The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-08-31
DISEASE AND INCUBATION
RESULT OF INTERESTING INVES-
LEGATIONS BY DOCTORS.
Possibilities and Representatives, O
incubation as a Preventive O
Observation-Disclosures Of Pasteur

Mott, Jr., of this city, to carry out his
experiment in incubation as a preventive
OF hydrophobia in the person of Harold
Newell, son of DIR. William II. Newell,
of Jersey City, the first experiment of
its kind undertaken in this country, lends
renewed interest to the question as to
what has been accomplished and what is
now doing by scientists in the United
States, and in the world at large, to pre-
vent the spread of contagious diseases by
incubation.
Tha following facts we're recently
given to a reporter of the Commercial
Adrcrtiser by an eminent New York
physician: "1noculation, as practiced
in the United States, has usually been
performed by veterinarians in private
practice or by empires. Recently, how
ever, the State authorities of New jersey,
Pennsylvania and Maryland have inoc-
ulatcd to q considerable extent. But in
none of these cases have records been
kept which arc of any value in deciding
upon the benefits derived from the oper-
alton.
The only work, which is generally
known, o in progress in this country
for the prevention by incubation of dis
ease, is that doing in the Agricultural
Department at Washington. 1t is under
the charge of DR.. Salmon. Under his
supervision Investigations in tho diseases
of pleuro-pncumonia and hog and chicken
cholera have been made. He has, in
these Investigations, cndeavored to OBJ
tain q preventive vaccine for these dis
eases. They have been continued now
for more than O year, with partly sue
cesslul results. He has been successful
in preparing vaccincs which will confer
a certain immunity, which, however, is
by no means absolute or certain. Il num-
Der of experiments have been under
taken to show that the immunity which
follows attacks OF certain contagious dis
eases in animals is due, not to the direct
action of the heterogeneous, but to an
acquired Indifference to certain chemical
poisons which arc produced in the growth
and multiplication Of the germs. The
effort has been to show also that this i'm
munity NAV be conferred by making in
oculation, not with the micro-organism
or germs themselves, but with certain
chemical substances distracted from
fluids in which these germs have been
developed.
'SThe study of the micro-organisms of
disease is going on to q limited extent oil
over the United States. All infectious
diseases, so far as we are able to judge at
present, are due to the specific action of
heterogeneous. In the case of any dis
ease, in order to make it likely that a
vaccine will act as n preventive, it is
necessary that the disease in question
should be one of those in which one at
tack successfully overcome confers future
susceptibility to that disease. In such
diseases as dipnthcria there is no proba-
bility that incubation would be of any
value. Persons who have suffered from
this disease gain rather o greater sus-
%ceptibility to it than otherwise.
"Cholcra probably does not belong to
that class of diseases in which incubation
could be used successfully. Bnt it is
possible in cholera that q limited protec-
ton from the disease may be conferred
by an attack. That that immunity is not
at all perfect, is shown by the fact that
in many instances persons who have suf-
fered in one epidemic are striker down
in O second, and ultimately die from the
disease. On the other hand, in the case
of smallpox, typhoid and typhus fever,
yellow fever and other Of the infectious
diseases, one attack coufcrs almost abso-
lutte immunity from a second. Now it is
possible that. for any of these diseases,
there may be discovered methods by
which vaccines can be prepared for pre-
ventive incubation.
"Thc great difficulty in investigating
the infectious diseases is the fact that
many of them are peculiar to man, and
none of the lower animals ore suscepti-
BILE to them. This is true Of typhoid and
typhus fever, cholera, yellow lever and
many Others.
''rhere is very little dong at present
concerning incubation for infectious dis
eases. The belief in the germ theory of
communicable diseases is rapidly gaining
ground. In Germany and France it is
almost universal. Investigations are
making in several medical schools in this
city in regard to the relations of micro
organisms to disease. But nothing of i'm
portance is doing in the matter of pre-
ventive incubation. Comparatively lit
tie has been done as yet compared to
what may yet be accomplished In this di-
rection. More has been done, however,
by Investigations in this direction during
the last few years to- place medicine upon
q scientific foundation than all the in
vestigations in the previous half CEN
tury;
$50 much for generalization. Now to
be more specific. NEGOTIATIONS arc making
to prevent hydrophobia, but for the most
part in Paris. The majority of the pro-
fession is incredulous as to the efficacy
of Pasteur's methods. There is q grow
ing distrust of his theories and prac-
tices. No reasonable explanation of the
cause Of death in several of his later
cases has been given. Assuming that
incubation will prevent the disease, the
weakest point in his experiments is his
failure to discover the germ which is the
cause of the disease. He has made q
large number of experiments and claims
certain results. hut the whole method ia