The morning times., 1896-07-04
Will Heal All Wounds
Save Those Of Love
New Serum Discovered That Will
Check Typhoid and Make
Scarlet Fever Light.
Copyright, 1860

| nifD.
Il go to EurtEc.'' said he, Ito see the
writer OF this letter. This tells me that
some fascinating experiments are teins
made In the lice OF disease pIeventatives,
| aud l am going over to Investigate. to
| study them. Not that mere discoveries
come from the cid word tEan are generated
in the new, but simply that, from a union
| OF experiment and brains. the world IN
| both SIDES OF the water is bound TO benefit
1 II am asked what viii be the next i'm
portant step in medicine, now that anti
| toxine banlshes diEltheria and the Pasteur
| cure has settled hydrorhotia. i hesitate
| 10 answer that question, because Of a Iby-
sician's great fear. sensationalism. We
believe things long tefOre we speak them;
| and know them months beftre we publish
them. We must follow orr theories with
| cures aud cures with words. II We
| work in an oppt site dire ctos we lay our
selves open 10 the term QGack; and that is
| word that bows the head Of d reputable
| phy sician in shadow.
CURING TYPHOID.
But here are experiments now going
| on and SO far perfected that they can be
| voiced. Wonderful things that would ill
| the world with thanksgiving were it not
for the recent frequency or great discny-
| cries. things that are today more a Cause
| for thank ulness than was the Jenner dis
| covery OF smallpox virus. Smallpox comes
only as an epidemic at worst. These ether
| diseases are an ever-prescnt source Of men
ace.
The discovery OF which ] am thinking
is the new serum for the prevention and
healing OF typhoid. For years interest ing
experiments have been going On abroad to
find If typhoid fever, that dread Of rich
and poor alike, could not be taken in its
first stages and cured. Peing a germ dis
ease, / I must exist before il can be cured,
and there is no Threatening with it. When
doctoris called, IL is typhoid Or it is not.
Typhoid, as every layman knows, is a
fever that RACES for three weeks. There is
crisis-and the patient dies. IT ne GET
well he is at least dead to the world for
three months, which is a eoOGly EoTtion OF
mans life.
-Now, with the typhoid s,rum an in
iectiou is made into the tissues and the
fever subsidies. In -four days there is a
normal temperature and, after treat
ment Of toncs and care, the patient is
well again. So much is settled.
But in the discovery of strum cures the
mere kIo irage or the fact that certain
virus will ,ounteraCt certain disease is but
a small thing. 1t is the crudes st kind OF Con
Girmatiou- II is no more than knowing
that clay will bCiid u house. The ooustruc-
iioo or the bricks, the placing OF them,
Tie knowledge of practical building are al
necessary besides the finer arts of The arci,i-
tect anl decorator.
so with L newly discovered virus EN
pesinents must be made upon animals ex-
pertinent after experiment. The greatest
care must be used in the choice OF the ami
mai. II must be one that ca be ia ken as "A
prototype of the human frame. Then the
experiment must he conducted painsta king
ly aud cautiously until the exa ct results are
obtained. Small profit would a new serum
be If il were used without exactness. More
patients would die from its strength than
recovered from its ncutralizing effects.
THE EXPERIMENT.
THE way OF Conducting experiments
is interesting TO any mind that follows
later-day medical science The expert
nent is usually made upon u sheep, as
being gentle and easily managed ami
NAL. The animal is made sick with the
disease by injecting the tOxine OF the
poison.
Then the serum is placed in the tissues
Four or five different animals are treated
at the 81 me time, and when ore RECEIVERS
quickly, note is taken OF the amount OF
serum administered. SO many cent?
grammes OF serum for so many pounds
of flesh is put down as an established
rule. II a lamb weighing twenty pounds
can stapd ten centigrammes Of the ty-
phoid serum. child weighing forty pounds
ought To stand twice as much That
reasoning But one experiment does
not make rule any more than -s0e
swallow makes Il summer. and we must
keep on until the doses are esta blished
Us immutably as the laws of the Medes |
and PersiaDs. That has been done with
smallpox and d:plitheria- And It will
snun lie done With typhoid
Another new disease VIC are going to
cure is scarlet fever There is a serum |
that is checking that disease, and inside
a year 1t may he advertised i'll the drug
stores As coming from the board of
health as anti-toxine is now. In max
ing these infectious We boil the syringe |
and heat the needle in an alcohol flame
Ia destroy germs. Think OF that, you
who stick needle in your face as care
lrssly as you pin Your crayat |
In these serums none G-e permanent, |
but that is not expected. Take anti-tox- 1
inc. person exposed to diphtheria can |
be injected with the serum and viii escape
the disease altoge.her-if he knows he has |
been exposed. If he contracts it without |
knowing it he can be injected with the |
antitoxine. but he will be ill four or |
i've days from the poison already in the |
system. 1t is not possible with any of the |
new serums tn inoculatc permanently once |
and for all, as with smallpox, or even
for term Of years. They do not remain |
in the system.
SUMMER DlSCONERlES.
You ask me how far medical science |
will 60 this simmer. To that any doctor |
will say that he believes it has reached |
its limit. He finds himself SO as,ountled |
year after year with the new things lie |
discovers himself and finds out from ot,I- |
ers that at each new discovery he throws |
up his hands and says: Surely there can |
be nothing else Yet deep in his mind |
he knnws there is yet more to Come.
.fTn n nrnfpSsiOnol of Ntb b,ar 4
sions it is thought great pity that the new |
discoveries should come from abroad. But |
to physician this does not present itself |
in this way. The new discovery does not |
come from abroad. does not come from |
Paris, nor Berlin, nor Vienna. 1t comes |
from the minds of the men who are there.
Europe is the experimental ground of the |
ground. There they meet and study as
they cannot meet and study here: and when
the American doctor comes home he has left
the spa rkle of his intellect and the clever |
ness OF his observation to bear fruit and |
come back to him.
"Of course no doctor but must admit that
physicians can have a liberty in the cause |
of science abroad that they cannot have
here. There people are absolutely without |
scrHples in the cause of medicine. and IL is I
easy TO get subjects for experiments such |
as one might Search the streets and hos l
pitais in vain for here. This applies even
to the dissecting tables here, where the
traffic In 6odics-absoiuteiy necessary for
s,udy-is carried On In the most surrepti- |
tious way.
But to the new discoveries. con- !
fidently expect to bring back with me
absolute data for the treatment of typhoid |
and scarlet fevers, and mnch for the cure |
Of cancer, the nastiest disease doctors
have to fight. But they are checking that
also. Take the cancer known as sarcoma,
and read in the medical annals how 1t
has been controlled by the bacillus pro-