Our Sanitarium Work in Washington, D. C.
By F. M. Wilcox
We are glad to report steady progress in connection with the sanitarium work in this city. Two institutions are being operated, the Washington Sanitarium, located at Takoma Park, seven miles from the capital; and what is known as the Washington Branch Sanitarium, on Iowa Circle, near the center of the city. Drs. H. N. and Patience Bourdeau and Sisco have charge of the city work. They and their coworkers have labored very hard and faithfully during the last few months, and they have succeeded admirably in doing a large amount of work and in meeting their operating expenses. The progress of the work at the main institution at Takoma Park has been somewhat slower, but far from discouraging. In the establishment of every new enterprise, and especially in sanitarium work, it takes time for the development of a constituency. Little by little the Washington Sanitarium is developing a stable constituency of friends and supporters. New patients are continually coming to it, sent by others who have once been guests; thus the range of its influence is gradually widening. In this is seen the results of the faithful work of Drs. D. H. and Lauretta Kress, and their associate workers. Of late there has arisen throughout the country, and particularly in some of the cities of the East, both on the part of our own people and on the part of many from the outside, a very earnest demand for instruction on health subjects. This demand has increased so rapidly that many excellent openings for presenting this part of the message have been turned aside because there were none who could answer the calls. This is to be regretted, for the reason that many of these openings present opportunities for bringing our principles before various classes who perhaps could be reached in no other way, and who through this means would become devoted supporters of our sanitarium work. There is also a very important work to be done in behalf of our own people in affording them an education in health principles, and in enlisting their interest in behalf of our health and sanitarium work. Because of these openings and to meet this demand the General Conference Committee some months ago invited Dr. D. H. Kress, the medical superintendent of the Washington Sanitarium, to so arrange his work that he could be free to answer some of these calls. The committee felt that Dr. Kress, on account of his extensive experience, uniting, as he does, both the work of the physician and gospel minister, was particularly fitted to meet this demand. He accordingly began to plan his future work with that in mind. In May Dr. R. S. Ingersoll and wife were called to the Washington Sanitarium with a view to taking charge of the institution as soon as medical qualification could be secured in the State of Maryland. This plan has now reached perfection, and Dr. R. S. Ingersoll has been elected medical superintendent of the institution, thus relieving Dr. Kress, and making it possible for him to follow this important line of work to which he has been called. Dr. Kress will continue an official connection with the Sanitarium, as consulting physician. Dr. Lauretta Kress will still maintain a connection with the Sanitarium as consulting physician, and as instructor to the nurses and the students of the Foreign Mission Seminary, and will look after some of the outside calls for medical help. She will be so far relieved by the work which Dr. Olive Ingersoll will render as house physician, however, as to be free also to connect with her husband in his field work from time to time, and to answer some of the urgent calls which previously she has been compelled to refuse,—calls to represent our health work before conventions of our own people and at important gatherings of other societies. This arrangement, while providing competent medical help for the institution14opens a way whereby there can be taken up in the field the teaching of health principles, a work which has been long neglected through dearth of laborers. And the Sanitarium will receive double benefit in consequence,—the strength afforded by the Drs. Ingersoll, and, in common with other sanitariums, the help afforded by the field work of the Drs. Kress. The Drs. Ingersoll bring to the institution a valuable experience. After completing their medical course at Ann Arbor, Mich., they spent eight years in medical work in India. Since returning from that field, Dr. R. S. Ingersoll has spent nearly two years in post-graduate work at important medical centers in the United States and Europe, giving special attention to surgery, securing English recognition in a membership in the Royal College of Surgeons. Brother Nethery, of Nebraska, has been called to the business management of the Sanitarium, and is taking hold of his work with good courage. Before the Washington Sanitarium a bright future is opening out, and we believe it will be a strong factor in the promulgation of the message at the national capital.