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E.L. Trudeau’s life and legacy in Saranac Lake

An important new biography of Edward Livingston Trudeau provides an opportunity to reflect on one of the North Country’s most illustrious and important citizens.

In “A Rare Romance in Medicine: The Life and Legacy of Edward Livingston Trudeau,” author Mary Hotaling combines extensive research with an obvious admiration for her subject.

Scion of a long line of doctors, Trudeau himself had no real predilection for becoming a physician himself. He would just as soon have put his efforts toward hunting, which became a lifelong passion, or toward his burgeoning social life. Then he found himself caring for his brother, who had been diagnosed with tuberculosis, the leading incurable disease of the era. Francis died in 1865.

That experience, plus the need for a stable livelihood so that he could get married, put Trudeau on his first defined career path. In 1868, he began studying at New York’s College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Once he graduated, the young doctor barely had a chance to begin his medical practice. On a fateful day in Feburary 1873, he found he had the same diagnosis that had claimed his brother. First he traveled to Aiken, South Carolina, with hopes of improving his health. When that proved of no avail, Trudeau headed to the Adirondacks. There’s the famous quote of a guide at Paul Smith’s Hotel who carried Trudeau to his room upon arrival, then commented, “Why, doctor, you don’t weigh no more than a dried lamb-skin.”

He had every reason to expect that he, too, would die of tuberculosis.

Instead, he survived long enough to revolutionize care for the once-dreaded disease. He built a sanatorium that became an international model for providing care. Along the way, he also established the first research laboratory in America engaged in studying the disease in detail. And perhaps most importantly, he instilled hopefulness into hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people who never thought they’d enjoy that quality again. Trudeau’s “gospel of optimism,” one sociologist called it.

Knowing he would eventually die of his illness should have been enough to curtail some of Trudeau’s efforts. On top of that, he had to face a myriad of personal crises, including the deaths of three of his children, two of them from TB. His original laboratory was destroyed by fire in 1893. Plus, never was there a time that he wasn’t worrying about raising more money for his research and the sanitarium.

None of this attenuated his dogged persistence. Trudeau did have the good fortune to have well connected contacts all through his career. The breadth of friendships is impressive. His mix of charisma, altruism and determination led many of these friends – along with colleagues, patients and their families – to offer strong financial support. His voluminous correspondence with many of these people offered rich resources of information to the writer.

Naturally, I found a few surprises in the book. One came in this recollection by his longtime colleague, Dr. Lawrason Brown.

“Trudeau was at heart a New Yorker, and to the end of his days was only a sojourner in the Adirondacks,” Brown said.

Nonetheless, when Saranac Lake became incorporated as a village, Trudeau was chosen its first mayor, or “president,” as the title was then called. It was much less of a surprise that in 1904 he became the first president of the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis.

As is often the case in biographies, there are a few asides that seem unnecessary. I also found some mistakes in the index, for instance the labeling of Dr. Ezra McClellan as a clergyman. These are very minor quibbles. Overall, the author has given a very complete picture of a very important player in the history of the Adirondacks.

Hotaling’s book deserves a wide audience in our region. It’s not merely a story of a man and a disease; it’s also a description of how Saranac Lake and surrounding areas developed and grew. These became one-industry towns as surely as if a mine had been discovered and served as a source of employment.

This biography will also be of interest to those involved in health care. More major breakthroughs in treating tuberculosis came after Trudeau’s era. Modern medicine may look at his regimens of rest, fresh air, graded exercise and good nutrition primarily as adjunctive therapy. But these remain important adjuvant therapy, not to mention their roles in disease prevention as well. And Trudeau dispensed hope – a medicine that today is far too often in short supply.

And it’s also recommended for the many of us who need a reminder of just how much an individual can accomplish against great odds. One historian has called Saranac Lake America’s “Magic Mountain.” Though the reference is to the Thomas Mann novel, in the Adirondacks, Trudeau was the man who brought the magic.

Early Adirondack historian (and TB patient) Alfred Donaldson credited Trudeau with having lived “one of the most unpremeditated lives of usefulness the world has ever known.”

Trudeau exemplifies a life well worth living. We can thank Mary Hotaling for reminding us anew of his story.

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