Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1893-04-08
ADVANCE IN MEDICINE
REMARKABLE PROGRESS MADE TO
PREVENT DISEASES.

authority in which il was fast bound for
centuries, said DR. Osler, "medicine has
progressed with extraordinary rapidity, Il
and even within the present generation
has undergone complete revolution
The advance has been In three directions
First. In the prevention OF disease. A
study OF the conditions under which cpl
denies develop has led to the important
work Of sanitary science. For fifty |
years the watchword of the profession |
In this matter has been cleanliness: and |
clean streets. good drains and pure wa |
ter have in many towns reduced the |
mortality from certain diseases 90 per |
cent
In this department certainly medi- |
cine has achieved its greatest victories
Ii Is thought full of encouragement
TO know that such diseases as typhoid
fever and diphtheria may ultimately be
stamped out and be as rare among us rs
leprosy and smallpox. In this work the
profession requires and can often obtain
the intelligent cooperation Of city au-
thorities and the public. People scarce
ly understand how much has already
been done, nor do they yet appreciate
the possibilities Of preventive medicine
PLbiLC kNOWI-EDGE-
The second great advance which
medicine has made relates to the knowl-
edge which has been gained of the agents
producing diseases. Dating from the
studies on fermentation by Pasteur, and
the early work Ct Lister, we have gradu-
ally learned to recognize the importance
of the structures known as bacteria,
which has revolutionized the practice of
surgery and gynecology. Today surgery
is a new art, and hundreds now recover
after operations from which hundreds
previously died. The information which
we now have ON these subjects has been
slowly and painfully acquired, here a
little and there little; but the outcome
Of 1t all is that as clean streets and good
drains and pure water mean municipal
health, so absolute cleanliness and alb
sence Of contamination mean in great
part freedom from infection.
so universally present art the infect
i've agents, particularly of suppuration
that it is only by the most scrupulou
care that the infection Of wounds can b
prevented, and 1t is now generally nc
knowledged that the highest type of thi
antisep ticism is obtained, not by tn
use of various solutions which destro
the germs, but by such measures Of clean
illness as effectually prevent the possibil
ity of their presence.
THE researches showing the relatio
of special microscopic organisms to spec
ial diseases are likely TO lead to the mos
important results. The cultivation 3
the germs of disease outside of the bod
has enabled us to study the products c
their growth and in several instance
from them to obtain materials which
when injected into an animal. act as
sort Of vaccine against the disease itseli
The hope of obtaining in some Of tn
most important diseases vaccines whic
VIII hear the same relation TO them a
ordinary vaccine to smallpox is yer
reasonable and likely ere long to be rea
lied. In another direction, too, tn
studies of Koch have shown that in I'll
growth of these bacilli materials are oil
tanned which may act most powerful
upon the body and attack the element
Of the disease itself His discovery ,
the action of the product of the growt
of the tubercle bacilli upon tuberculor
tissue ranks rs one Of the most remarl
able of late years.
CHANCES OF LIVING ARE BETTER
But hear the householder say: "A
that Is very well. but Tommy gets I'll
measles and Mary has the mumps an
Susie gets the whooping cough just
my grandmother tells me her childre
had fifty years ago. My doctors bill
are possibly a little larger than wei
fathers and know his drug bill coul
not have been as heavy as mine for I'll
last quarter. This may be perfect
true. for the millennium has not yet com
but 1t is perfectly true that today Mr.
Householders risks have been reduced
a minimum in the necessary domest
emergencies, and her childrens chanc
Of reaching maturity have been emo
mously enhanced.
The third great advance has been Il
diffusion in the profession and anon
the public of more rational ideas upC
the treatment of disease Dieting III
nursing have supplanted in great pal
bleeding and physicking. We know IA,
that majority of febrile elections ru
definite course unIiiinenced by drug
We recogn!Z3-iaily the great fact thu
oise:atsse Is only a modification of the mo-
maj processes Of health. and that thei
Is natural tendency to recover. w
cannot claim in the medicinal treatmer
Of disease TO have made great positiy
advances, still we have learned not I
do what we did is for the poor patient
great gain. The past half centur
has placed only half dozen absolutel
indispensable drugs which must be use
by all Unfortunately who practice tn
healing art.
"A desire TO take medicine is perhaT
the great feature which distinguish
man from other animals. Why this al
petite should have developed, how
could have grown to its present dinner
sions, what it will ultimately reach, ar
interesting problems too deep for me
Some Of the brightest hopes of hI
mainly are with the medical profession
Disease will always be with us, but "
may look forward confidently to III
time when epidemics shall be no NOR,
when typhoid shall be as rare as typhr
and tuberculosis as leprosy. Man, ma
urSlly q transgresser daily, both in IL
norance and deliberately breaking tn
Laws Of health, will always need do
tors, but the great get mp Of preyentab
diseases will disappear The progres
viii be gradual What has been don
is but an earnest Of the things that sha
be done. Amid many disappointment
We must not be impatient ScienC