Huber the Tuber: A Story of Tuberculosis

By Harry A. Wilmer and J. Arthur Myers

HUBER THE TUBER is an imaginary tubercle bacillus whose adventures in Lungland are described and pictured in this book. Employing the use of numerous illustrations, the author has pictured as well as described a story of tuberculosis. Each of Huber’s adventures—including meeting his wife in a joint (a bar and nightclub)—tell some important details about tuberculosis. In addition to a narrative describing Huber’s escapades, his fight with the Home Guard Army and Corpuscle Nelson, his narrow escape from the Phagocyte Shark, there is a short scientific interpretation quite separate from the story. Huber the Tuber, Nasty von Sputum, and Rusty the Bloodyvitch are all finally rounded up by Corpuscle Lipsky and his mechanized Army. Huber’s idyllic but ill-fated romance with Bovy only proves the well-known and indisputable fact that Love is Blind.

“This is a must book for everyone”—Science News Letter

“Dr. Wilmer has made a story of ‘Huber the Tuber’ both educational and hilarious. I not only enjoyed it very much, but learned a good deal from it. I certainly would recommend it for light reading and serious education.”—John Kieran

“Ingeniously the author has made the acquisition of basic information about tuberculosis painless and exciting. It is in the best tradition of modern health education.”—Morris Fishbein, M.D., Editor, Journal of the American Medical Association

“The humorous adventures of ‘Huber the Tuber’ will fascinate lay and medical readers. Wilmer’s clever drawings make the pathology of tuberculosis a joy to investigate and impossible to forget.”—Leroy U. Gardner, M.D., Director, The Saranac Laboratory, Saranac Lake, New York

• Language: English
• Publisher: Muriwai Books
• Release date: Dec 2, 2018
• ISBN: 9781789127447

Harry A. Wilmer

HARRY WILMER (1917-2005) was an American author. Born on March 5, 1917 in in New Orleans, Louisiana, he graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1940. After six years there he received degrees from the college, medical school and graduate school. One summer he studied and visited medical schools abroad, and one summer he studied at the Mayo Clinic. He interned at the Gorgas Hospital in Panama. While still in medical school, Dr. Wilmer published seven original medical papers in highly reputable journals. Two of these won prizes. He was a member of the honorary medical fraternity, Alpha Omega Alpha, and the honorary research society, Sigma Xi. Dr. Wilmer held a commission in the U.S. Reserve Medical Corps. He developed tuberculosis in Panama. Returning to the U.S. from the hot tropical climate and the long hard hours in Panama, he quickly recovered his health. HUBER THE TUBER was written during this interval. He was a National Research Council Fellow at Johns Hopkins University and a fellow at the Mayo Foundation. He was also the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship for Social Sciences, U.S. & Canada. He moved to Salado, Texas in 1971, where he was a senior Jungian analyst in private practice. He was founder, emeritus director, and president of the Institute for the Humanities. Dr. Wilmer died in Salado, Texas on March 13, 2005, aged 88. J. ARTHUR MYERS (1888-1978) was involved in the compilation of a number of medical treatises on diseases of the chest and served on the editorial boards of medical journals. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1914 and graduated from the University of Minnesota Medical School in June 1920. In 1921, he was appointed chief of staff at the Lymanhurst School of Tuberculosis for children and served there until it closed in 1934. He held several positions at the University of Minnesota from 1920, retiring in 1957 as a professor emeritus. He died in 1978, aged 89.

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Text originally published in 1942 under the same title.

© Muriwai Books 2018, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

HUBER THE TUBER

A Story of Tuberculosis

WRITTEN AND ILLUSTRATED BY

HARRY A WILMER, B.S., M.S., M.D.

The University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis

INTRODUCTION BY

J. ARTHUR MYERS, Ph.D., M.D.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

DISCLAIMER 4

DEDICATION 5

INTRODUCTION 6

PREFACE 7

LIST OF CHARACTERS IN THE DRAMA 11

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 55

DISCLAIMER

Any resemblance to tubercle bacilli living or dead is purely coincidental; the events portrayed, however, are occurring every day.

DEDICATION

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY

OF MY FATHER WHO ALWAYS

WAS AND ALWAYS SHALL BE

MY GREATEST INSPIRATION

INTRODUCTION

As a medical student Dr. Harry Wilmer always manifested an unusual interest in tuberculosis. In addition to his usual work, at one time he prepared an elaborate thesis on tuberculosis among cattle as it affects man.

While serving as an intern in the Gorgas Hospital in