The herald., 1896-01-04

% the greatest of medical agencies, Anti
epsis, even in the largest yiig-in hospitals
of London, Paris, erin, Vienna, St. Pet
ersburg d New York the disease is al
most unknown. Where, even as late as
ten years ago, fifty were lost, less than one
life is lost now.
l feel tonight as if were talking to sci
of people to whom could speak contlden-
tally, as if in my circle of intimates. and
say, what by the world at large nigh be
viewed with critical eye. Feeling so, lie
me venture TO tell you this: We're offered
today by some power the accomplishment
of one wish, think that would select the
destruction of the process by which alcohol
Is created, he germ that produces tobacco,
and forever stop the manufacture of III
detestahle cigar and the deadly cigarette
II this were denie1 me would chose the
power OF stamping out forever those con-
tegious diseases which fill our graves with
curly heads and dmped cheeks and our
homes wi h sorrow that knows no comfort
ing. | would destroy those terrors of the
household-croup, scarletina. diphtheria,
and the host of contagious disease whicn
go hand in h md with them. The first of
these wishes is hardly possibly of attain
ment i'll tie immediate fu ure. But what
of the second? Gentlemen, the way to its
accomplishment is open to every member
of our noble profession who stands before
me this evening.
Although by 10 means proven, yet it ap
pears that in the animal system there are
elements which furnish food for certain or
ganisms. styled baclli, which, being at
tackled by these, help them to flourish so
luXurlantiy that their multiplication ex-
cites o tremendous reaction in the econ
omy, which often ends in death, and that
these elements once being DESTROYED do
not often reproduce themselves, and he re-
currrnce of "A s'IcceSs sfu invasion by that
particular bacilli is not again possible.
Ihis Is the theory of the present inmu-
niZatlon advanced by means OF diphthe
riatlc antitoXine and other anti-infectious
rem, dies. How else can we account for
the immunity secured against second at
tacks from the occurrence of one invasion
by smallpox, varlcella, whooping-cpugh,
scarietina, measles, and other contagious
diseases
AT this very moment we read that DR..
Marmoreck, an Australian. and a devo ed
ldborer in that beehive of scientific re-
search, the Pasteur Institute of Paris, has
discovered recently ''serum cure' for
erysip las, puerperal fever, and all dis
eases due to the streptococus microbe. But
this is not the only way in which d seases
have been checked. In certain ma ladies
the pabulum of diseased germs, while not
destroyed beyond the power of reproduct-
ion by one attack of disorder, ap-
pears to be to a great extent damaged
).
Thus we see the salts of mercu greatly
limiting the development of "lu rs venera,''
and the bark of the chinchona tree to a
certain extent controlling that curse of our
country, malaria. And yet, strange as it
may appear to you, of the so-called spe-
ciflcs in medicine, these two stand entirely
alone.
have lauded to you the possibilities and
the rewards of medicine. l have defined
to you my conception of earthly rewards Z;
let me now test your sympathy with my
views by putting to each of you, in sober
earnest. this question: Which would you
prefer to be, not during the insignificant
period of two or three decades C llled your
lifetime, but in that posthumous time
which is called history. The soldier who,
even in ftnse of his country and her
supposed rights, has won victories, filling
liouseho DIS with sorrow and inflicting the
nor ors OF war upon ma ION, or the man
who has blotted out from the list of dis
eases that terror of the nursery, scarlet
fever. which has in the past created, and
. is now creating, such havoc in our house,
holds. Would you prefer to be the cres tor
of the wonder of art, the Angeus, which
tor ages W IL continue to give real pleasure
to thousands of people, or the man Roux,
who for all time taxes from his fellow
travellers along the painful pathway of fe,
,hat terrible scourge called diphtheria
Would you prefer to receive The we'll de.
served rewards which have fallen to the
greatest capt ain of our ii ne, Won Moltke,
or those which await Kock, if the cure of
Tuberculosis becomes practicable through
his efforts?
The motto coming down from mytho-
logical times, AID usually inscribed o.
&C denies IF medicine, in plain words il
this, "Men most nearly resemble the gods
when they afford health to their fellow