The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-06-11
A CENTURY IN MEDICINE.

The intellectual development of the human race -
says John Fiske. ''has been suddenly almost atrun,
ly. raised to a higher plane than that uoop which r.
had proceeded from the days of the primitive roeIo
dyte TO the days Of our great-grandfathers And
again he says that "the men of the present Gay vbo
have fully kept pace with the scientific moyemenY
are separated from the men whose education ended
In 1880 by an UNNECESSARILY wider gulf than has
ever before divided one progressive generation or
men from their predecessors" How notably true Ia
Cnis IN the especial field of medicine surgery Is
presented in "The Century's Progress in Scientific
Nieulclhe' Ia the current Harpers Although Cor
vissart found that diseased tissues could be ocatef
by tapping upon the body. and Laennee had liscoy-
cred the stethoscope and it's before the dysonaI
year named by Fiske it after that time that th-
methods OF science were applied to medicine and en-
pircism became the noting gathering and marsbs,
ing of facts for safe generalization
1t was after Fiske's dividing year that a Polish
youth took to Paris the theory that that royal dis
ease the iteh was produced by Invisible ex
cept under the microscope and thus dropped a
brand new idea into medical ranks-an idea dastinen
In the long run. to prove itself veritabIe bomb
the parasitic origin of many diseases The discovery
OF 1chfnae followed closely but it was ten years be-
fore Leidy found them in pork and thus revealed the
source of one disease that had baffed medical skill
ana incidentally through the alarm and legislation
OF nations brought about grave international com
pheatons. 1t was not until 1914 that the dentist
Wells demonstrated that an anesthetic was TO 6e-
prVe surgery OF its horrors Another decade passed
before Pasteur, pursuing his chemical investigations
into the cause Of fermentation in alcoholic Ho1or,
Tell upon his discovery of the micro-organsms thar
formed the basis Of the germ theory of disease that
mas been the browning glory of the last half Of the
century In the field of scientific medicine Lister
naturally followed Pasteur with his extension of the
germ theory to the prevention of blood poison In heal
ing wounds that has save many thousands of
lives from the once dreaded hospital gangrene
Further pushing the logic of his discovery Pasteur
and others discovered the method of rendering br
mainly immune from several serious diseases by in
oeulation with an attenuated virus of disease and
this was logically supplemented by the introduction
OF serum taerapy. the treatment of a disease with
the blood serum of an animal that had been mace
immune by incubation. Tetanus and dfphtheria
nave lost their virulent power under this treatment
cholera and the plague have been attacked and tuef
cuiosls that dreaded destroyer is being besieged by
an army OF scientists. The scope of antitoxine has
not been more than sketched. and medical science
Will. In the next century find rich rewards In its
explorations In that field Scientific progress has
been wonderfully rapid in all fields since 1885, bur
In none has it been greater or with consequences
more fraught with welfare for humanity than in that
Of medicine and surgery