The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-02-08

son, VINO was at one time COMMISSION
er of health of the city and county of
New York, and who has been for years
one of the welI-known contributors of
the leading magazines, will publish an
article tomorrow in the Medical Rec
ord-the lancet" among the medical
journals in the United States-under
the following title: "a Rational
Treatment for Phthisis PulmonaIis,
Together with Some Notes on a New
Remedial Treatment" Under this
heading comes the description of a dis
coyery made by Dr.. Edison, which, it
is held may solve the hitherto IN
solved problem Of the cure of tubercu-
losis.
Of all the diseases which aff1ict the
human race tuberculosis, in one form
or another, is the most fatal Among
the people of nations sufficiently civil
lied to keep records of deaths with
charged to tuberculosis. The most
common form of the disease is
CONSUMPTION,
and all remember the sensation which
followed the announcement by Profess
sor Koch that he hoped he had dis
covered a remedy. But tuberculosis
kills thousands of babies when it at
tacks them in the bowels, and it causes
many men to walk with crutches- The
disease is protean in character; there
is scarcely a part of the body it may
not invade, and it kills about one
third of all those who die.
In order to understand DR.. Edson's
discovery it is necessary to remember
that Pasteur and Koch discovered and
established the fact that germ diseases
had as their ultimate cause the pres
ence in the body Of minute organisms,
called germs. microbes and the like.
1t was not long before these germs
were cultivated, as it was called that
is. some germs from diseased person
were transferred to some bouillon,
Irish moss, or some substance on
which they would grow; placed in a
machine where the temperature was
maintained At that of the blood, and
there allowed to increase and multiply
which they did with amazing rapid
ity. These cultivated germs were iden-
teal with those in the diseased person,
as was proved. not only by the expert
ments with guinea-pigs, but by the
fact that many. Of the scientific men
studying them have by accident been
innoculated With them and have died
as the result
Having the cultivated colonies, the
scientific men made many expert
ments They found disinfectants
would
KILL THESE GERMS.
They found, fer example, that if a
mixture of one part of phenol or car
bolfc acid to three thousand parts of
water were ffoated over a colony Of
germs and left there for tWenty-four
hours. all these germs died. 1t ma
turally occurred to them that if car
bolic acid would kill germs outside
the body it would kill them in
side. and the conclusion that If
they would kill all the germs in the
body, they could destroy the cause of
the disease and thus cure the latter,
was apparent. The experiment was
promptly tried The result was some
of those in whom these injections We're
put developed assesses at the point
of injection. Far more, however, We're
poisoned by the acid. and the idea
had to be given up. 1t was too fas-
cinating, though Declat of Paris
made a mixture of one of the acids
to one hundred of water and, putting
in a little salt, continued the 1nJec-
tions-getting from them larger per
centage of cures
DR.. Edison had his attention directed
to this subject in the early part OF
1895 and he
BEGAN THE STUDY
of carboIic acid. He found that Stad-
Ter. Merck, Brieger, Salkowski and
other great chemists agreed in declar-
inc phenol was a normal constituent of
the urine of man. the horse and the
COW. AS whatever is in the urine
comes from the blood after it has been
through the kidneys, this
meant phenol or carbolic acid was al
ways in the blood of man. Merck 5
figures were, in the urine of a healthy
person, 0.OO4 grams of phenOl to the
litre; Salkowski declared that during
disease this amount rose to 1.5575 grams
per litre. In other words nature her
self increased the amount of carbolic
acid in the blood over 1000 times as
soon as a person became sick. Yet,
all observers agree carbolic acid could
not be injected into the blood with
out poisonous effects. In other words,
DR.. Edison had
THE PROBLEM
before him about as follows: Here is a
substance, a known antiseptic which
will kill the cultivated germs; not only
present in the blood at all times, but
increased by nature during disease;
which all men say cannot be injected
without poisoning the patient, why?
DR.. Edison answered his own ques-
ton by saying: Because we have not
yet found the right form or solution
of it. If we find that, we can inject. -
He began the search and after a long
and tedious experiment produced a
fluid which he calls
ASEPTOLIN.
1t is perfectly colorless, looks like
crystal and smells strongly of car
bolic acid 1t contains 2.75 per cent.
of carbolic acid and to every ounce of
it there is added 1-100th of a grain of
a new salt discovered by Dr. Edison
during his work, a salt called pilocar-
n-phenyl-hydroxid The aseptolin
is injected under the skin and thus
directly into the blood. The dose is
100 ninirnS or drODS injected with a