The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-09-28
THE PROGRESS OF MEDICINE.

On the OH lDSI. Ut. ETeuPTlck IeleIsOD,
chairman of the health department of the
Am erican Social Science Association. de-
livered at Saratoga, \. Y. a most interest
ing address on the recent progress of
surgery and medicine. Much of it was
new to mis- lay hearers. A cOnden sati on
hardly does it justice, but it is better than
nothing.
The recent progress Of bacteriology is
astonishing. Every one knows that micrcs-
copic germs known as bacteria, bacilli or
microbes inhabit the air we breathe and
the water we drink and fill our very bodies.
But 1t is only recently that it has been
ascertained that the microbes themselves
are not noxious; the mischief they do is
wrought by ptomaines which they secrete.
The germ killer is obsolete. What is
wanted now is a substance which will neu-
traliZe the poison the germ deposits. This
is one of the recent discoveries of Koch,
who was the first to describe the bacillus
of consumption. His lymph was not
success, but since its invention Koch has
discovered the ptOmalne made by the
bacillus. and scientific men are now work
ing on that. The essential principle of
the Dtomane is a substance to which the
name of aibumose has been given. Chem
lists are now dealing with that, and Dr.
Peterson thinks their prospects are hope
full.
1t is the study of bacteriology which has
led to the present antiseplic treatment OF
wounds or LESSONS. Until the existence Of
these minute life-destroyers was known
surgeons could not account for the ire
quency of blood poisoning and hospital
gangrene. We now know that these
dreadful diseases, together with cognate
maladies, such as erysipelas and lOckjaw,
are the work of microbes. Bow terrible
they are may be inferred from the fact
that in our Civil War just three times as
many soldiers were killed by microbes as
fell in battle. Now the strictest rules are
observed regarding the cleanliness of sur
gcal instruments and surgical dressings,
to prevent the production of bacteria
into a wound, and carbolic acid, iodoform,
corrosive sublimate and other germ des-
trOyers are freely employed with the same
object. One of the latest discoveries in
this branch of the study is that common
house flies are carriers of germs, especially
germs of cholera and tuberculosis.
DR.. Peterson dwells on the advance
which surgery has made in operations on
the trunk and the vital organs. A sur
| geon now sewers a diseased nerve and
! splices it together again like a rope; he
! cuts out piece of the bowel and sews up
the ends as he might do with a rubber
! hose; he excuses the spleen, kidney, larynx
and pelvic organs; he does not even shrink
! from using his knife on the brain or spina al
! cord. Guided by the new electrical endo-
scope he peers into the darkest reeesses of
| the body and determines with the eve the
extern; of LESSONS which old-school hysi-
clans only guessed at from the symptoms.
| Perhaps the most interesting of recent
| discoveries pertains to the administration
of organic extracts for the care of disease
! When old DR.. Brown-Sequard announced
that he Aad discovered the elixir of life,
people thought the great physician showed
signs OF old age. But experiment has
proved that he was on the track OF an in
valuable therapeutic agent. Doctors now
use the extract of pancreas for the relief
of diabetes, extract Of kidneys for renal
maladies, extract of the heart for disorders
of that organ, extract of the brain for
nervous affections. The extracts are made
from the organs of an OK or sheep, chopped
into small pieces, triturated with glyce-
rine, filtered, and administered with q
DypOueTulc syringe Ithm dtkdOlo cures
have lately been made in cases of cretinIsm
by the administration of the extract of the
thyroid gland of sheep. Several forms
of lmbecility and idiOcy are really pro-
duced by disease of the thyroid gland. 1t
is hoped that some of them may be found
amenable TO treatment with the extract.
DR.. Brown-Sequard stood upon the thresh-
old of a mansion which he was not per-
mitted to enter.
Medicine is so largely empirical, and SO
many practitioners have neither time nor
inclination 20 study, that the world is slow
in reaping the benefit of these discoveries.
But sooner or later they must be turned to
account. When they are humanity cannot
TOO munificently reward their benefactors.
When the day comes that insanity. con-
sumption and cancer cease to be the dis
grace of the profession. it will be time to
raise statues to physicians on pedestals as
high % those which are erected to soldiers,
/ statesmen. orators and poets.