to me one day, ex- 
 plains the simile : — 
 
 " My sympathies are naturally in 
 the world with the vanquished. My 
 favorite statue is that great one of 
 
 c: 68 -} 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 Victory carrying the dying gladia- 
 tor, his broken sword in hand. The 
 world applauds and bows before suc- 
 cess and achievement; it has little 
 thought for those who fall by the way, 
 sword in hand ; and yet it takes most 
 courage to fight a losing fight ! " 
 
 Speaking of this same statue, 
 " Gloria Victis," a fine copy of which 
 stood in the hall of his house, he said 
 one day early in the great European 
 war : " When he created that thing, 
 I wonder did the sculptor, Mercie, 
 realize that he was modeling the 
 glory of Belgium in ruin ? " 
 
 Of the war itself he said, sadly: 
 " I thought the world was better." 
 
 C69:] 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 Others saw something of the doc- 
 tor's own heroic spirit in that figure, 
 with the broken sword in the droop- 
 ing right hand, and the left arm still 
 held aloft as if the dying warrior 
 challenged even death — ^^Moritu- 
 rus, te saluto ! " 
 
 Possibly the impression has been 
 given in these pages that Trudeau 
 was an approachable person. He 
 was, to some ; to many he was quite 
 unapproachable, especially inter- 
 viewers. He feared a scribe. To the 
 present writer he repeatedly said, 
 " Remember — I trust you ; but 
 don't you ever publish what I'm 
 telling you until after I am where 
 
 1:703 
 
EDWARD LIVINGSTON TRUDEAU 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 I won't care what the world says 
 about me." 
 
 Even to his most intimate friends 
 he was difficult of approach when, 
 after "studying the ceiling" for 
 many long days, he was irritated 
 beyond human self-control by his 
 sufferings. But even then he could 
 be played like a fine instrument if 
 the musician had technique. If the 
 doctor was in that depth of depres- 
 sion out of which he would chant a 
 "De Profundis" of blackest pessi- 
 mism, all that was necessary was to 
 agree with him that life was "a 
 senseless business " ; whereupon he 
 would draw his sword of optimism 
 
The Beloved Physician 
 
 and flash the text engraven upon its 
 bright blade : "O ye of httle faith ! '' 
 But if you told him he looked well 
 and you hoped he felt so, he would 
 say, '* I don't. I 'm utterly miser- 
 able ! " and sink back in his invalid's 
 chair with a smile that seemed to 
 add, "There 's little sport in an easy 
 game." 
 
 Characteristic of the man's phi- 
 losophy was his own comment on 
 his fits of melancholy, vouchsafed 
 once to a fellow sufferer who had 
 been in depths of depression: "If 
 you go down to the depths at times, 
 you have many glimpses of higher 
 things that people of a more even 
 
 n 72 3 
 
Edward Livingston Trudeau 
 
 temperament never get; and after 
 all, the ideal is the beautiful in life ; 
 the facts of life are hideous." 
 
 He once told a visitor some tales 
 of his experiences with the great hu- 
 man tragedy — told them as if they 
 belonged to the great human com- 
 edy, for his humor v^as irrepressible. 
 But the visitor did not laugh; he 
 w^ent av^ay a sadder and a wiser man. 
 Possibly he thought the doctor hard- 
 ened; but I shall never forget the 
 expression of Trudeau's face when 
 I asked him directly if he had not 
 become so accustomed to tragedy 
 that it no longer touched his emo- 
 tions. The smile left his face; his 
 
 n 73 3 
 
T^he Beloved Physician 
 
 eyes looked out and beyond with a 
 suddenly moist softness, and he said 
 slowly, " Pity, as an emotion, passes. 
 Pity, as a motive, remains." 
 
 THE END 
 
CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS 
 U . S . A 
 
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