Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-12-06

their home in badly drained towns and other
unhealthy quarters, boards of health promptly
ordered prophylactic measures hitherto rather
.ns . sScypss in
and houses. As natural result the practice
Of public and private hygiene attained In few
years surprising Developments.
| 1t only remains Tor me now to treat briefly OF
| the principal changes which therapeutics or the
treatment OF diseases has undergone and to say
| what hopes, based on the new discoveries, We
may have for the future.
RAPID PRoaRHss.
During recent years the march Of progress in
this direction has been strikingly rapid. First,
| Pasteur pointed out how the virus-that 10 to
say, the contagious germs-could be attenuated
by exposing the hen cholera cultures to the air,
| and also proved that small portion Of these
cultures would no longer kill animals, though a
| similar injection had produced . fatal effect
some weeks previously. The incubation, how
ever, had not been without result. The animal
| had suffered and had experienced the mild
symptoms OF mortal disease, and the result
| showed that the mitigated attack was q safe
guard against the incubation Of the virulent
microbes. which had caused the death of the
animals into whom the attenuated culture had
| not been injected Experimental vaccination
was discovered. Its practical application was
| soon made on grand scale. by an analogous
process Pasteur attenuated the virtus Of the
anthrox.
BOON FOR CATTLE.
By this disease cattle valued at several million
| francs had been annually carried of in France.
Since the introduction Of anti-carbonic vaccin-
alton after Pasteur's method, however, the loss
OF cattle has been reduced to q minimum.
Other experiments, less brilliant were made
with not less success. as, for example, in cases
OF hog cholera and COMMISSIONS pienro pneu.:
| years Of continuous work and Of experiments
conducted with sagacity which does honor
to the human race Pasteur added to his other
great achievements by discovering means by
which human beings can be preserved from
fatal. By means Of inoculations Of virus the
| strength OF which was successfully increased,
| ne showed how 1t was possible to prevent the
development OF madness after bite.
Some net, time ne. ago in the suburbs of Bucharest
mad wolf bit thirteen persons and thirty-three
domestic animals-horses, dogs, cows and pigs
| Eleven Of the persons bitten were treated in
| time and are today in perfect health. OF the
two other persons, one died Of his wounds and
the other neglected to apply for treatment and
aied IN terrible agony OF hydrophobia- OF the
thlrty-three animals bitten not one escaped all
dying OF madness. This case has the value of
| an experiment conducted on grand scale. At
present, in spite Of some futile opposition, per-
| sons who have been bitten by mad animals take
the advice OF their physicians and do not hest
There are several Of these establishments in
Europe, India and America and SO far more
than $4,000 persons have been inoculated.
Thanks to the constant improvement of the
method the cases of failure after treatment are
continually diminishing.
WORK DONE IN THIS CITY.
In the New York Pasteur Institute about 100
persons have been inoculated between March
and the end Of November. OF these large
nnmhar froo o%<
seen other persons or animals bitten by the
same dogs die Of hydrophobia. These cases
were Ger tainly grave and yet in every instance
thank the gods, the treatment proved efica-
cious. During this period l have heard Of
twenty-four cases of death in the United States
as the result of hydrophobia. do not hesitate
to say that if these twenty-four persons had
come, as the 100 came, to the New York Pasteur
Institute for treatment they would today be in
good health and not the victims Of a most hor-
rible death.
When we consider what medicine was twenty
years ago we must see that an incompatible
advance has been made in this art, which is be-
coming even more and more an exact science.
But 1t is not only in the case Of internal dis
eases that medicine has been revolutionized by
the new discoveries which we owe to bacteriol-
ogy; the new science has also been applied to
surgery with results that cannot fail to con-
vince the most skeptical. The study Of mi
| crobes showed that the unhealthy condition Of
sores, whether accidental or natural, was due
TO the introduction into the Emphatic and
blood vessels Of disease-breedin8 bacteria and
that thus erysipelas was caused in one instance
septicemia in another, tetanus in 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
h~A. Il
| sores to the farthest recesses of the human
body. bacteriolOgy discovered substances by
which the development Of these 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 trembling.
| Awaiting itself Of the safeguards indicated 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
| 1t may be mentioned that he sent to the great
discOverer a letter which was full Of thanks
and congratulations and which certainly marks
| the beginning OF new era for the practice of
surgery.
SCOPE OF THE REVOLUTION.
It goes without saying-snd i need not insist
on this pOint-that physicians appreciate bet
ter than Iaymen the scope of the great revolu-
ton which these new discoveries have brought
about in the art of Hippocrates. The import
ance of this revolution is indeed greater than
physicians themselves imagine, for in the fu-
| ture il will be necessary for every physician
| who desires to be really worthy of the name to
| have thorough working knowledge of biologi-
Cal chemistry and bacteriology. In fact, the mi
crOscope and bacteriolOgy must be as familiar
! to him as the stethOscope and pathology.
The new discovery of which all men are talk
ing now will make my meaning entirely clear.
do not desire to prOlOng this article by de-
scribing at length the recent works of DIR. Koch
| on the care of tuberculosis. On this subject
| the reader knows almost as much az do II.
however (and all the facts point in that direc-
tom, it Is necessary to use cultures, from
| which Is to be extracted by chemical process
matter secreted by the microbe with the object
! Of preparing the injection, through which the
| disappearance Of the nOxious microbes is to be
brought about, then the physician will be COM
PEELED either to become himself chemist and
| bacteriOlogist or to apply to another for the
necessary curative elements. II he adopts the
latter course he must resign himself to play a
| secondary role, which viii be humiliating to
his professional dignity.
| ADVICE TO PHYSICIANS.
II may be argued that the physician will be
able to receive the remedy from laboratory az
| today he receives the VAGINAL lymph or any