The World. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1891-1896, 1892-01-01
The New science Z,

4
In brief. It Is bacteriology--th key
whereby man may In time unlock ap-
parently all the mysteries of matter.
DR.. Armand Ruffer writes in The Nine
teenth Century Of some Of the things the
new science has already accomplished
for us in the field of preventive medi.
cine.
The establishing Of the foundation
principles Of this new ology required
the researches Of specialists in all the
natural sciences. But like every other
branch Of science, tho discovery of mi
crobes antedated by centuries the prac.
tical application Of the knowledge.
More than go years ago i Jesuit father.
Athanasius Kircherus, saw under his
microscope living and moving creatures
in blood. vinegar. cheese and other sub
tances. In 1875 another microscopist
saw and accurately described microbes
in many kinds of organic matter. Med
ical cranks Of the day even limited that
infectious diseases might be due to these
microbes or germs which were found to
swarm in such numbers in organic
products.
Now mark You! No sooner was this
theory propounded than wise man set
in and laughed it to scorn in the most
sarcastic manner, impaled it on his pen
point as the craziests cranxiest idea
brain Of man had ever devised. The
poor little budding theory was unable
to withstand the attack Of scientific rid.
icule. and hid itself in the darkness. tc
be dug up and exalted nearly 200 years
later as the proudest triumph Of scien-
tific discovery in the last half of the
Nineteenth century. The moral you
can pick out for yourself.
DR.. Ruffer points out some of the bene-
fetal results already accruing to medi-
cine from bacteriology. Pasteur's work
in hydrophobia is one. DR. Joseph Lis
ter's wonderful achievements in anti
septic dressings and surgery constitute
another. Antiseptic dressings prevent
blood poisoning, ard IN some fields of
surgery the mortality from this cause
has been decreased from 10 per cent. to
less than l per cent. By cultivating the
anthrax bacillus and inoculating cattle
this dread disease bids fair in time to be
stamped cut Pasteur has saved the
makers of wine and beer enormous
sums by showing them how to manage
the fermentation of these drinks prop
erly. All the plaques that rayage the
herds and hocks of domestic animals
will doubtless in time be annihilated
through preventive inoculation, as one
Of the beneicent results of the wonder
full science Of bacteriology. To it also
is due chemical action.
Greater even than this is the field that
opens before the miscroscopist. BAG
teriologists are now on fair road to
discovering and isolating the microbe of
leprosy. Ii there can be incubation for
this, as there is good reason to think
there may be, then one of the terrors Of
5000 years viii be driven from among
mankind. The same will be the case,
too, with diphtheria, typhoid and scarlet
fever and every other infectious physical
disorder known to man. All these can
be stamped out from among mankind.
Talk of miracles!
The researches on the chemical substances
secreted by micro-organisms might also have
interested the reader, but the question is too
wide to be more than mentioned here. Already,
however, there are indications 20 show that In
short time bacteriologists will have discoy-
cred ways OF curing diphtheria with methods
based on strictly scientific principles.
lne the preceding. lines it has been proved
that bacteriology is the direct outcome, not OF
one branch of knowledge only, but of all the
divisions Of natural science, biology chemistry
and Others But during its growth even 1t
shed the greatest light on the sciences Of which
II Is an offsheot. The first step in bacteriology
was made through chemical Investigations;
but on the other hand, see what the new
science has done for chemistry 1t has solved
for chemists some Of the chief problems con-
nected with patrefaction and fermentation;
problems which were previously In state Of
hopeless obscurity. Through bacteriology
chemists have learned that each kind Of spe-
cdig fermentation Is due to specific micro
organism, which placed under definite condi-
lions produces definite chemical substances.
and in this manner hacteri0lngists have dis
covered substances the existence Of which
chemists did nat even suspect