The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1882-01-19

we SSeiH 10 nave pleuty OI ram JUST
now, some mud and some nice winter
weather.
Some old folks are dropping off, as
they generally do in both mild and
very cold winters.
The diphtheria has abated, leaving
people to speculate how 1t came here.
All authorities agree that it is conta-
gious in a limited degree from one per-
son to another; but two writer's say,
they never knew it 20 be carried by a
third person. There is a strong prob
ability that it starts up from bad sani-
tary conditions. Dr. J. A. Watson
reports in State Medical Society such
al outbreak. He says IA stagnant
pond was under the school house, and
communicated with two cesspools upon
the grounds occupied by the school.
The village stood on the border of a
mill pond choked with snwdust and
refuse, which rotted under a July sun.
No cOntagion could be traced, but
without warning, ,twenty-five children
were almost simultaneously stricken
with diphtheria. Following diphthe-
ria was an epidemic of typhoid fever
during the following month";" DR..
Wagonseller, of Penn, relates case
in his experience in family where
the father had diphtheria and the boys
soon after had typhoid fever. Nurses
very often take diphtheria from the
sick. 1t is likely TO go through a fam
lily unless precautions are used to pre-
vent it. Doctors get the disease from
their patients when they inhale their
breath, or when they receive some of
the hot saliva or membrane in the
mouth or eye. DR.. Treausseau lost
two of his intimate friends; one, DIR.
ValleiX was eXaminining the throat of
u child who had u mild form of dipi-
liberia and was recovering. She
mouth flew into his. He was soon
taken sick. and died in forty-eight
hours use his own words in describ-
ing the other case: " Very recently
one of my provincial colleagues had a
case of diphtheria and Group, in which
/
my. During the operation a fear OF
sufIocation arose from blood getting
into the trachea, whereupon, in dis
may, my independent colleague ap-
piled his mouth to the wound in the
neck to suck the blood from the air
passage; he innoculated himself with
the disease. He, like Valleix, died in
= forty-eight hours, of malignant sore
throat" He tells of the death of a
young man, in this wise: Henri
Blache was put, by his uncle, Dr.Paul
Guersant, in charge of a child suffer
ing from Group, on whom treacheote-
my had been performed. He passed
three nights with the child. At the
end of the third night he felt slight
pain in the neck and went home to
mention it to his father. DIR. Henri
Roger, DIR. Legroux and I were imme-
diately sent for we found the unfor-
tunate young man in very feverish
state and his tOnsils covered with false
membrane. Within a few hours the
swelling in his neck became enormous,
an incessant discharge from the nose
was established; delirium set in at the
end of the third day, and after an ill
ness of seventy hours, our patient
died, without having had the slightest
affection of the larynX." In this case
the disease was taken from breathing
the poisonous exhalations from the
breath and the open wound in the
child's neck for too long a time. The
disease is often taken in this way. 1t
is also often taken from it's original
source, as it was in that school house
which stood over a pond of water
within smelling distance of two cess
pools and a mill pond with lots of de-
caying sa awdust. This poison is carried
by vegetable mIcrococci, and is
breathed into the lungs, then gets into
the white globuIes of the blood, and ii
person has already a large share of
| these it does them a great injury. 1t
clings to this vegetable emanation and
is carried by it, and circulates through
all the glands of the body, and is elm
mated in the secretions of the throat
crococci when diphtheria is not pre-
yailing. These deaths that l have
mentioned taking place in forty-eight
hours could not be caused bymicroscOp-
ic vegetable spcrules that we are in the
habit of breathing, unless it carries an
independents, separate, septic poison.
III. T.. Wood, NJ. D., of Philadelphia,
comes the nearest proving that diph-
liberia is caused by microcOcci by the
following experiment which he tried,
but does not prove it beyond a doubt.
He strained the urine of a diphtlleretic
patient, which contained micrococci,
through paper, then dried the paper
and put small pieces of this under the
skin, and it produced malignant diph
iberia. Tr0sseau took the false mem
brane from the throat of a diphtheretic
patient, washed it, and put a piece in
his eye, then innOculated himselfwith
it, but il produced no effect. Hence l
conclude it is not the vegetable
miclO &C that is the poison, but only
the diminutive particle almost undis-
coverable with the strongest micro
scope that can be made, is the convey
ance on which the poison rides.
But while we do not know the exact
cause of diphtheria, we know enough
to guard agains its prevalence. A large
part of the testimony points to its
cause. DIR. Henry Hartshorn, of Phil
adelphia, expresses his views thus :
Tenement houses, containing AN ex-
cessively crowded population, have
often been subjected to a great loss of
life, from this as well as other 'enthetic'
diseases. Foul privies, badly drained
cellars and streets, and leaky conneC-
tions of dwelling houses with sewers,
favor diphtheria very positively, not