Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-09-30
CURE FOR CHOLERA.
A Philadelphia Medical Professor
Finds a Drug He Claims
KNOCKS OUT THE LITTLE GERMS.
Hydro -Saphthol. Re Declares, Will Free the
World of the Plague.
RESULTS OF CAREFUL EXPERIMENTS

PHILADELPHIA, Sept ga communi-
cation appears in the current issue of the
Medical Nucs by DR.. David d. Stewart,
clinical lecturer on medicine in the Jeffer-
son Medical College, the Importance Of
which cannot be over-estimated if the
claims of the doctor and the result of labo-
ratory experiments are substantiated by
experimentation on man, and 1t would
appear from the facts advanced that these
claims are in a fair way to be realized.
The cause of cholera has been proved to
be & micro organism, the comma spirillum
discovered BY Koch This germ has its
seat in the lower part of the small bowel
ANY remedy that has a prompt effect on
this germ in doses less than sufficient to
injure the person taking it that can be car
ried to this part unchanged, there to exert
its effect, would probably invariably cure
cholera it used in time.
A Remedy Is Found at Last.
Various drugs have been suggested as
specifics. but none have before fulfilled
these conditions. From several years ex-
perience with hvdro-naphthol a benzolo de-
rivative, in bacterial intestinal affections,
DR.. Stewart reasoned that il might answer
u
tionS 1t was powerful antiseptic, quite
insoluble, harmless even in very large
doses, and, moreover. was related to car
bolic acid, to which cholera germs are espe-
cially susceptible.
DR.. Stewart, therefore, had experiments
instituted in the laboratory of hygiene of
the University of Pennsylvania to ascertain
the effect of hydro-naphthol on pure cult
ures of the comma spirillum. These exper-
iments demonstrated beyond question that
proportion as high as 1 to 900 has an un-
doubted inhibiting effect on the develop
ment of the comma spirillum, and that q
proportion OF about 1 to 1000 equal parts
aqueous solution and culture medium) ex-
erted promt germicidal action.
Not Very Large Dose Required.
As one part to Z, 600 equals about grain
TO the pint, or to the svoirdupois pound,
and as the contents of the small intestine,
when the latter in its entire length is thor
oughly distended, cannot amount to more
than nine or ten pints, it would follow that
under any condition but ten grains of hy-
dro-naphthol in solution would be required
to render the entire small intestine anti
septic against the comma spirillum, pre-
venting its development, while about 20
grains, under similar conditions, would DIS
infect the intestine, promptly killing any
spirilla present
As prophylactic against cholera when,
from exposure, the disease seems imminent,
hydro-naphthol should be taken in doses of
from eight to ten grains four times daily for
three or four lays, and subsequently in
from FIVE to eight grain doses with the
same frequency. This amount viii proba-
bly, at once exert an antiseptic effect, and
at the end OF "a hours be germicidaL In
early choleraic diarrhea it should be used
in ouantitias of len grains hourlv or evsn
halt hourly, until from one to two drains
have been taken. Here it may be, and,
indeed, by choice should be, combined with
an oniate