The Logan County banner. [volume] (Logan, W. Va.) 1889-1903, 1890-11-27
WAR BETWEEN MICROBES.



Russian Physician
The ffst impression OF the reader who
learns that q Russian doctor is curing
diphther by inocalatihg the patient
with erys pelas is that joke is being
perpetrated- The story sounds like that
Eastern tale Of tyrant who put out the
eyes OF his subjects when they won't
lame. on the theory that the greater
suffering would relieve the lesser. But
in these days Of bacteriology it 10 un-
safe to derlde any new theory because
1t does not harmonize With preconcefveds
notions. DR.. Batchinsky says that be-
tween the microbe Of diphtheria and the
microbe OF erysipelas there is an antag.
onism. sort OF irrepressible conflict
Where ono fionrishes the other perishes,
and as the erysipelas microbe Is the
more powerful OF the two 1T is the diph-
iberia microbe 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. Ali
that he AYERS Is that when he inocu-
lated diphtheritic patient with the
poison OF the erysipelas 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 pa
tients, and he advises his confreres to
try 1t whenever they have a severe case
of diphtheria. We need hardly re-
mark that the faculty VIII require the
newspaper reports 81 DR.. Batchfnsky s
performances to be confirmsd before
they adopt his practice. 1t is worth
looking into Even the stontest be-
levers in the bacterial theory admit
that they are powerless to combat the
bacillus-to beard the lion in his den,
the Douglas in his hail.. When DIR,
Koch discovered, as he believed, the
bacillus ofconsumption people rejoiced,
because they reckoned that now the
enemy was located it would be easy to
exterminate him. But this proved i'm
| pract cable. Any gas that was power
full enough to destroy the insect was
pretty sure to destroy the patient as
we'll Quite q number of interesting
experiments were made with various
carbureted gases but no physician was
| bold enough to introduce them into the
| lungs in the face OF warnings that the
attempt would be fatal. Thus DR..
| Koch's discovery le.s matters pretty
much where they were. But IL this RUS
sian medico has really discovered Q
| bacillus that feeds upon other bacilli
or extermfnates them as the white man
has exterminated the Indian, by the
mere force Of contact, the faculty shoui d
surely test the discovery. Perhaps the
erysipelas bacillus may be as fatal to
the microbe OF consumpt on as he is to
the microbe Of diphtherea. Perhaps he
may cultivate an appetite for other dis
ease germs, If so, even @allopaths will
not despise this new application Of the
rule simihid sinsili6us As a matter Of
principle there would be nothing new
in the discovery. Almost all med
icines are peiseHs. That which saves
life in one dose causes death in another.
There is no more useful medicine In the
modern pharmacopee than arsenic;
yet three out Of five women who poison
themselves do SO with arsenic. Strych-
nine is q terrible poison, but nux vomica
is most valuable drug. In Greece
criminals we're sometimes forced to take
their own lives by drinking cup Of
hellebore; we in our day cure many dis
eases of the stomach W tn veratrum. II
a drug which destroys life under given
conditions saves 1t in others, why may
not disease germ which is noxious in
one set of circumstances prove benefic-
ial when the circumstances are changed
and the exhibition of the germ regulated
by scientific principles? The last word
has not been sad in bacteriology.
Physicians who deride 1t say that its
professors mistake the effect for the
cause, and ascribe disease to animal or
CARNATIONS which proceed from, the dis
ease itself 1t may be so. But the lay
world remembers that the progenitors
Of these same physicians denied the cir
culation 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. Francisco Call
Il