Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-02-21
4ailu Heaarhrs journal,
DOCTORS hight.
Continued from 1st page /

conditions at the approach of which the
medical man OF 20 years ago stood aghast,
and with folded hands, or worse, aclsnowl-
eyed his utter heiplessness as to diagnosis
or treatment; which, today, are known to
the merest tyro of our art and successfullv
treated by the competent surgeon.
1t would be instructive, and I would
like to recall to your minds, step bv stap
the achievements which have been steadily
and inevitably elevating that which WAC
but recently an art or branded as an inex-
act science, to place OF honor and dis-
tinction among the sciences. Retrosnec-
tive mGditations concerning our art are
interesting and instructive, but with our
pathway illumined by the brilliant light
of past achievements, let ds turn our
steps toward the more glorious future
which awaits u.s. Experience Of the past
shows that all science advances through
the channels of discoveries and improve
ments which mark cpochs in its history
and the progress Of medicine is no excep-
ton Scientific medicine depends upon
the collection of facts and complete TN
Outstanding of their relations. DR.. John
son has said that :" the hardest thing in the
world, sir, is to get possession Of q fact. -
There are, | think, two reasons, at
least, why this is true, and why SO few
valuable discoveries are made; the one is
that most observers report that which they
hope may be or think to be, rot what Is !;
the other is that but few are able to recor-
nizc fact when they see it, Long be-
fore Juan Ponce de Leon went in quest of
IL, f., 10,
mankind has been experimenting, in a
dcsultory way, to find specific remedies
which would aDtagonze diseased condi-
tons and restore to health organs and
tissues thereby rendered useless. That
but little has been accomplished in this
line is shown by the remark of Rossbach
when he says there have been discovered
but four remedies for three diseases
Happily, however, we today find our
selves standing on different ground.
There have been at work for many years
patient, painstaking, honest, scientific
observers, studying the structure the
habits, and the products of certain micro
organisms; experimentation ,has been
made on the lower animals with these
bacteria and their products; the same
principles which have elevated the other
sciences to their exalted positions, have
been applied, and as a result we are ON the
threshold of discoveries which bid fair to
mark an epoch and reyolutionize the
management of infectious diseases.
have thought it might be interesting, /
trust it may be instructive and possibly
profitable, to review, in cursOry man
ner, what is being done and what is
promised in the line of rendering the
human family immune to disease.
Very many years ago it was recognized
that in certain infectiye diseases one at
tack exempted the individual from an
other While no very regular laws APP
pcared to govern this Immunity flor there
is wide difference in the different species
as to susceptibility as there is also in indi-
viduals), yet il was so much a law that
the Turks very early resorted to the in
coculation of small poX matter, as regular
practice, TO produce not only milder but
protective attack,
Immunity is either natural or acquired.
Some individuals are naturally immune
to certain diseases Acquired immunity
may be either accidental or artificial, and
whether acquired by the one or the other
cause renders the individual safe from a
subsequent attack 1t is nearly 100 years
ago that Jenncr announced his discovery
that by the incubation of lymph from
animals suffering from what was known
as COW box, the individual would b.
rendered immune to the infection of small
pox. For all this discovery has saved
hundreds of thousands of human lives and
has been i'm constant use for so many
wears, vet it was not scientifically under
stood until Pasteur, in 1880, developed his
discoveries of the protective incubation
of animals.
He found that the culture of bacili of
chicken cholera, whom attenuated, lost
some of their virulence, and that when
these attenuated bacilli were used to in
oculate well chickens the disease was much
modified and that the chickens thus
dieased were rendered immune against the
more virulcnt bacilli
In 1887. Salmon and Smith brought out
the fact that bacterial products, separated
from the micro-organisms themselves, nau
the same power when inoculated, to I'M
munize the individual as the living eul-
ture. 1t was also discovered about TINS
time, that the blood of Il healthy organ
ism possessed bactericide properties. II
was further shown that this bacterlclue
power is due to certain albuminolds when
are dissolved in blood serum, and that the
serum of different classes of animals shows
different hactericide energy.
From these facts, obtained by long
line of experiments on living animals,
and patient, painstaking study OF the re-
suits, Behring was able to establish the
fact and formulate his law, viz nat
the blood and blood serum OF an lndi-
vidual which has been artificiaiiy I'M
munized against a certain infectious
disease may be transferred into another
individual with the effect to render the
latter also immune, no matter how sus-
ceptible this animal is to the disease IN
question
1t was also shown by series OF expert
mcnts, that the blood serum OF lhdf
viduals, naturally immune against GER
tain disease, although their blood was
resistant, yet it does not have any iui-
muni2ing power for others. Ana this
shows that the immunizing agent Is not
substance produced by nature IN the
animal, but rather the result OF organ
chemism, to which the impulse must ne
given by introduction of the correspond
ing poison +"