The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-12-28
Progress in Bacteriology

believe" said NJ. Pasteur many years
ago, "that we shall one day rid the world
of all diseases which are caused by
germs" He has done much to prove his
faith by his works, and so have others
who are laboriug in the same field. The
latest achievement in that direction. the
disco very of antitoXine, appears to ne
one Of the most important yet made
There are indu bitsble reports from
European hospitals, showing that the
great claims at first made for 1t were
not exaggerated. The use Of it has cured
large proportion OF cases OF dlphtherla,
and insured immunity against the dis
ease in Others Failures there have been,
doubtless. But comparison of the
death rate among those treated with IL
| with that among those not treated with
| it but in all other respects similarly
| affected satisfactorily demonstrates the
value of the new remedy. And the dis
ease thus dealt with is one of the most
destructive. 1t has long been SO famil-
| lar to us that mention Of it's name arous-
es no such horror as that OF Asiatic
| cholera or smallpox OF yellow fever. Yet
| its ravages in this and most civilized
countries, are incomparably greater than
| those of the three put together Only
| two OF three diseases endemic here sur
| pass it in mum her of victims. A reason
| ably sure cure for or prophylactic against
! it will be one of the most benet1cent In
ventions of modern medicine. Ihere
seems to be reason to believe, also, that
the recently devised system of inocula-
| ton against Asiatic cholera will be pro-
duct:ve of good. 1t was pretty carefully
| tested this last fall in India, and the
results have now been published. The
| disease was accidentally introduced into
the Gaya Jail, where there were 433 prls-
oners. Of these 215 were inooulated.
| The remaining 216 were not. All were
equally exposed, and, apart from moe
ulation, were treated exactly aHke.
| During the first five days after lnocula-
ton no material difference between the
| two classes was observed. Among the
| inoculated there were five cases of cholera
and four deaths; among the others, seven
cases and Ave deaths. The next three
DAYS, the sixth, seventh and eighth after
incubation, showed some contrast.
"A
cases and one death; among the others
five cases and three deaths. But after
| the eighth day the contrast was most
marked. Among the inoculated there Is
not single case of chole1a, while
among the non-inoculated there were
eight cases and two deaths. 1t will be
| remem bered that DR.. Haffkine said the
incubation would only be fully operative
| after about ten days. The actual results
are two days better than he claimed. 1t
would be premature to say that an in
| falllble preventive against cholera has
vet been discovered; but certainly this
| showing is significant.
A third series of researches Ill bacter-
| iology has marked the present year.
| Hitherto no specific bacillus has been dis
covered in the iyInph of COW pox or
small pox, and the failure to find 1T has
raised some doubts concerning the valid
ity of the germ theory itself. An elab-
crate series of experiments has convinced
| DR.. Klein that such bacillus exists. and
| may be found if the lymh be examined
at the proper time. But at the Time
when the lymph is taken for purposes of
vaccination, the bacilli have already per-
| ished in the process of sporulation1
| Hence the lymph is found to contain
no bacilli, but only spores. DIR. Klein be-
| Iieyes he has discovered the actual
bacillus, but his attempts to cultivate it
have not vet succeeded. 1t is reasonable
| to expect. however, that these attempts
| will one day be successful, and the
hacilli of smallpox, as are those OF other
communica BILE diseases, will be cultlvat-
| ed in an artificial medium, thus Kidding
| vaccination of the most serious obJec-
tions now urged against tn. Y.