Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-07

give the names of the 4 Water Filter.
districts in which these deaths occurred. 1
| do not hesitate to say that if these "a persons
had come, as the 160 came to the New York
Pasteur Institute for treatment they would
to-day be in good health and not the victims
| of most horrible death.
When we consider what medicine was 20
years ago we must see that an Incompatible
advance has been made in this art, which is
becoming more and more an exact science.
| But it is not only in the case of internal
diseases that medicine has been revolution
| lied by the new discoveries that we owe to
bacteriology; the new science has also been
applied to surgery with results that cannot
fail to convince the most skeptical. The
study of microbes showed that the unhealthy
condition of sores, whether accidental or
natural, was due to the introduction into
the lymphatic and blood vessels of disease
breeding bacteria, and that thus erysipelas
was caused in one instance, septicemia in
another, tetanus in a third. and that, in
| fine. all secondary poisonings found after
surgical operations could be traced to this
| source.
BENEFIT TO SURGERY.
After having discovered the cause OF these
| complications and the existence of disease
breeding germs, which swarm from the sores
,
bacteriology discovered substances by which
the DEVELOPMENT of those germs could best
| be prevented. or rather agents by which the
microbes could most readily be destroyed
without injuring the human tissues. By aid
of this new discovery surgeons have been
| able to try thousands of operations of which
| they have heretofore never dreamed or which
they have only practiced in fear and trem-
bling. Awaiting itself OF the safeguards In
dicated by bacteriology, surgery is able to
| open joints, to burrow in the abdomens, to
open the chests and skulls of sick persons
without making them run the terrible risk
which attended these operations only few
years ago.
Lister, the English surgeon, was one OF
the first who used in his practice the theories
of Pasteur, and it may be mentioned that
he sent the great discoverer a letter which
was full of thanks and congratulations and
which certainly marks the beginning of O
new era for the practice of surgery. 1t goes
without saying-and l need not insist on
this point-that physicians appreciate better
than laymen the scope of the great revolu-
tion which these new discoveries have
brought about in the art of Hippocrates.
EVERY DOCTOR BACTERIoLoGIsr.
The new discovery of which all men are
talking now will make my meaning entirely
clear. do not desire to prolong this article
by describing at length the recent work of
abr. Koch on the cure of tuberculosis. On
this subject the reader knows almost as
much as 1 do. If, however (and all the
facts point in that direction), it is necessary
to use cultures, from which is so be ex-
tracted by chemical process matter secreted
by the microbe with the object of preparing
the injection, through which the disappear
ance of the noxious microbes is to be brought
about, then the physician will be compelled
either to become himself chemist and
bacteriologist or to apply to another for the
necessary curative elements, If he adopts
the latter course he must resign himself to
play a secondary role, which will be humil.
iating to his professional dignity.
1t may be argued that the physician will
be able to receive the remedy from labora-
tory as to-day he receives the vaccinal
lymph or any other remedy which his
patient can procure from any drug store.
The present case, however, is different and a
selfrespecting physician cannot be satisfied
with merely practicing the discoveries of
others and doing no work in that direction
himself. Moreover, patients will 60 with
far more confidence to the man who applies
the cure directly.
CHANGED THE BASIS OF SURGERY.
To resume, the biological discoveries,
which have been made during the past lew
years, have completely changed the basis of
surgery and medicine. I have shown how
far the surgeons field of action has e1-
tended, and shall now cast a glance into the
future, where I see most consoling and bene-
fcent outlook for our race.
And first see clearly that BY means of
these recent discoveries in regard to germs,
which are contagious and to some extent
tangible, the solidarity which unites us all,
rich as we'll as poor, has been proved in a
clearer and more satisfactory manner than
has ever fallen to the lot of all the apostles
OF universal fraternity. How is that? How
can it concern ME, who am wealthy, if nv
neighbor dies of wretchedness? will tell
you how it concerns you. Your neighbor's
wretchedness, which 4 little effort-I do not
even saya little sacrifice-on your part
could alleviate and render harmless, il q
standing menace to your health, to your life
and to the lives OF your family, ior the
reason that the misery, which surrounds him
and his children, favors the development of
microbes, which are the germs OF all conta-
gions, and from his body will escape all the
morbid elements which will bring consump-
tion to you and to your children diphtheria,
meningitis and, in one word, death.
THE TRIUMPH OF SCIENCE.
Long enough has humanity patiently
paid tribute to the minotaurs of contagious
and epidemics. At last man, new Theseus,
has gained the victory, and, thanks to the
strides OF experimental science, is enabled
to move freely in the midst of his van
quishe1 enemies. To-day he holds on the
point of his scalpel the elements of those
mysterious miasmas which have rightly
and as il by intuition, been considered the
sources of these dreadful scourges; he con-
fines them in crystal walls; he watches their
development by the aid of perfect instru-
ments; he is enabled to test the action of the
different chemical compositions which he
extracts from surrounding objects which
nature furnishes to him. He knows now
the strong and the weak points of this
enemy, which was only formidable be ore
because it could neither be seen nor grasped.
We can foresee the day when thousands
of lives will be preserved from cholera and
tuberculosis, when mothers will cease to
weep over the bodies of their children who
have been carried off by the deadly germ of
diphtheria. Man will then lie master of
death. And when. thanks to an evolution
on parallel lines, progress shall have
marched ahead in the direction OF morality
as we'll as in the direction of biology and
when one of the gates OF death shall have
been closed by medical science-then, thanks
TO the progress of social science, another
pate-blood stained, too-the gate of fratri-
cidal woes will be closed in its turn; a new
race will necessarily oe evolved, and new
golden age will appear, and such will be
the heritage which we shah be enabled to
PAUL G1B1EH, M. D.
New York Pssteur Institute.