The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1896-02-15
Dr. Edison Announces a Remedy
in the Medica Record.
The RESULTS OF HIS TESTS
Many Sufferers From tuberculosis Dis.
charged as Cured, and All Cases
Show Improvement.


who was at one time commissioner of
health of the city and county of New
York, and who has been for years one
of the well known contributors to the
leading magazines, publishes an arti-
Gle today in the Medical Record-the
Lancet among the medical journals in
the United States-under the follow
ing title: A Rational Treatment for
Phthisis Pulmonails. together with
some notes on a new remedial solution"
Under this heading comes the descrip-
ton made by DR.. Edison, which. it is
held, may solve the hitherto unsolved
problem of the cure OF tuberculosis.
OF all the diseases which affiict the
human race, tuberculosis, in one form
or another, is the most fatal. Among
the people of nations, sufficiently CIV
ilized to keep records of deaths with
their cause, about one-third are charg
ed to tuberculosis. The most common
form of the disease is consumption, and
all men remember the sensation which
followed the announcement by Profess
sor Koch, that he hoped he had discov-
cred remedy. But tuberculosis kills
thousands of babies when IL attacks
them i'll the bowels, and it causes many
men to walk with crutches. The dis
ease is portean in character there is
scarcely part of the body it may not
invade, And it kills about one-third Of
all who die.
4 ORIGIN OF THE DISEASE.
In order to understand DR.. Edsons
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 the germs were
cultivated, as it was called. That is,
some germs from a diseased person
were transferred to some bouillon, Irish
moss, or some substance on which
they 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 rapidity. These cultivat-
ed germs were identical with those in
the diseased person, as was proven not
only by the experiments 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 have made many expert
ments. They found disinfectants that
would kill these germs. They found,
for example, that if a mixture of one
part of phenol or carbolic acid to three
thousands parts of water were flowed
over a colony of germs and left there
for "A hours, all these germs died. 1t
naturally occurred to them that if car
bolic acid would kill germs outside the
body, it would kill them inside, and the
conclusion that if they could kill all
the germs in the body, they could de-
stroy the cause of the disease and thus
cure the latter, was apparent.
The experiment was promptly tried
The result was that some of those in
whom these injections were put devel-
oped assesses at the point of injection.
Far. more, however, were poisoned by
the acid, and the idea had to be given
up. 1t was too fascinating. though.
Declat of Paris made mixture of one
of the acids to one hundred of water
and putting in a little salt continued
the injections, getting from them a
larger percentage of cures.
DR.. Edison had his attention directed
to this subject in the early part of 1895,
and he began the study of carbolic acid.
He found that Stadler. Merck, Brieger,
Sall1owski and other great chemists
agreed in declaring phenol was a nor
NAL constituent of the urine in man, the
horse and the COW. AS whatever is in
the urine comes from the blood after it
has been strained through the kidneys,
this meant phenol or carbolic acid was
always in the blood of man. Merck
figures were, in the urine of the person.
0.0O4 grammes of phenol to the litre
Salkowsh declared that during disease
this amount rose to 1876 grammes per
litre. In other words, nature herself
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 inject
ed into the blood without poisonous eff
fects.
In other words, DR.. Edison had the
problem before him about as follows:
Here is the substance, a known anti
septic which will kill the cultivated
germs; not only present in the blood at
all times, but increased by nature dur
ing disease; which all men say can not
be injected without poisoning the pa
tient. Why?
DR.. Edison answered his own question
by saying: Because we have not yet
found the right form or solution of it,
If we find it, we can inject"
He began the search and after long
and tedious experiment produced a
fluid which he called aseptolin. 1t is
perfectly colorless. looks like crystal
and smells strongly of carbolic acid. 1t
contains 2.75 per cent Of carbolic acid,
and to every ounce of it there is added
one-hundreth of a grain of a new salt