Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1881-10-12
A DISCOVERY RIVALING DIR.
JENNER'S.

One of the most important papers
read at the meeting of the International
Medical Congress, held in London,
was that of NJ. Pasteur, the distinguish.
ed biologist, on certain discoveries of
his which will enable physicians to
convert vaccination from being an iso-
lated and empiric precaution into a
wide system of treatment, applicable
to many kinds of fever of both man
and amin ais His investigations have
resulted not alone in preventives for
four distinct violent diseases, but in a
ledge of method of preparing a
vaccine tor preventing fevers and
many-if not all-contagious diseases.
NJ. Pasteur, in Lis address, as reported
in the London Times, gives in detail
his discoveries with respect to two dis
eases-chicken cholera and splenic
fever. 1t will suffice to trace his meth
cd of preparing vaccine to prevent
the first He takes chicken about to
die of the cholera and draws from its
veins small quantity of blood. Un-
der the microscope this blood is seen
to be full of small living creatures,
which, for want of better name, we
shall call microbes-the name employ
ed by M. Pasteur. A drop of this
blood is placed in close glass vessel
containing clear strained, recently boil
ed broth, made from chicken or other
flesh. Great precaution is taken to ex-
clude the organic germs floating in the
air; in fact the glass neck of the vessel
is closed with plug of cotton, or is
drawn out in lamp fame and hermeti-
cally sealed. The glass vessel, or flask.
is kept at temperature or about 90
degrees Fahrenheit Its contents at
first become turbid from the growth of
the microbes nourished by the broth,
but at the end of couple of days the
thickness of the broth disappears be-
cause the microbes have ceased to de-
velop and have fallen to the bottom of
the flask, and things will remain in
this condition for months without eth
er liquid or sediment undergoing any
visible change, provided the atmospher-
ic germs are kept excluded. After an
interval of month the flask is shaken
to mingle its contents, and drop from
it is placed in second flask, contain
ing fresh broth. A crop of microbes
is produced as before, followed by the
same clearing of the liquid and falling
of sediment. The interval of a months
waiting is repeated, and drop from
this second flask is employed to pro-
duce microbes In third, and so on un-
til there has been, say, dozen crops
of microbes raised. At the end of the
process it will be found that the 'cul-
tured Microbes to employ NJ. Pasteur's
language, are innocent, and, when in
troduced into the veins of healthy
chicken, tail to produce cholera, as their
uncultured ancestors did, yet, at the
at the same time, they prevent the
chicken from catching the cholera. In
word, the cultured microbe can be
used to vaccinate, and thus protect the
farmers chickens from one of the
worst diseases to which fowl flesh is
heir. The rationale of the process is
that the vigor of the microbes is ex-
hausted by any considerable period of
suspended animation, a month or less,
and when the process is often repeated
the enfeebled microbe loses the viru-
lence of his progenitors. The microbe
which causes splenic fever in sheep,
ETC., differs from that producing cholera
in it's mode of growth, but may be
cultured to state of innocency by a
process similar to the one just narrated,
the strict exclusion of fresh air being
in this case indispensable. 1t is the
want of oxygen which seems to occa-
sion the enfeebement of the microbe
during it's recurring periods of suspend
ed life. This method of obtaining the
vaccine of splenic fever was no sooner
made known than it was extensively
employed. France loses five million
dollars worth of sheep annually from
splenic fever To test his method M.
Pasteur had fifty sheep given him for
experiment by the government de
vaccinated twenty-five of them with
his cultured microbes. A fortnight af
terward the whole fifty were inoculat,
ed with the ordinary uncultured splen'
ic microbe. The twenty-five vaccinat
ed sheep resisted the infection, the 9th
er twenty-five died of splenic fever
within fifty hours. Since that time NJ
Pasteur has vaccinated twenty thous
and sheep and large numbers of cattle
and horses, and with good results -
Baltimore Sun.
Peruna is in itself a great physician.