SARANAC LAKE, a village of north-eastern New York, U.S.A., in the Adirondack mountains, near Lower Saranac lake, on the boundary line between Essex and Franklin counties; served by the Delaware and Hudson and the New York Central railways. Pop. 1930, 8,020 Federal census. It is a summer and a winter resort, for both health and pleasure. Near the village, at an altitude of 1,650 ft., is the Trudeau sanatorium, founded in as the Adirondack Cottage sanatorium by Dr. Edward L. Trudeau (1848-1915), the first semi-charitable institution in America for the open-air treatment of early tuberculosis. Dr. Trudeau, at tacked by tuberculosis soon after beginning practice in New York city in 1872, had gone to the Adirondacks to die in a place he loved, but before the first winter was over was surprised to find his health greatly improved. He stayed on, making Saranac Lake his home for the remaining 4o years of his busy life, and out of his personal experience developed a method of treatment which has had a wide influence. The sanatorium has grown to a small village in itself, and Saranac Lake has become a resort for private patients. Within ten years not one in 20 of the applicants could
be received. Robert Louis Stevenson spent the winter of 1887-88 at Saranac Lake, under Dr. Trudeau's care, writing some of his finest essays while there. In 1894 Dr. Trudeau established the Saranac laboratory for research in tuberculosis (the first of its kind in America) and after his death an endowment was raised for it (under the name of the Trudeau Foundation) as a memorial to him. In 1916 the Trudeau School of Tuberculosis was opened (also the first institution of its kind) to give specialized instruc tion in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease to practising physicians. The village of Saranac lake was incorporated in 1892, and now has accommodations for an average of 1,500 patients. Other institutions in the vicinity are the New York State sana torium (1904), the Stony Wold sanatorium (1903), Sanatorium Gabriels (1897) and the National Vaudeville Artist's' sanatorium, which together have a capacity of 675 beds.