Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-07-15
WHAT Is A MAIDSTONE?
A Subject Interesting the Doctors Just
Now-Is the Maidstone Related to :
Fetish worship2-P asteur's Experlments-En-
gland Concerned over Leprosy-l mpors
taAt Questions to be Discussed
at tho HygienIc Congress

| II Is ESpOFLeu IuaI d uldu voluntarily
exposed his arm to be bitten by a dog
| which certainly had hydroDhobia and
that he was bitten. Men have done
things as foolhardy and desperate before
to prove their favorite theories and this
appears to have been done to prove that
the so-called maidstone is a perfect
antidote to the poison that commonly
goes with the bite OF rabid dog II
the man was bitten, as reported, if the
maidstone is used upon. the bite and if
then the man does not die it will be ac-
cepted as demonstration of the success
of the maidstone by those who believe in
the stone This is fallaey, however
because everyone bitten by a rapid dog
does not die, treatment entirely aside.
But the maidstone is interesting either
as a popular superstition or as possible
remedial agent, says the New York
| Herald, and as a remedia| agent it is
| certainly worth more attention than the
! doctors have given it. It is, for in
/ stance, worth scientific studyAworth
analysis-if one can be had for such a
| purpose Is there a maidstone in any
medical or chemical museum or does it
belong to the geological collections? Who
knows what sort of a stone it is? What
| is its meteorological classification? Is it a
stone at al, properly speaking? And in
the absence OF definite knowledge of its
nature as mineral who determines that
any given stone is a maidstone? Is 1T re-
lated to fetish worship?
Thousands OF chemists would no doubt
bestow their ample patience on the mad
! stone if one was forthcoming, and ssome
| nf %tcY Al lN1.pfh iuh
hunt one up for the purpose In manv
instances chemistry has come in to sus-
! tain and support on basis of scientific
! knowledge what may be called the medi-
cine of superstition. An old ''Infalli-
! ble'' remedy for rheumatism with the
| farmers was cider which had been
| stunned with the ashes of willow
| bark. Now we use salicylic acid; but
| who can doubt that there was salicylic
acid or some salicylate in that
stummed'' cider.
In the bite Of the rabid animal germs
that are in the dog saliva are implanted
with the bite. These fructify in the blood
of the man and produce ultimately the
rabic fever. 1t is not unlikely there is in
! the world some substance that would
neutralize this poison at the start: some
material which, beipg applied to the
wound, would so act upon it or upon the
fluids in or near it as to kill at once the
disease germs. AS there probably is such
a germicide, it is also probable that it
may exist in the so-called maidstone We
do not know that it does, nor that it does
not. Why not inquire by experiments
scientifically conducted.
If Pasteur's experiments on hydro
phobia have not really put within easy
reach an effective means Of fighting that
fearful malady, they have been of great
service as experimental studies in the
natural history of suicides and very fruit.
full in stimulating ideas. III a recent
lecture by Roux on behalf of Pasteur be-
fore the British royal society there are
some hints toward the calculation of one
of the great mysteries of medicine, why
certain diseases do not occur twice in the
same subject. For ages the people have
known as well as the doctors that it is
law of certain diseases to occur but once.
Despite exceptions the law is certain
that to have had smallpox effectively
protects person, and he is exceedingly
unlikely to have it again. Why
this was or what inner mystery
of physiology there was to account for it
no one knows. Forty theories have flour
ished, but there was no real knowledge.
SPasteur has observed that as a microbian
poison Is developed in the animal system
the white corpuscles Of the blood have
certain power of digesting the microbes.
But this power is not without limit. It
may be overcome by an overwhelming
dose of the poison; but if the poison is
small in quantity the power of digesting
is developed, and that this is nature IS
way of fighting malady. What hap
pens then is perhaps that disease occur
ring once impresses upon the white COR
puscles some change in virtue of which
they become qualified to digest that poi
son, and do by subsequent exercise Of
that power protect the individual.
=. If this shall prove a satisfactory ex-
PLANTATION of the fact of the tolerance by
the system of the poison of diseases it has
had it will give at least starting point
for an important classification of mi
crobes, since all diseases supposed to be
dependent upon disease germs do not
protect the system in this way. It VIII
also throw light on the general subject of
the tolerance of disease poisons by GER
tain persons People who live with
scrupulous regard to sanitary conditions
N their own houses have sometimes, it is
believed, taken typhus fever and diph-
liberia by getting a single Whit OF
air from very foul places. There is one
pretty well authenticated case of diph-
liberia taken in that way at an opening
in a foul drain. Yet these foul places
are often the homes of filthy people, and
though they give the eleanly who visit
them an effective dose of disease poison,
those who live there do not always get
the diseases of which the seeds are yet
always in the air. Why Is this? Per-
haps this is also explained by the ac-
quired capacity of the white corpuscles
to digest the microbes. Some light is
also thrown upon the physiological func-
tons of the white corpuseles.
Here might come in the argument of
total depravity TO maintain that if the
life of man is a mere succession of the
assaults of microbes, and if living in un-
sanitary conditions gives to his system
the capacity TO digest and resist these his
Infinitely little enemies, while life in
pure air and clean homes makes him
more susceptible to the evil assault
therefore it is better 10 live in filth than
otherwise. But the evidence is that the
microbe is the cOnqueror even here; that
health is put at so low level by this
constant assault of disease germs that the
victim perIshes by slow degradation of