Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1884-08-07

Thus prepared we may have reasonable
hope of escaping the DREADED visit The
united exertions of the most enlight-
| ened nations may suffice to prevent
the disease from spreading beyond its
original limits; still we had better
adopt the most efficient means ourselves
to keep the destroyer from our bound
diaries.
Recently, however, 4 discovery has
been made which promises soon to con-
tribute more to our safety than all
former measures. Thus far we had to
guard and fight against an unknown foe
the real cause of the disease was un-
known to us. Now a discovery has
been made which is of the utmost i'm
portance. But before we mention the
results of the labors of the commission
which Germany sent last year to Egypt
to investigate the nature and cause OF
Asiatic cholera, we will say few words
concerning modern pathology for the
benefit of those readers who may not be
familiar with the subject. There are a
great number of diseases which run a
certain definite course, usually appear as
epidemics and are infectious, i. e., their
cause has to be looked for either in the
| air we inhale, the food we eat or the
water we drink. To these maladies,
which are all characterized by fever,
belong typhus, typhoid fever. diph-
liberia, smallpox, scarlet fever aud the
| like. The researches of the last few
years have demonstrated the fact that
each OF these diseases has minute
| 1;x-; v,sc 70 niaI
which is met with in great numbers in
the blood and in the tissues affected.
Thee micro-organisms are about
the one two-thousandth part of an
inch in size, and most of them appear
under the microscope as fine rods of
various shape and form. They can be
isolated and specially cultured, which
is best doEe on soil made of gelatine
and the watery portion of the blood.
There each variety develops itself after
certain length of time in its own Pc
culiar manner. Some form little
mounds, others assume star form,
others again take on the most grotesque
shapes or adhere together, like the
blood corpuscles. They all multiply
themselves very rapidly; for instance,
one looks like rod, with three minute
dots at equal distances from each other.
Suddenly the rod becomes separated
into three parts, and from each dot a
new rod begins to grow. According to
their nature and shape these micro
organisms, or microzymes, or bacteria,
are called bacilli, or micrococci. The
one causing typhoid fever, discovered
by klebs, is bacillus; SO is the one dis
covered by Koch, producing tubercular
consumption, while in decomposing
tissues micrococci are found. In two
diseases, anthrax and relapsing fever,
the definite proof has been obtained
that special micro organisms cause
these diseases, and the latter are Off
cially reproduced by the introduction
of the microzymes into the circulation.
In the other zymOtic maladies this
causal connection has not yet been
demonstrated.
This modern theory has also been ap-
piled to Asiatic cholera, but for long
time without success, until short time
ago DR.. Koch, the President of the Ger
man Commission sent to Egypt. and
the discoverer of the tubercle bacillus,
handed the report of the Commission to
the German Government. In this re-
port is mentioned that the Commission
has at last found the bacillus of cholera.
Remarkable to say, this bacillus is not
met with in the blood of persons suffer-
inc from cholera nor in that of those
who succumbed to the disease, but is
found only in the intestinal canal, where
it accumulates in astonishing numbers.
This discovery explains many facts
which have thus far not been cOmpre-
hended. We now know the reason of
the numerous rice water discharges, and
we are able to understand the good eff
feet of treatment first proposed and
tried in London. Disshfectants have
such good results in consequence of
their destroying influence upon all low
organisms, and especially upon bac-
terra. 1t seems, however, that some
disinfectants act better under certain
circumstances, and this difference in
their etf,e,t apparently depends upon
the kind of bacteria they are called
upon to annihilate. For instance, quiz
nine acts as q disinfectant mainly on
the poison of malaria, corrosive subli
mate mainly on the bacteria of decom-
position. From great number of o.
servations which were made during the
last great cholera epidemic in London
we may form the conclusion that sui
phuric acid and the tincture of the chic
ride of iron are especially destructive
TO the bacillus of cholera.
Considering the recent discoveries in
modern pathology, it is not only the
duty of the authorities to enforce a
strict quarantine upon all vessels COM
ing from suspected ports or containing
cases of infectious disease on board,
but they should also seq to it that the
greatest possible cleanliness is pre-
served in large citieS. But every in
dividual citizen should contribute his
share in the general welfare. No gar
bage nor any similar impurities should
DO permitted to accumulate in the Gel
lar or in the yard of private house;
there should be no room in which old
rags, WORKOUT clothing, old boxes,
shoes, brushes, ETC., are kept, and all
kind of dust and impurities slowly
collect. Everything no longer of use
should at once be removed, and the
smallest corner of the garnet or the eel.
lar should be as clean as the same place
in the parlor. Wherever dust accumu-
lates. especially if moisture is added to
it, bacteria will Observation-Disclosures
Ger. Chicago Herald.
His Advice.