Smyrna times., 1881-09-07
A Discovery Rivaling DR.. Jenner's.

cal congress, held III London, was that of
NJ. Pasteur, the distinguished biologist, OH
certain discoveries of which will enable
physicians to convert vaccination from
being an isolated and empiric precaution
into wide system of treatment, applica-
BILE to many kinds of fever of both man
and animals. His investigations have re-
suited not alone in preventives for four
distinct violent diseases, but in q knowl-
edge of a method of preparing vaccine
for preventing fevers and many-if not
all-contagiOus diseases. NJ Pasteur, in
his address as reported by the London
Times, gives in detail his discoveries with
respect to two diseases-chicken cholera
and splenic fever. 1t will suffice to trace
his method of preparing vaccine to pre-
vent the first. He takes Il chicken about
to die of the cholera and draws from its
veins Il small quantity of blood. Under
the microscope this blood is seen to be
full of small living creatures, which, for
want of a better name, we shall call
micrObeS-the name employed by NJ. Pas
teur. A drop of this blood is placed in a
close glass vessel containing clear strain
| ed, recently boiled broth, made from
chicken or other flesh. Great precautiOn
is taken to exclude the organic germs
floating in the air; in fact the glass neck
OF the vessel is closed with plug of cot
ton, or is drawn out i'll Il lamp flame and
Theoretically sealed. The glass vessel. or
flask, is kept at temperature Of about 55
! degrees Fahrenheit. Its contents at first
become turbid from the growth of the
microbes nOurished by the broth, but at
the end Of II couple of days the thickness
of the broth disappears because the mi
crobes have ceased to develop and have
fallen to the bottom of the flask, and
things will remain in this condition for
months without either liquid or sediment
undergoing amy visible change, provided
the atmospheric germs are kept excluded.
After an interval Of month the flask is
shaken to mingle its contenta and Il drop
from it is placed in a second flask. con-
tanning 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 months
waiting is repeated, and drop from this
second flask is employed to produce
microbes in third, and 80 on until there
has been, say, dozen crops of microbes
raised. At the end of the process it will
be found that the cultured microbes" to
employ Nj. Pasteur's language, are innO-
cent, and, when introduced into the veins
of healthy chicken, fail to produce
cholera, as their uncultured ancestors did,
| yet, at the same time, they prevent the
| chicken from catching the cholera In a
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 exhausted by any considerable
period of suspended animation, a month
or less, and when the process is often re-
! peated the enfeebled microbe loses the
virulence of his prOgenitOrs. The microbe
! NSeNoNo SHlOhiO ASNCl III SAECD,
differs from that producing cholera in its
mode of growth, but may be "cultured''
to state of innOcency by a process simi-
lar to the one just narrated, the strict ex-
clusion of fresh air being in this case in
dispensable. 1t is the want of oxygen
which seems to occasion the enfeeblement
Of the micrObe during its recurring per-
iOds of suspended life This method of
/ obtaining the vaccine of splenic fever was
no sooner made known that it was extern
sively employed France loses $4,000, 900
worth of sheep annually from splenric
fever. To test this method NJ. Pasteur
had fifty sheep given him for experiment
by the government. He vaccinated twenty
five of them with his cultured microbes.
A fortnight afterward the whole fifty were
inOculated with the ordinary uncultured
splenic micrObe. The twenty vacci-
mated sheep resisted the infection, the
other twenty-five died of splenic fever
within fifty hours. Since that time NJ.
Pasteur has vacelnated 10000 sheep and
large numbers of cattle and horses and
with good results.-BaH. Sun.