The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-12-16

1 iLcllll tAptCl Aldt lhC 1tlOAC VIII DC RbAtc
as prolific as the past in the observation
and application of exact. useful knowledge
concerning disease germs.
To name and describe all the disease
producing microbes that have been studied
and classified would require more space
than can be spared in an article OF this
character. 1t is interesting. however, TO
take a look over one OF the principal re-
suits of archaeological research, that In
which we are most interested, namely, the
production of antitoxins for the prevention
and cure of micro5ic disease. The principle
upon which the production of antitoxin de-
Ponds is very old: 1t is that every poison
has its antidote. Every disease is a case
of poisoning by the products of the germ
life. The study of disease germs has en-
abled US to isolate more or less perfectly,
outside of the body, the poisons they pro-
duce. These poisons, or toxins as they are
called, are given to animals in progress
sively increasing amounts, the initial dose
being a very small one, only sufficient &c
poison the animal very slightly. We find
that nature gradually tolerates larger and
larger doses until finally the animal is able
to withstand the effects of a dose many
times larger than would have killed 1t IN
the beginning. In the case of the antitoxin
of diphtheria, which is the best known
and which affords, perhaps, the best ex-
ample of all, the animal used is the horse.
To m with, a young, vigorous and
healthy horse is injected with an amount of
diphtheria poison or toxin sufficient to kill
ten thousand guinea pigs. each weighing $50
grammes. After from three to five days, as
soon as the symptoms Of poisoning caused
by the dose have disappeared, a second in
lection, slightly larger than the first, is
given. In order to partly neutralize the eff
fects of these great doses of poison, a GER
tain amount of antitoxin may be given the
animal. At periods of from five to eight
days the animal is again injected until two
months have elapsed, when IL is found to
be able to withstand ten to twenty times
the original amount without showing the
effects Of poisoning. At the end of three
months the serum of the blood of the horse
should contain about six hundred units of
antitoxin to each cubic centimetre. A unit
is the amunt of antitoxin which protects a
guinea pig weighing $50 grammes. from one
hundred fatal doses of diphtheria poison.
When the blood Of the horse is found,
by slight bleeding and tests with guinea
pigs, TO contain the antitoxin in this
strength. the animal is carefully bled. and
the serum separated from the fibrin of
the blood. OF course, not enough blood
is taken from the horse to do him any
material harm, thus the animal can be
bled again and again over a considerable
period of time. The names of Heule, Vir-
chow, Schwan, Lieber Kuhn, Hoppe-Seylen,
Dalton and Austin Flint indicate TO the
physician complex physiological operations,
the chemico-vital mechanism of which was
solved by their patient study,
ROENTGEN RAYS.
The most brilliant and dramati dis
covery of the century and one of great
utility, was made by Roentgen, in 1896,
who then announced the discovery of the
X-ray. At first the world accepted this
announcement with incredulity; that any
form of light or energy would enable us
10 see through opaque bodies seemed in
comprehensive. Time, however, proved
the truth of the announcement, n to-
day we are accustomed to view the skele-
ton of living man without establishment.
The dependence of medicine upon its CO.
related sciences has made its advance a
comparatively slow one since medical dis
coveries nave necessarily followed in the
wake of those in the other sciences. I'm
p~rovements in microscopical lenses opened
up the great field of bacteriology; adj
vances Of chemistry have enabled us to
isolate the active principles of drugs; thus
morphine was discovered by Seturner in
1916; quinine, the active principle of Gin
chona, was discovered by Pelletier and
Caventou in 1920; the discovery of other
alkaloids followed, and the most important
one isolated in recent time was that of
coca, cocaine, which was found by a. Me
man in 1859 or 1860. Its value as a local
an~aesthetic was discovered by DIR. Carl
Roller, Of Vienna, in 1882. while recently
DIR. Leonard Corning. of New York, found
that when a solution OF cocaine was in
jected into the spinal canal it will shut
off sensation from the lower trunk and
limbs, enabling surgical operations to be
performed in these areas without pain.
CHEMISTRY.
Advances in chemistry have also given
us the so-called synthetic remedies. The
elements of these remedies separated from
the useless refuse of the gashouse. the
coal tar. nave been regrouped by the chem
lists science, forming new substances Of
great therapeutic value. Chief among these
are salol, acetanelid. antipyrine. phenacetin.
resorcip. phenacel, trional and sulfonal.
The application OF electricity to medicine
electrical therapeutics-has in the last
quarter of the century made enormous
strides. Magnetic. static and dynamic
electricity and galvanism have been ap-
piled to a wide range of use. The sinu-
soidai or wave current, devised by Edison,
promises to give us a new agent in effect
ing local anesthesia and in developing mus
cular structures
Al present medicine is advancing at al
most railroad speed; instruments of pre-
cisioD for the purpose of diagnosis, like
the stethoscope, ophthalmoscope and
sphygmograph have been invented together
with many others almost equally useful.
In the field of surgery, the lithotrite, the
urethrotome, the laryngeal tube and
the Murphy intestinal button have
contributed to assist the surgeon
tc reduce the mortality from oper-
ations. Medical books ten years old are
ancient and Anticipated historical works
Recently a great medical encyclopedia of
MANY volumes was revised-the ORIGINAL