The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-04-13

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brought in the support of these views
what has already been learned by scien.
lists In regard to intermittent fever, the
bubonio plague and typoid fever. In
speaking of the last dessass. DR.. Meserve
said that he believed as time goes on.
physioians will be able to guard against
typhoid fever as they now are able to
guard against small pox, and in much
the same way.
DR.. c. e. williams of Auburn in dis
cussing Dr. Thayer's paper, said that in.
the first place he fully agreed with DIR.
Thayer in everything that had been said
He then proceeded to give little history
of the development of this germ theory.
In 1880 people first learned of living
organization In fermentation and by the
aid of the microscope at the beginning
OF the prssent century something was
learned about living organisms in putri-
f1oation. 1t was also discovered that
living organisms In qualification was
due to something in the air or dust
DR.. Williams eulogized Pasteur and told
what he had done for the development
OF this germ theory. He said that lie
was often asked why 10 was If three
men should be exposed to cold and rain
and should catch cold, one of the men
would have pneumonia, second have
an attack of acute rheumatism and
third set of with only light cold.
This, he believed, was caused by the ex-
posture of one of these men to bacteria
of one disease, the second to anot her and
20 on. Heredity also plays part in
this, but primarily germs are the cause
Of disease. Then certain persons and
animals are not susceptible to disease,
because they become accustomed to
poisons. For example the people Of Au-
burn have their water supply In Lake
Auburn, while the water used In Lewis
ton comes from the Androscoggin. If
any Auburn family MOVES into Lewiston
they at oEce become sick and show symp-
toms OF poisoning. Lewiston people do
not mind the poison in the river water
because they hae become accustomed
to 1t. DR.. Williams explained the terms
toxine and anti-toxine, and discussed at
some length and In O very interesting
manner the anti-toxine theory.
DR.. Wsdgewood of Lewiston did not
take kindly to the theories of DR.. Thayer.
He said that theories and facts did not
always harmonic. tuberculosis may
ba due to infection, but only under GER
tain conditions. DR.. Wedgewood brought
many facts forward to support this
statement, and argued the matter at
some length.
Dr.. Henry B. Palmer of Pennington
said he could only emphasize what had
already been said by DR.. Thayer. He
said that physicians are too much In
clined to treat lightly the requests of
18th great earnestness DR.. Palmer dwelt
upon DIR. Thayer's theories and treated
the matter from many points OF view.
He even went further than DR.. Thayer
aud said that death which Is often said
tn be caused by surgical shock, could
be traced in many cases to toxaemia.
DIR. G. W. Foster of Deeriug said
one for physicians. 1t enables them to
explain great many things which hap
pen that could not otherwise be ex-
planned. tits difficult to deny or explain
certain things in their history and If it
gets physician into scrape it will
also help him to get out of 1t. For ex-
ample il certain anti-toxines fail to- act
the supporters OF this theory say that
we have a mixed infection and as the
anti-toxine was only intended to act n
one infection 1t can do nothing when
they become mixed. He didn't take as
much stock in this germ theory as others
did. He said:a stMen say that figures
don't lie,abut say that men can do an
almighty amount Of lying about fig
| INV ~ He cOntinnad tn IiaNncG tho rJc
of the hypodermic syringe in disease.
He admitted that he had used anti
toxine in three diphtheria cases with
fair results, although he thou ght that in
one of these cases the patient who had
mild form Of diphtheria took longer to
recover from it than she would had
not anti-toxine been used: He dou bted
the correctness of DIR. Thayer's figures
In regard to the number of deaths result
ing from toxaemia in Portland.
Gas matter of fact" concluded DR..
Foster, "this toxaemia is but another
term for what old-fashioned people call
blood poisoning, but We can't call 1t by
this simple name SO We must use the
more mystifying and more classical
term Of toxaemia.
Dr.. E. j. Bassford of Biddeford said
be agreed with DR.. Thayer's paper and
brought forth many facts in support
of the theory. ~
Dr.. s. q. Gordon said that he had Of
ten been asked by laymen why medicine
had not made SO much progress in the
past rs years as has surgery. Great pro-
gross has been made in medicine in many
directions, but 1t Is not as easy for the
laity to see and understand thu progress
as 1t is in the case of surgery.
The very advance that surgery has
made has been due to these men who
have done 80 much for the scien CO of
medicine. They have given the surg con
they cry ground work on which his
theory is based. DR.. Gordon scanned in
olined to believe in the blood poisoning
theory. He said that the old ideas OF
blood letting and the use Of physio which
were once the practitioners sole reme-
dies for all diseases, were not far away
from the more modern idea of blood
poisoning. He said that physicians had
let the lancet go too long and get too
rusty.
\ DR.. Fuller of Bath said that the whole
trend of opinion seemed to be to accept