The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-06-29
EVOLUTION IN MEDICINE
DOOR OF HEALTH BEING GRADUAL
LIZ OPENED FOR THE FUTURE.
Researches in Surgery ana MicrobiOI-
Ogy Regenerating the Practice
from It's Very Base.
european EDITION of New York Herald.

European Edition or New 1OFk heIdlu'
Medicine is at present undergoing one OF
the most decisive evolutions in its history
Microbiology has disclosed unexpected hori-
IONS, and by this door opened into the
future it has become possible to look for
ward to the solution of problems hitherto
considered Impossible. Original research in
all countries has become inoculated with
the new faith, discoveries have multiplied,
the realization Of the life-lilIe character OF
contagion has led to greater progress being
achieved within the last fifteen years than
had been made during the whole century.
Surgery has been regenerated from its very
base, puerperal fever has become a rarity,
serotherapy has got tie better of diph-
liberia, and, what is more, its apostles
promise us that it will similarly account
for plague, tetanus smallpox and yellow
fever and the greater part OF the principal
infectious diseases which decimate human
ity. There may be some uneasiness regard
ing rabies tuberculosis, erysipelas, ETC.,
microbiology and bacteriotherapy are full Of
promise, aad the results so far obtained au-
thorize the widest hopes for the future.
Coming TO the question of hygiene, how
greatly have things been changed. For,
perhaps more than in the treatment of dis
eases, hygiene-that is, the means of avoid
ing these diseases-has acquired degree
of precision which has converted it almost
into an exact science. But this marvellous
advance, so rich in the results accom-
plished and so full of promise, is it not at
tended by some drawbacks? Tabula rasa
has been suddenly made Of the past; the
facts slowly accumulated by the expert
ence of our predecessors have come TO be
regarded purely from a documentary as
pect; the microbic theory has become en-
throned in the science OF medicine, over
shadowing, if annihilating, all that
does not directly ensue therefrom, and as
a result Of this Eruption it has become the
rule to neglect what our fathers were
chiefly preoccupied with-namely, the soil
in which the mcrobe was TO be developed
the patient himself.
The fact is the microbe, however power
full and noXiouS it may be- is not every
thing in a disease, even in the disease
which it provokes, let alone the fact that
the number of nonmicrobic diseases due to
a species of abnormal reaction il the living
organism is extremely large. Even in mi
crobc and infectious diseases it is not the
microbe alone, but the sum total of reac-
lions which the contaminated person sets
up in order to ward off the onslaught or MS
enemy. be It heat cold damp, poison! or
which formed the object of SO much solicit
tude in the medical studies of the past gen
seat, so greatly is attention monopolized
by all that concerns the microbe and the
conditions of its artificial growth.
MISSION OF THE DOCTOR.
But the doctors mission is to endeavor to
cure the disease and what better opportu-
nifty can he find, what surer guide can he
consult thSn the study of the remedies to
which the living cell itself has recourse in
defending itself? Many maladies are cured
spontaneously by the efforts of nature; in
the struggle between the organism and the
microbe the former is very often victorious,
and one might almost put forward the ar
gument, paradoxial though it may be in ap-
pearance, that the physician does not heal
disease, but only helps the patient to do so.
Acquaintance, therefore, with the pa
TENTS methods of defense is almost more
indispensable than q knowledge of the
stages of microbic attack Such acquain-
lance is the SureSt base or rational and
effective system of therapeutics, for once
the disease is in force the pursuit of the
microbe by antiseptic methods destined to
kill it, moderate it's growth or diminish its
Virulence only leads TO useless and illuSory
results. There is no microbe which, given
the most favorsb BILE conditions of growth,
would not be destroyed-or at least rem
dered inocuous-by very slight doses of
corrosive sublimate or a preparation of
lead. And yet, supposing an attack OF
pneumonia, grip or typhoid, all essentially
microbc affection, was to oYertake an in
dividual who had been undergoing strong
mercurial treatment or lead worker, these
maladieS would be much more serious than
if the patient had not been saturated with
these antisepticS. Why is this? Whence
this discrepancy between laboratory eX-
periments and what actually happens in the
case Of such patients? In either case We
have a microbe confronted by a well-known
antiseptic. Why are the results obtained
in artificial culture lacking in the case of
this other condition of growth, which Is the
patient? Because in the test tube there is
only the mcrobe confronting the poison,
and in the organism there is between them
life. the mystery of life, with its peculiar
aptitude and reactions, because that which
is poison for the microbe is also poison for
the human cell, and because the poison in
toxicating this living cell has by that much
diminished the manifestation OF its particu-
lar defensive activity.
What is this defensive activity? We are
beginning to know some of its aspects. One
of its most important principles is phago-
cytosis, that is, the property of the white
corpuscles. of the blood and the lymph to
eat them. The white corpuscles may be
compared to army fighting in defense of
its territory against the enemies from the
outside Another form of self-defensive ac-
tivity is found in the property Of the organ
ism to generate certain products known as
anti-toxines, because they have the power
of neutralizing the poison generated by
microbes
NOxIOUS FROM POISON.