The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-04-13
TOXAEMIA.
DR.. Thayer'S Theory Of the Cause
Of Many Diseases.
PAPER READ BEFORE ACADEMY
OF MEDICINE.

He Believes That Many Diseases Have
Their Cause in the Poisoning of the
Blood by Microbes-Discussion Partici-
pated in by Many Well Known Physic-
ians-End of Third Year of the
Academy and DR.. Gordon's Views on
What 1t Has Accomplished.
Last night the Maine Academy of
Medicine and Science held it's last meet
ing for the year. The occasion marked
the end OF the third year of the exis-
tenoe of this excellent institute of soien-
tifio men, and it also perhaps, marked
the beginning of new era in the theory
of medicine and surgery. The feature
of last nights meeting was the inter-
esting paper of DR.. A. S. Thayer in
which he presented some altogether new
and radical Ideas on the theory Of medi-
Cans. The discussion which followed
the reading of this paper was fully as
entertaining as was the paper itself and
some of the most prominent physicians
in the State of Maine participated In
it and expressed their views on the the
cries advanced by DR.. Thayer.
There was large attendance at this
meeting of prominent medical men from
all parts of the state, and though there
were not quite the usual mum Der Of lay
men present, those who were fortunate
enough to be in attendance, q, ss,d o
most enjoyabls and probable evening.
DR.. S. g. Gordon of Portland, the
president of the academy, presided, and
after the secretary. DR.. Marshall, had
read the record of the previous meeting.
DR.. Addison s. Thayer of this city read
his paper which was entitled
TOXAEMIA-A NEW VIEW OF OLD
DISEASES.
DR.. Thayer said that if the ideas about
to be stated were somewhat radical the
gentlemen taking part In the discussion
were requested to present opposite views.
Great discoveries have been made in our
day. The whole aspect of medical theory
is undergoing revision. The new notions
are simpler and clearer than the old.
Pathological processes once utterly mys.
ferrous concerning which we either ad.
m1tted our ignorance or concealed 1t with
pompous verblage, are now arranging
themselves by natural laws which we
can partially understand.
The particular aim of this paper is to
call attention to the part played by
poisons circulating in tns blood, in the
causation and progress OF disease, to
toxaemia using the term in it's widest
sense.
Humoralism was the first division of
the DOCTORS topic. According to the
ancients the four humors of the Body were
blood, phlegnl, black bile and yellow
bile, and mans disposition was sup
posed to lie regulated by these humor ac.
cording to their ain ount and quality.
supposed to have sanguine temperament,
with phlegm phleginatic, excess of
black bile the melancholy and of yellow
bile the bilious temperament. Blood
letting and purging was prescribed for
acute disease to let off the excess of
humor. This Immoral pathology beg an
with Galen, who died A. D. 200.
Medieval medicine was in the hands
of priests and surgery of BARRIERS. The
church forbade physicians to disseot the
human body. and the barber surgeons
were to illiterate to hand down such
knowledge as they acquired. Down to
the landing on Plymouth Rock, Haryey's
theory of the circulation Of the blood was
not published, and men believed the liver
was the headquarters for the body's
blood. The compound microscope did
much to substitute the seen for the I'M
seen, and humoralism was supplanted by
cellular pathology.
In our day through the aid of vivi-
section the nature of diseases is becoming
known not merely in its results but in
origin and progress. AS the outlook
grows broader we find that disorders of
the blood are responsible for conditions
OF disease in a large measure. Microbes
and the poisons generated by them are,
active in the disturbance of bodily peace.
The doctor then took upiin detail illus.
trative examples Of poisons acting
through the blood, excluding the corro-
siVe poisons. He showed the time re-
quired for the production of deash by a
poison ranged from a few minutes to
fifty or more years. Prussia acid is
swift, syphilis is slow. Poisons differ
different tissues. Atropine paralyzes the
of accommodation. Strychnine
produces convulsive activity in motor
nerves controlling voluntary muscles;
lead affects the muscles of fingers and
wrist; the effects of alcohol and arsenic
upon the peripheral nerves may be
identical. Women are especially sus-
tOpDlblo W dlCOuOllC 06llrlbl5s TOE l6E
developm ent alcohol should be circulat-
ing long time in the tissues of the
nervous system. Periodical inebriates
seldom have If, steady drinkers more
often. The action of mercury, phospho-
rus and ptomaine poisoning was Illus
trated also.
The doctor then took up the matter of
and showed the inevitable
of the L0ffier bacillus in every
well marked case of fiphtheria. Diph-
iberia is not only local disease affecting
the throat, but it is general disease ex-
hibiting constitutional symptoms. If the
patient survive the eallier manifesto
tions of this diphtheritic blood poison
ing. in the course of few days, or
weeks, there may be signs that nerves in
distant parts of the body have been
affected by the poison. Diphtheritic
paralysis is apt to show itself first in the
of the palate later, in the arms
and legs and in more vital regions.
These late signs Of diphtheritic neuritis
are similar TO the signs of alcoholic
EAH r "A SEHEmmA AR FAVE WkR