The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1890-11-13
WAR BETWEEN MICROBES.
a Startling Theory Advanced by Noted
u Russian Physlclan.

Startling Theory Advanced by Noted
Russian Physician.
The first impression Of the reader who
learns that a Russian doctor is curing
diphther by inoculating the patient
with crysipelas is that joke is being
perpetrated. Tho story sounds like that
Eastern tale Of n tyrant who put out the
eyes Of his subjects when they wont
lame. on tho theory that tho greater
suffering would rclieve tho lesser. But
in these days of bacteriology it is I'M
safe to deride any new theory because
1T does not harmonic with preconceived
notions. DIR. Batchinsky says that be-
tween tho microbe of diphthe and tho
microbo of erysipelas there is an antag-
onism. sort of irropressible conflict.
Where one flourishes the other perishes.
and as the erysipolas microbc is tho
moro powerful of the two it is tho diph
liberia microbe that goes to the wall.
Whether microbc eats microbe, or tho
higher bred insect dies of disgust at the
appearance on the scene of his meaner
feilow-creature, does not appear. All
that he avers is that when he inocu-
lated diphthcritic patient with the
poison OF the erysipelas microbe the
dlphtheria gradually disappeared and
the artificial erysipelas yielded readily
to the proper remedies. In this way he
is said to have cured number of pa
tients, and no advises his confreres to
try it Whenever they have severe case
of diphtheria. Wo nocd hardly re-
mark that the faculty will REQUIRE the
newspaper reports of DR.. BatchinsRy's
performances to DO confirmed before
hi Il
looking into. Even the stoutest be-
levers in tho bacterial theory admit
that they arc powcrless to combat tho
bacillus-to beard the lion in his den,
tho Douglas in his hall. When Dr.
Koch discovered, as he believed, tho
bacillus consumption people re joiced,
because they reckoned that now tho
enemy was located it would be easy to
exterminate him. But this proved i'm
practicable. Any gas that was power
fnl enough to destroy the insect was
pretty sure to destroy the patient as
we'll. Quite number Of interesting
experiments were mado with various
carburctcd gases, but no physician was
bold enough to introduce them into tho
lungs i'll the face of warnings that tho
attempt would be fatal. Thus DR..
Koch's discovery left matters pretty
much where they were. But if this Rus
sian mcdicO has really discovered a
bacillus that feeds upon other bacilli
or eXterminatCs them as tho white man
has cXtcrminated the Indian, by the
mere force OF contact tho faculty should
surely test the discovery. Perhaps the
crysipelas bacillus may be as fatal to
the microbe of consumption as he is to
the microbe Of diphtheria. Perhaps he
may cultivate an appetite for other dis
ease germs. If so, even allopaths will
not despise this new application of the
rule simili0 snmiH5us AS a matter of
principle there would be nothing new
in tho discovery. Almost all med
icincs are poisons. That which saves
life in one dose causes death in another.
There is no more useful medicine in the
modern pharmacopnia than arsenic:
yet three out OF five women who poison
themselves do so with arsenic. Strych-
nine is terrible poison, but nux vomica
is most valuable drug. In Greece
criminals were sometimes forced to tako
their own lives by drinking cup of
holleborc; we in our day cure many dis
eases of the stomach with veratrum. If
drug which destroys life under given
conditions saves it in others, WHY NAV
not disease germ which is noXious in
one set of circumstances prove bcncfic-
ial when the circumstances are changed
and the exhibition of the germ regulated
by scientific principles? The last word
has not been said in bacteriolory.
Physicians who deride it say that its
professors mistake the effect for tho
cause. and ascribe disease to animal or
CARNATIONS which proceed from the dis
ease itself 1t may be SO. But tho lay
world remembers that the progcnitors
of these Same physicians denied the cir
culation OF the blood to tho last day of
their lives We owe to Koch and his
co-workcrs the knowledge of the fact of
the existence of microbes; what use
they may be put to remains yet to- be
discovered. San Francisco Call
a Iiindoo God in England.
The famous Ilindoo god. Linrnm &c