Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-04-18
DISEASES BRED TO ORDER,


A SCRAP OF AN OLD TOPER'S LIVER.
"A The object was not a pretty one, certainly,
though q whole temperance lecture by ITSELF
DR.. William Gray, bacteriologist of the Army
Medical Museum. had 1t on glass microscope
slide. To the naked eye it was not definable as
| anything in particular, and that was why the
| expert desired to make an enlarged photograph
| Of it, SO that its structure might be observed
satisfactorily. For this purpose he employed q
camera, with which q microscope was 50 in
geniously combined as to form picture mag
| nifed by several thousand dianeters.
aRuEsoME EXHIBIT.
Thus presented the scrap of toper's liver ex-
hibited q gruesome aspect to a STAR reporter.
Its substance was pervaded in all directions by
hbrous tissue that signifed disease, eventually
fatal-for the inebriate was dead-caused by
excessive alcohol. 1t would have been a most
appropriate exhibit by magic lantern at pro-
hibitlon lecture.
DR.. Gray had lots of similar photo-micro-
graphs Of diseased tissues at hand. Some
| showed fragments Of lungs attacked by con-
sumption, with the rod-shaped bacili imbedded
| in them, as if caught in the act Of gobbling the
material Of the air cells and surrounding them
| selves with Jumps Of dead matter called tuber-
eles. Other bits of different organs Of the
| body displayed in like fashion various other
| as 'bacteria"-among them those which pro-
| duce by feeding upon the parts-pneumonia
| dlphtheria, carbuncle, erysipelas and typhoid
fever. They were all unpleasantly suggestive
and occasioned imaginings that such parasites
| might possibly be located III the observers own
corpus proposition, however unlikely, yet
impossible to deny with certainty. There was
no picture of the bacterium that causes grip
because it has not, 80 far, been caught and
properly identified.
EFFECT OF BR1aHT's DISEASE.
One melancholy picture showed on an enor-
nous scale the small corpuscles in the kidneys,
the use Of which is to strain the poisonous ele-
ments OF the urine out Of the body, with their
fbrous coats so thickened as to impede this
process of nature, thus causing the poison to
| be absorbed into the system. That is Bright
| disease, and it had killed the person from whom
| the contribution depicted had been secured
| In fact, the expert Of the Army Medical Museum
passes his working hours literally in the midst
Of the debris Of disease. He had at least a
dozen Of the most horrible complaints known
| to humanity shut up in bottles-enough in each
receptacle to convey its particular sort Of in
| lection to an army-with all of which he kindly
offered to inoculate the reporter, II desired,
| within twenty minutes. 1t is part of his bust
ness, with scientific objects in view, to propa-
gate these physical woes on gelatine, duly
corked.
VARIOUS KINDS OF TUMoR.
On one Of the doctors tables was considers
| BILE heap Of fragments of various kinds Of
| tumors from as many different individuals. A
| piece of tumor, upon being obtained from q
Subject" living or dead, is first soaked in al
| cohol to take the water out OF it. Then it is
put into chloroform to remove the alcohol;
| after which it is placed in bath of melted
parafine. The latter fills up the tissue, making
| 1t solid that may be preserved indefinitely,
| and, when the fragment is cold and hard, it is
cut with q machine made for the purpose into
| extremely thin slices for photographiny.
For the making Of such photo photographs
| ordinary light will not serve, and there Is a
big mirror outside the museum building which
reflects q beam Of suns ray through a hole in
the outer wall into the dark room where the
camera is In order that the beam shall always
strike the hole the mirror is controlled by an
ingenious time instrument called ''heliostat."
SUNSHINE CAUGHT IN A HOLE.
Thus, at any hour Of the day, the beam shines
| through the hole and is projected directly into
| the camera itself, first passing through lens
| to concentrate it. The concentrated beam is
| more brilliant than the most powerful electric
| light, SO that the eye cannot look upon IT.
After passing through the lens it goes on
through another glass inclosing fluid SO con-
rays in the beam to pass. Light, it must be I'M
derstood, is made up Of rays by which one sees
| things and rays which accomplish chemical ac-
ton. Photography is a chemical process, and
therefore it is desirable for this purpose to pass
the concentrated beam through q sitter that
will stop the luminous rays and permit the
chemical ones to go ahead. They do 20 ahead,
for example, through the slide of glass to which
the scrap Of liver is attached, and entering the
tube of microscope, produce an enormously
magnifed image on Q sensitive plate in the
camera beyond.