The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1891-07-14
WAR BETWEEN MICROBES.
4 Startling Theory Advanced by q Noted
KussiHn Physician.

4 Startling Theory Advanced by . Noted
| Russian Ply
the first impression OF the reader who
learns that Russian doctor is curing
diphther by inocuiat.ng the patient
with erys Pc as is that joke is being
2erpetrated The story sounds like that
Eastern tale OF tyrant who put out the
eyes of his subjects when they went
lame. on the theory that the greater
suffering would relieve the lesser. But
in these days of bactcriology it is I'M
safe to der de any new theory because
i. does not harmon 2. with preconceived
notions. DR.. Batchinsky says that be-
tween the microbe of diphiher and the
nicrobe of erysipelas there is an aniag-
| onism sort of irrepressible conflict
Where one fiourishes the other perishes
| and as the erysipelas microbe is the
| more powerful of the two il is the diph.
liberia microbe that goes tc the wall.
Whether microbe eats microbe. or the
higher bed insect dies of disgust at the
appearance on the scene of his meaner
feliow-creatura, does not appear. All
that he AYERS is that when he inocu-
lated dIphthertic 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
t!ents, and he advises his confreres to
try it whenever they have n severe case
of diphther.a We need hardly re-
mark that the faculty will require the
newspaper reports of DIR. Bitchinsky's
performances to be confirmed before
they adopt his practice. 1t is worth
looking into Even the stoutest 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 hall When DR..
Koch discovered. as he bel eyed. the
bacillus ofconsumption people rejoiced.
because they reckoned that now the
enemy was located il would be easy to
exterminate him. But this proved i'm
pract cable. Amy gas that was power
full enough to destroy the insect was
pretty sure to destroy the patient ~
well Quite a numbcr 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 left matters pretty |
much where they were. But il ti.:s Rus |
sian medico has really discovered .
bacillus that feeds upon other bacilli |
Or exteriIina:r, :ncm as the white man /
has exterminatcl the India an. by the |
mere force Of contact tn. faculty should /
surely test the discovery. Perhaps the |
eryspelas nae illus may br as fatal to /
the microbe of cSnsumpt on as he is to |
the microbe % diphther 4 Perhaps he /
may cultivate an appetite for other dis
ease germs. II SO, even allopaths will |
not desoise this new application of the
rule sun''if smyhJgS As matter Of
principle there would be nothing new
in the d scovery. Almost all med
jcines are pu!sons. That which saves
life in one dose causes death in another.
There is no more useful medicine in the
modern pharmacorG than arsenic:
yet three out OF five women who poison
do So with arsenic Strych-
nine Is terrible poison. but nux vomica
is q most valuable drug. In Greece
crimina we're sometimes forced to take
their own lives by drinking a cup Of
hellebore: We in our day cure many dis
nases Of the stomach W tn veratrum. II
> drug which destroys life under given
saves it in others, why may
not disease germ which is noxious in
one set of circumstances prove benefic-
al when the circumstances are changed
and the exhibition of the germ regulated
BY scientific principles? The last word
ans not been sa d in bacteriology.
Physicians who deride /. say that its
professors mistake the effect for the
,ause, and ascribe disease to animal Or
which proceed from the dis
Ease itself 1t may be So But the Law
world remembers that the progenitors
If these same physicians denied the cir
'ulation Of the blood to the last day OF
heir lives. We owe to Koch and his
'o-workers the knowledge of the fact OF
he existence OF microbes; what use
hey may be put to remains yet to be
Francisco Call
i