SACHS 1013 SAGER He never saw the disease apart from the patient, but he was quick to recognize the need for pubHc control of so vast a problem, and while he was meticulous in his insistence upon proper diagnosis and treatment in each case, he constantly worked for larger oppor- tunities for prevention. In 1906 he investigat- ed and denounced in print the county care of advanced consumptives. His charges were denied and ridiculed, but six years later he presented a far more drastic report to the National Association for the Study and Pre- vention of Tuberculosis, as chairman of its committee on the investigation and standard- ization of the institutional care of the ad- vanced consumptive, which was approved and later recommended as a national standard. Not discouraged by the lack of public and professional support, nor by the failure to secure an appropriation for a State sanitarium in 1905, Dr. Sachs early saw the advantage of the Glackin Law, introduced into the Il- linois Legislature in 1908, and assisted in con- ducting a successful referendum campaign for the Chicago Sanitarium in 1909. The Glackin Law permits cities and villages, after a refer- endum vote, to levy special taxes for the construction and maintenance of tuberculosis sanitaria. As a member of the first municipal tuber- culosis commission, he was instrumental in having the clinics and dispensary staffs of the Chicago Tuberculosis Institute given over to the city, preventing needless duplication of effort in the experimental stage of clinic and home-follow-up work. As rapidly as possible, all paid emploj'ees qualified for their posts by Civil Service Examinations which were con- ducted with the same scrupulous regard for the welfare of the work so characteristic of Sachs and his associates. The establishment of a municipal institution in which the poorest consumptive could receive adequate, scientific treatment had been for years his chief hobby. As chairman of the Committee on Plans, he made extensive trips at personal expense to large sanitaria to digest and embody the best in his Chicago plans. Constantly, from 1911, when funds first became available, until 1915, when the doors of the Sanitarium were thrown open. Dr. Sachs devoted from two to six hours of every working day to the details of site, plans, specifications, inspection of work in progress, conferences, equipment, or- ganization and personnel in the organization. More alarmed by the fate of the institu- tion to which he had given his life, than by gross calumnies as to dishonesty and mis- management, Dr. Sachs committed suicide at the Edward Sanitarium by taking an over- dose of morphine, on April 2, 1916, vainly hoping that his death might arouse the citi- zens of Chicago to the real significance of the political mismanagement of the tuberculosis problem. He left this letter: "to the people of CHICAGO : The Chicago Municipal Tuberculosis Sani- tarium was built to the glory of Chicago. It was conceived in the boundless love of hu- manity and made possible by years of toil. No institution was ever planned more pains- takingly, or built more honestly. Every penny of the people's money is in the buildings, equipment and organization. The city council of Chicago should make a most thorough inquiry into the entire his- tory of the institution, and the community should resist any attempt of unscrupulous contractors to appropriate money which be- longs to the sick and the poor. Unscrupulous politicians should be thwarted. The institu- tion should remain as it was built; unsoiled by graft and politics — the heritage of the people. In the course of time every man and woman in Chicago will know how Dr. Sachs loved Chicago, and how he has given his life to it. My death has little to do with the present controversy. I would not dignify it. I am simply weary. With love to all, Theodore B. Sachs." He was given a public funeral attended by thousands, and was buried in the grounds of the Edward Sanitarium at Naperville. The Finance Committee of the Chicago City Coun- cil made a thorough inquiry into the affairs of the Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium and reported April 30, 1917, completely exoner- ating Dr. Sachs and his associates of any misuse of public fimds. Edna L. Foley. Sager, Abram (1810-1877). Abram Sager was born at Bethlehem, Al- bany County, New York, December 22, 1810. His father, William Sager, was a farmer of German ancestry, who settled in New York at an early age. Abram studied medicine with Professors March and Ives at Albany and New Haven, Connecticut, but graduated M. D. from Castleton Medical College, at Castleton, Ver- mont, in April, 1835. For a time he practised in Detroit, Michigan, then at Jackson, but finally settled at Ann Arbor. In 1837 he was made chief of the botanical and zoological de- partments of the Michigan Geological Survey.
