The morning call., 1890-08-10
A WAR BETWEEN MIoRoBEs.

The first impression Of the reader who
learns that a Russian doctor SECURING diph-
liberia by inoeulating the patient with
erysipelas is that joke is being perpe-
trated. The story sounds like that Eastern
tale of a tyrant who put out the eyes OF his
subjects when they went lame, on the
theory that the greater suffering would re-
leve the lesser But in these days OF bac-
teriology it is unsafe to deride any new
theory because it does not harmonic with
preconceived notions.
Dr. Batchinsky says that between the mi
crobe of diphtheria and the mierobe of cry
sipelas there is an antagonism, sort of
irrepressible conflict. Where one fourishes
the other perishes, and as the erysipelas
microbe is the more powerful of the two it
is the diphtheria mcrobe that goes to the
wall. Whether microbe eats microbe, or
the higher bred insect dies of disgust at
the appearance on the scene of his meaner
fellow-creature, does not appear. All that
he AYERS is that when he inoculated a diph-
theritic patient with the poison of the cry
sipelas microbe the diphtheria gradually
disappeared and the artificial erysipelas
yielded readily to the proper remedies. In
this way he is said to have cured number
of patients, and he advises his confreres to
try it whenever they have a severe case of
diphtheria. We need hardly remark that
the faculty will require the newspaper re-
ports of DR.. Batchinsky's performances to
be confirmed before they adopt his prac-
tice
1t is worth looking into. Even the stout
est believers in the bacterial theory admit
that they are powerless to combat the ba-
cillus-to beard the lion in his den, the
Douglas in his hall When DR.. Koch dis
covered, as he believed. the bacillus OF
consumption people rejoiced because they
reekoned that now that the enemy was To-
Gated it would be easy to eXtermlnate him.
But this proved impractieable. Any gas
that was powerful enough to destroy the
insect was pretty sure to destroy the patient
as well. Quite number of interesting eX-
periments were made with various car
buretted gases, but no physician was bold
enough 20 introduce them into the lungs III
the face Of warnings that the attempt would
be fatal. Thus Dr. Koch's discovery left
matters pretty much where they were.
But if this Russian N edico has really
discovered bacillus that feeds upon other
bacilli or exterminates them as the white
man has exterminated the Indian. by the
mere force of contact, the faculty should
surely l6SL lH6 uiSCONGly. ClbEpo tuO
eryspelas bacillus may be as fatal to the
mcrobe of consumption as he is to the mi
crobe of diphtheria. Perhaps he may cul-
tivate an appetite for other disease germs.
If so, even allopaths will not despise this
new application of the rule similia SIM
ilibus.
AS a matter of principle there would be
| nothing new in the discovery. Almost all
xuhj oh VOC
life in one dose causes death in another.
There is no more useful medicine in the
modern pharmacop9ia than arsenic; yet
three out of five women who poison them
selves do so with arsenic. Strychnine is
terrible poison, but nux yomica is most
valuable drug. In Greece criminals were
sometimes forced to take their own lives
by drinking cup Of hellebore; we in our
day cure many diseases of the stomach
with veratrum. If a drug which destroys
life under given conditions saves it in 9TH
ers, why may not a disease germ which is
noxious in one set of circumstances prove
beneficial when the circumstances are
changed and the exhibition of the germ
regulated by scientific principles? The last
word has not been said in bacteriology.
Physicians who deride it say that its pro-
fessors mistake the effect for the cause,
and ascribe disease TO animal organizations
which proceed from the disease itself. 1t
may be so. But the lay world remembers
that the progeuitors of these same physi-
clans denied the circulation OF the blood to
the last day of their lives. We owe to
Koch and his co-workers the knowledge of
the fact of the existence of microbes;
what use they may be put to remains yet
to be discovered.