Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Foreword by George W. Comstock
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 By What Name?
- 2 Origins
- 3 Marshall
- 4 Health of the People
- 5 Drink No Longer Water
- 6 Susan
- 7 Dread Diseases
- 8 Baltimore
- 9 Professor
- 10 Epidemiologist
- 11 Sunset and Evening Star
- Bibliography of Publications by Wade Hampton Frost
- Abbreviations of Scientific Journal Titles
- Notes
- Index
11 - Sunset and Evening Star
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 March 2023
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Foreword by George W. Comstock
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 By What Name?
- 2 Origins
- 3 Marshall
- 4 Health of the People
- 5 Drink No Longer Water
- 6 Susan
- 7 Dread Diseases
- 8 Baltimore
- 9 Professor
- 10 Epidemiologist
- 11 Sunset and Evening Star
- Bibliography of Publications by Wade Hampton Frost
- Abbreviations of Scientific Journal Titles
- Notes
- Index
Summary
There are things above all that all men most admire in others and most want for themselves, courage to fight to the last ditch against all odds, and courage to die bravely if the fight is lost
—Wade Hampton FrostAs winter crept into Baltimore in late 1937, it became apparent that Wade Hampton Frost was not well. He was troubled with abdominal pain, and he had difficulty swallowing. He was losing weight. In January 1938 he cancelled a planned visit to his daughter in Boston because of chest pain. Soon it became evident that he had cancer of his esophagus. Even today that cancer is one that is hard to eradicate, and for Frost there was not much hope. Ironically, it was epidemiological methodology, much of it pioneered by Frost, that would later establish the link between this form of cancer and cigarettes, to which Frost was addicted.
As the illness progressed, Frost spent increasing lengths of time in the hospital. Several poignant letters written by Frost to his wife from his hospital bed survive, but are not dated. One appears to have been written at a time when a biopsy or other tests had been performed and he was awaiting the results from Louis Hamman, a leading Johns Hopkins clinician who was apparently one of Frost’s attending physicians. Its accepting, almost fatalistic tone is similarly present in the other surviving letters; it is revealing of Frost’s mental state as his illness progressed.
Thursday a.m.
Dearest—
There isn’t any news, of course, and if there were, Dr. Baker would have phoned you, as I presume he has done in any case.
Yesterday was pretty well taken up with examinations of one kind and another, including several X-ray[s], and a visit to Dr. Crowe—all rather pestiferous but not painful. Though I still have my bellyache at times, I’ve been fairly comfortable here, and certainly have not lacked the most considerate attention from everybody….
I presume Dr. Hamman will come in today or tomorrow and that then or soon thereafter he’ll be ready to write my prescription[. F]or the present it is just day to day.
I wrote you a scrawl last night which Miss Collins (the head nurse) said she would give to you instead of mailing it, as she expected you this p.m.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Wade Hampton Frost, Pioneer Epidemiologist 1880-1938Up to the Mountain, pp. 195 - 198Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2004