Jasper Co. IAGenWeb

Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa
B.F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912
Transcribed by Ernie Braida in July 2003

VICTORIA SANATORIUM

The mineral springs of Colfax have greatly influenced the character of the life and growth of the city in recent years. Of the several establishments of different varieties which have grown up in order to bring to the people the wonderful advantages of the curative waters of these springs, special mention must be made of the Victoria Sanatorium, which has been in existence since 1904, when Florence Brown Sherbon, A. M., M. D., her husband, John Bayard Sherban, M. D., and her father James Brown, incorporated the Victoria Sanatorium and Mineral Spring. The Doctors Sherban are in charge of the sanatorium. Doctor Florence B. Sherbon is a native of Washington County, Iowa, graduated from the Keokuk High School, the Independence Training School for Nurses at the Iowa State Hospital, and in 1902 received the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy from Iowa State University. In 1904 she completed her medical education at the same institution, receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine and the same year the degree of Master of Arts.

Doctor John Bayard Sherbon is a native of Iowa, and graduated in medicine from Iowa State University in 1904. Both he and his wife are members of the American, State and County Medical societies. Since 1904, when both Doctors Sherban located at Colfax, their history has been that of the Victoria Sanatorium.

The present home of the Victoria Sanatorium is a picturesque, red brick colonial building, with spacious white porches, situated on one of the beautiful wooded hillsides of Colfax. The corporation of physicians who own and control it have spared neither trouble nor expense to make it not only a credit to themselves and a boon to suffering humanity, but a credit to the state and to the Middle West. It began its career modestly in a little thirty-room brick hotel building; but was crowded out the first year. The building was then completely remodeled and enlarged, doubling its capacity and making it up to date and entirely modern in every respect. The new building proved as inadequate to meet the demand as the old, and the following year a thirty-room brick building was erected as an annex, and has been in daily use since the completion.

The sanatorium building is brick, with its long exposure north and south, making it warm in winter and cool in summer. It is steam heated, with electric lights, call bells and telephones, has an elevator and is well protected against fire, and is artistically finished and furnished, with all outside rooms and a pleasant outlook from every side. Although but five blocks from Main street and depots, the sanatorium building is located at the end of its street in a park of native trees, and as no traffic passes its doors there is an absence of noise and dirt.

The water from the Victoria spring is classified as a carbonated calcicsaline chalybeate, holds an unusual amount of sodium and magnesium sulphate in solution, and has strong aperient properties. Its use is greatly beneficial in many diseases of the stomach and bowels, in cases of diseased kidneys and bladder, and various blood diseases, and especially in cases of rheumatism.

The sanatorium is fitted for the care of many different classes of patients, such as those who are overworked and are in search of rest and relaxation; those suffering from nervous derangement, who are benefited by the rest cure and the baths and exercises; cases of chronic disorder of the organs of assimilation and elimination; rheumatic patients, in the curing of whom the sanatorium has had wonderful results; cases of valvular heart trouble, which are benefited by Nauheim baths, and appropriate exercises for certain cases, for the care of which the sanatorium is especially equipped; and many cases of acute, non-contagious diseases, which are given careful nursing and medical care. Tuberculosis and contagious diseases, as well as troublesome mental cases, are not admitted.

The institution has a staff of competent resident physicians who take all proper care of the patients, and who are not extremists, but use all legitimate therapeutic measures. The equipment consists of the newest and most approved apparatus, static machine, X-ray, high frequency coil, vibrator, hot air machine, galvanic and faradic batteries, leucodescent lamp, etc. A well-equipped clinical laboratory is in constant use for diagnostic purposes, and there is a well-arranged operating room and a small perfectly appointed hospital for the care of the more ill or helpless patients. The bathrooms are well equipped for giving all kinds of hydriatric treatment, and are in charge of a corps of skillful operators, who are thoroughly trained in both American and Swedish methods in massage, orthopedic exercises, medical gymnastics, etc.

It is not the purpose of the sanatorium to compete with local practitioners, but rather to co-operate with them in caring for such cases as need the advantage of sanatorium treatment in addition to regular medical aid.

The doctors in charge of this sanatorium are engaged in a much needed work for the benefit of suffering humanity, in providing for them the best of treatment which modern medical science can provide, and ideally sanitary surroundings, and their success has greatly encouraged their labors. And there can be no nobler and no higher work than to minister to the ills and sickness of mankind, to relieve them from pain and misery, and to prolong their days on this earth. The physician who follows his profession in its true spirit is the best friend of mankind, and the proprietors of the Victoria Sanatorium have during its existence been responsible for the return of hope to many lives from which it had been long shut out.

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