The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1881-09-21
4 DISCO VERY THAT RTH4LS DIR.
JENNER'S.
From the Baltimore Sun

! One of the most impor tant papers
read at the melting of the international
Medical Congress, held in London, was
that of d. Pasteur, the distinguished
biologist, on certain discoveries of his
which will enable physicians TO convert
vaccination from beiug m isolated and
empiric prccautiOn into wide system
of treatment, applicable to many kinds
of fever of both man and animals. His
! investigations have resulted not alone
in preventives for four distinct violent
diseases, hnt in a knowledge of a meth
cd of preparing vaccine for prevent
ing fevers and many-if not all-con-
I,tagious diseases. NJ. Pasteur, in his
address as reported by the London
Times, gives in detail his discovery with
respect to two odiseases-chfcken cholera
and splenic fever 1t will suffice to
trace his method of preparing vaccine
| to prevent the first. He takes chick
en- about tordie of the cholera and draws
from it's veins small quantity of blood.
Under the microscope this blood is seen
to be full of small living creatures,
which, for want Of better name, we
shall call nafcT0beS-the name employed
by NJ Pasteur A drop of this blood is
placed i'll a close glass vessel contain
ing clear strained, 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 cotton, or is drawn
out in lamp flame and hermctlcally
sealed. The glass vessel, or flask, is
kept at temperature of about 55 de-
grees Fahrenheit. It's contents at first
become turbid from the growth of the
microbes nouhahed by the broth, but
at the end OF a couple OF days the thick
ness of the broth disappears because
the microbes 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 sediulenL undergoing any Wis
ible change, provided the atmospheric
germs are kept excluded. After an in
terval of month the flask is shaken TO
mingle it's contents, and drop from it
is placed in a second flask, containing
fresh broth. A crop of microbes Is
produced as before, followed by the
same clearing of the liquid aud falling
of sediment. The Interval of a months
waiting is repeated, and drop from
this second flask is employed to pro-
duceimicrobes in third, and SO on un-
til there has been, say, dozen crops
of microbes raised. Atthe end of the
process it will be found that the "tul-
tured microbes" to employ III. Pasteur's
Language, are innocent, and, when in
troduced into the veins Of a healthy
chicken, fall to produce cholera, as
their uncultured ancestors did, yet at
the same time they prevent the chicken
from catching the cholera. In word,
the cultured microbe can be used 10
vaccinate, and thus protec: the farmers
chickens from one of the worst diseases
to which fowl flesh is heir. The ration
ale of the process is that the vigor OF
the microbes is exhausted by any con-
siderable period of suspended anima-
ton, month or less, and when the pro-
cess is often repeated the enfeebled
microbe loses the virulence of his pro-
genitOrs. The micrObe which causes
splenic fever in sheep, &C., differ from
-, oh tn ffa Ia1nAn nf
growth, but may be ''cultured" to
Estate of innocency by a process similar
to the one just narrated, the strict ex-
clusion of fresh air being IN this case
Indispensable. 1t is the want of Oxy-
gen which seems to occasion the en-
teeblement of the microbe during its
recurring periods of suspended life
This method of obtaining the vaccine
of splenic fever was no sooner made
known than 1T was extensively emplyO-
ed. France loses SIS, 600, 900 worth of
sheep annually from splenic fever. To
test his method NJ. Pasteur had fifty
sheep given him for experiment by tho
government. He vaccinated twenty
five of them with his cultured microbes.
A fortnight afterward the whole fifty
were inoculated with the ordinary un-
cultured splenic miGrobe. The twenty
five yaceinated sheep resisted the in
fection, the other yenty-tive died of
eplenic fever within fifty hours. Since
that time n. Pasteur has Yaocilated
co. 600 sheep and large numbers of cat
tie and horses and with good results