The times., 1899-07-09
YeIIoxy Ecyer Scrnm.

Some interesting experiments are being
made in New York with a new serum for
the cure of yellow fever. DR.. Doty health
officer of the port, has prepared the serum
and is personally making applications OF
it. The patient is Oscar F. Lackey. an
American who was recently brought to
New York from Santiago de Cuba, where
the yellow scourge is raging. The dis
ease developed in Lackey aboard ship. He
was Immediately transferred from the ship
to a hospital on Swinburne Island. When
he was first observed by the physician
Lackey's temperature was 1898 degrees.
His kidneys were affected and examination
showed a precipitation of forty per cent
of albumen. He was unable to retain any
nourishment on his stomach His pulse
was forty-eight His mind. however, was
not depressed under the low vitality, but
was entirely clear and active. Between
eleven o'clock Thursday night and seven
o'clock Friday morning. DR.. Doty had in
jected into the patient ninety cubic cent?
metres of the serum. At noon Friday
Lackeys temperature had fallen to 101A,
less than three degrees. above normal. His
pulse had risen to So. He was able to take
nourishment all day Friday. The nurses
gave him milk every two hours. At last
accounts every indication was favorable to
Lackey's recovery.
The case was an excellent one for ex-
pertinent with the serum, provided, of
| course, the diagnosis was correct. 1t is
IN ~; Wit pf
their science that physicians frequently
make the most fatal errors For that rea-
son We have given the diagnosis of this
case. No madeline has been administered
to Lackey. DR.. Doty frankly avowed to
the suffering man that he knew of no med
icines he could give him that would DO any
good
Dr. Doty talks very modestly, not 10
say dubiously, about the efficacy of his
serum. Mr.. Lackey," says the doctor,
may have improved without the aid of
the serum. No definite conclusions can be
drawn without an analysis of at least fifty
J cases of the disease treated with the
serum. His case is not an ideal one for
the test of the serum, as it was three days
.
tests cannot be made in this climate"
Imperfect as the science of materia med
| lea is, there can be scarcely any room for
doubt on two important points of yellow
fever if that is the disease with which
Lackey is suffering, and if he be cured by
DR.. Doty's treatment. One of these points
is that indisputably yellow fever is germ
/ ;e
1t has been discovered in the Doty serum.
The horrors of smallpox have been reduced
to the minimum by the application Of a
specific preventive. The terrors of diph-
iberia have been appreciably lessened by
| the discovery and application OF the anti
toxine treatment, and the mortality OF
this disease has been reduced to a low per-
centage, which unquestionably establishes
the efficacy OF the serum employed in the
new treatment II, therefore, DR.. Doty
has at one and the same time determined
the origin of yellow fever and Its cure he
has conferred upon the human race boon
of inestimable value. The medical fra
ternity may be expected to decry his dis
covery. The profession would be false to
| its traditional conservatism and en-
piricism IL it should unreluctantly embrace
a discovery in medical science. But the
[ laity will take it up and call the discoverer
blessed II the Doty serum is a yellow fever
specific it will rid the tropics OF the CHEF
dread which mainly prevents their colo
nization by the race of our blood, for DR..
Doty intimates that tropical climatic con-
ditions are especially conducive TO the ef-
ficacy of his serum. together with the
factor of the application of it. while the
disease is in its primary stage of develop
ment.