Cure Chair Accessories: Radio, Sputum Cup, Photos, Postcards, Antimacassar, Nasal douche. (Second TB Reunion 
Early curing at the Linwood Cottage— note the absence of cure chairs. Adirondack Daily Enterprise, December 6, 1985 
Bed-ridden patients curing at Childs Infirmary, Adirondack Daily Enterprise, May 27, 2000 
Curing at Ray Brook, undated. Adirondack Daily Enterprise, January 8, 2005
"Curing" was the term used for "taking the cure", or being treated in a sanatorium, whether a large establishment, such as the New York State Hospital at Ray Brook, or a smaller commercial private sanatorium, or Cure Cottage. Some even cured in tents.
The "cure" consisted in resting in fresh air as much as possible, even in bitterly cold weather, combined with a high calorie diet, moderate exercise as able, and keeping the patient's spirits up.
Excerpt from an article on the Lent Cottage by Phil Gallos in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise November 11, 1982:
It was early apparent to the medical community in Saranac Lake that a patient's emotional condition had a crucial impact on his or her chances for recovery, and the relationship between patient and family had obvious bearing.
Often these relationships were heartwarming, sometimes heroic. Far too often they were tragic.
Especially prior to the 1930s, the very word "tuberculosis" was almost supernaturally repulsive. Association with the infected was scrupulously avoided and, if it could not be avoided, certainly not acknowledged. The situation amounted to a virtual taboo which held sway in most of the "civilized" world.
This led to much familial anguish. When it was learned a family member had tuberculosis, it was as though the entire family had been stricken; and there arose as many opportunities for cruelty as for love. The cruelty began with suppression and culminated with rejection so total that even after the stricken member had recovered he or she might not be welcomed back into the family — ever. A trend was noticed at Trudeau in which certain patients, after being told they could go home, would become ill again, over and over. One went through the cycle seventeen times — until she married another former patient. To those people, the memory of how things had been at home was more horrible than having the disease. If, though, the relationship between patient and family was positive, the understanding and selfless support of loved-ones was seen to be a powerful adjunct to the curing process. These families were encouraged to stay together. Buildings like the Jennings Cottage provide the needed space.
Whether they were with their families or not, those who came to Saranac Lake to cure became members of a greater family, a family called the village.
Many came too late, their disease too advanced, their remains later shipped out of town on the 9:55 night train. For their survivors, Saranac Lake was a name to forget. But for many others, the village was a place of hope unlike any other place, the antithesis of a world of fear and rejection, a community of people, both healthy and ill, in which a man or woman with tuberculosis would not be shunned as a carrier of contagion but would be accepted as a human being.
This may be the most important single reason why so many, having regained their health, are still living in Saranac Lake.
Artifacts
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Stone Pigs (Hot water bottles)
See also:
