Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-09-09
A Discovery RIValIng DR.. Jenner's.

One Of the most important papers read
at the meeting of the International Medi-
cal Congress, held in London, was that
OF N. Pasteur, the distinguished biolo-
gist. on certain discoveries of his which
viii enable physicians to convert vacci-
nation from being an isolated and en-
piric precaution into wide system of
treatment, applicable to many kinds of
fever OF both man and animals. His in
Vestgations have resulted not alone in
preventives for four distinct violent dis
eases. but in knowledge of a method of
preparing vaccine for preventing fevers
and many-if not Advantageous dis
eases. NJ. Pasteur, in his address, as re-
ported in the London Times. gives in de-
tail his discoveries with respect to two dis
eases-chicken cholera and splenic fever.
1t will suffice to trace his method of pre-
pairing vaccine to prevent the first He
takes a chicken about to die of the
cholera and draws from its veins small
quantity of blood. Under the micros-
cope this blood is seen to be full of small
living creatures, which, for want of a
better name, we shall call HaGcrObes-the
name employed by NJ. Pasteur. A drop
of this blood is placed in a close glass
vessel containing 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 peck of the vessel
is closed with a plug of cotton, or is
drawn out in a lamp fame and
or flask, is kept at a temperature
of oh Eah
contents at first become turbid
from the growth of the micro
bes nourished by the broth, but at the
end of couple of days the thickness of
the broth disappears because the micro
bes have ceased to develop and have
fallen to the bottom of the flask, aud
things will remain in this condition for
months without either liquid or sedi-
ment undergoing any visible change,
provided the atmospheric germs are kept
excluded. After an interval of month
the flask is shaken to mingle its 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 and
falling of sediment. The interval of a
months waiting is repeated, and a
drop from this second flask is
employed to produce microbes in
a third, and so 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 N. Pasteur's language, are
innocent, and, when introduced into the
veins of healthy chicken, fail to pro-
duce cholera, as their uncultured ances-
tors did, yet, at the same time, they pre-
vent the chicken from catching the
cholera. In a word, the cultured mi
crobe 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, month or less,
and when the process is often repeated
the enfeebled mlcrobe loses the virulence
of his progenitors The microbe which
causes splenic fever in sheep, etc.,
differs from that producing cholera in
its mode of growth, but may be
cultured" to a state of innocency by
a process similar to the one just mar
rated, the strict exclusion of fresh air
DSluS III ILLS CdSC luulSptuSdDl6. IL Is
the want of oxygen which seems to Occa.
sion the enfeeblement of the microbe
during its recurring periods of suspended
life. This method of obtaining the vac
cine 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 NJ Pasteur had fifty
sheep given him for experiment by the
government. He vaccjnated twenty five
of them with his cultured microbes. A
fortnight afterward the whole fifty were
inOculated with the ordinary uncultured
splenic microbe The twenty-five vac
cinated sheep resisted the infection, the
other twenty-five died of splenic fever
within fifty hours. Since that time NJ.
Pasteur has vaccinated twenty thousand
sheep and large numbers of cattle and
horses, and with good results.