The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1893-07-06

Recent studies have shown. A. most
educated people we'll know to-day. that
this whole class of formidable disease j.
caused hv minute organisms which eater
the body from without. and. each after
il kind. poison or Kill. 1t Is long and
sinister list. with consumption or tubrr-
culo>- at the head. In it, train follow
pneumonia. diphtheria. scarlet fever. ~
phoid fever, cholera, small poN. measles,
I tVhpl. fever, yellow fever. malaria. aud
moie of the dcvili,h brood,
Twelve year, ago We knew practically
nothing of these invisible enemies. the
pathogenic germs which nevertheless car
ricd of prrmaturely and under untol
suffering large part of The human race.
To-tiay some n them are present at the
roll-call in every we'll furnished bacterial
laboratory; their pedigrees. their lark
ing places, and their habits are ~ dis
tinctlv matters of record as are those of
larger criminals in >tatelier prison.
houses. To-day we know something of
the stories of nearly all Of them, and of
many how they produce their dire effects
in the body: we know the conditions I'M
der which they thrive: We know how,
out side of the body at least. they can be
killed. Now and again it has seemed As
if the veil were parting. and We could
catch glimpses of time not far of
when we shall be able to battle with
these intruderS, even in the body, when
their rayages are already under way.
But IA yet the great practical result of
this decade of discovery lies not 30
much in the power which we have ac-
quired to cure, as in the power to pre-
vent bacterial disease. We have learned
that in "A large number of bacterial dis
eases the melting germs have no breed
places outside the bodies of those men
and animals which are their victims, and
that il all materials thro Nn of from
these be at once destroyed by heat, by
fire. by chemicals. or i'll any other way.
all danger of transmission Is removed.
In regard to such diseases. then. rs
typhoid fever, cholera diphtheria and in
large measure the same is true of CON
sumption and pneumonia, our point of
view has entirely changed. They are
not inevitable accidents, even under the
complex and IN many ways unfavOrable
conditions of life in crowded commune
ties. When to-day we hear that this or
that useful citizen has fallen by the way,
stricken with typhoid fever, or when
diphthera claims the light of the house
hold, we know that Ignorance or care
lessness. be it private or official, is alone
to blame. We cannot always, we can
not often trace the fault, so complex
are the conditions of modern life 1t
may be the milk dispenser, it may be an
inefficient street-cleaner. it may be a
polluted water supply. or the filthy fol-
Is of trailing skirts al ny the streets,
which has brought the germs to the
victim. They are sown by indiscretion
and fostered away by ignorance and
neglect. Diphtheria claims yearly in this
land its hundreds of thousands of child
victims uselessly sacrificed on the affairs
of public apathy or private Incidence.
\ conservative comparison and estimate
shows that in the State of Michigan
alone, during the three years lssG-ss,
at least 10000 cases of diphthcria ere
probably prevented. and more than
100 lives saved, by intelligent isolation
and dsnfection.- Dr.. I. NtchcH Prud-
deH in JHae century,.