Evening star., 1895-05-14
FUTURE OF ANTI-TOXINE.

war, and the west by black.
FUTURE OF ANTI-TOXINE.
InOculation With Animal Fluids for q
Whole Series OF Diseases.
From the London Hospital.
Recent developments IL therapeutics are
beginning to make people ask in all serious
ness where it is all to end. We have long
been accustomed to vaccination, and while
this remained an isolated fact. difficult as
it might be to understand how It could
possibly operate, at any rate it was a small
matter. was got over IN infancy, and was
soon forgotten. People, however, look on
the matter from rather a different stand
point when they find themselves threatened
with inoculation with animal fluids for the
treatment Of a whole series of diseases.
Hydrophob:a, tuberculosis, tetanus. cholera,
dphther!a, smallpox, are among the in
fective diseases for the prophylaxis or
treatment of which inoculations have re-
Gently been practiced; while among other
maladies for which animal Juices have been
injected may be mentioned myXoedenia,
cretiniSm, diabetes. various forms of de-
bility and a whole crowd OF skin diseases.
No excuse, then, is needed for the anxiety
which is felt as to the future of this line
Of treatment. Average man has consider
able confidence in his stomach as a selec-
tive agent. He knows well enough that he.
in common with many other animals, con-
stantly puts into that long suffering organ
many things which must somewhat as
tonish its mucous membrane. but he sees
and, if he does not unde. stand. he knows by
experience that what with stomach, and
liver, and glands. the body does somehow
manage to manufacture a standard blood.
Notwithstanding the rubbish on which ii IS
nourished, and man. therefore, not without
reason. trusts greatly to his stomach. Sc
rum therapeutics, however, ere independent
of the limitations imposed by a mans d.
gestive capacity. The drug. whatever IT
may be. goes straight into the blood
The Doctors Responsibility.
All the locks and bars imposed by nature
to keep the blood in its normal state are
evaded by the doctor with a syringe; and
the whole digestive tract, with its depend
ent glands stands on guard in vain, when
anti-toxin serum slips in by the back door.
via the subcutaneous tissues. IL truth this
is a serious matter, and imposes on the doc
tor far heavier responsibility than ever
attended those simple measures which,
after all, were fiaally subjected to the ar
bitrat:on of the stomach. 1t mus. be con-
fessed that in regard to serum therapeu-
tiss large superstructure is being raised
upon comparatively small basis; for
large are the number of observations,
and positive as may be the evidence that
the serum of certain animals under the in
fiuence of certain poisons Is protective
against the products brewed by certain or
ganisms. we are sadly in the dark to the
method by which this naturalization or
immunizatioE, as 1t is called Is produced.
Pathology Is in this matte. considerably
ahead of therapeutics. and in enieavorfng
to estimate III what direction future de-
velopments should be hoped for we may
be excused bringing to bear some dash of
that particular form of the scientific imag-
ination which goes by the name of COM
mon sense. We do not wish--no one wishes
to be tied down to what is likely: but II
we are to grope at all from the point at
which we stand. the question. What is
likely?" must er ter into our calculations.
A Poison of Its own.
Now. all analogy suggests that the
pathologists are right in saying that each
microbe brews, maybe as a waste product.
a poison Of its own. All our vegetable
drugs are but illustrations Of the fact that
each form of life tends to grow a product
of its own. and We can we'll believe that
each pathugenic organism produces a
something which by its action on the body
causes the symptoms Of its own disease.
The other side of the question, however
is not so simple; it is by no means likely
that one boiy saould be able to brew all
kinds of different chemical products so as
to be able TO neusralize the various toxins
produced by the infinite range of patho-
genie organ.sms to whose attacks man Is
exposed. Mans body would indeed be e
sort of ma gic bottle IL. at the word Of
command. it could produce all these vari-
oUs compounds.
The products which. result from cell ac-
tiyity are very numerous. possibly even
more numer ous than chemists who analyzs
them are willing 10 admit, for, after all
what the chemist finds is rather the stun
that living tissue turns into when dead than
what it actually is while carrying on the
processes OF l.io; but, numerous as they may
be there Is no rrcof that all sorts of Gif-
ferent chemical antidotes can be produced
by the body to neutraliZe the various toxic
substances elaborated by microbe life. It
seems imp ossiule then to admit that final
;ty will h:.ve been reached when an anti
toxin has been discovered for each possible
toxin for so far as probability goes, IL
seems much more likely, If such a phrase
Is admissible that in the production of all
these anti-toXins there must be some COM
mon factor some one substance on which
the virtue all depends, and the probabilities
are very great that this one substance is
but an excess of seme protective material
normal to health, rather than something
fresh formed in response to the irritation
of so mlny different pathogenic toxins.
Where the Best Horses Arc Found.
From the Century Magazine.
The best driving and carriage horses come,
I think, from Maine and Vermont, being
tougher as rule, than the Kentucky
horses, and no less intelligent High-step-
perg for the most part are natives of Maine
or of Canada. Western horses, especially
those from Indiana, Iowa and Ohio, are
corn fed and soft. and they often lack that
quality" which the Kentucky horses de-
rive from the thoroughbred strain in their
blood The best huuters-pefhaps the best
combination saddle and harness horses
come from the Genesee Valley, where there
Is a great deal of good blood and where
+;,,rr sp,