New-York tribune., 1900-04-22
FIGHTING TYPHOID FEY FIX.
EXPERIMENTS WITH PREVENTIVE IN
OCULATION.
ENCOURAGING RESULTS SECURED. BUT THE EVl-
DENCE NOT YET CONCLUSIVE.

,,la no, osion for wanting protection against it, |
but the soldier is more interested IN secur-
ing im,nuuity The duty of seeking how best
to exclude from camps this dreaded visitor has
long been recognized by the medical experts OF
military establishments. Two English sur
geons Professor A. f. Wright and Major Lelsh- |
man of the Army Medical School at Nctley, now |
believe that they have found the means for wag- |
ing 4 more successful fight against it than was
ever before possible.
Physicians have always found typhoid diff |
cult disease to deal with. 1t is somewhat
easier now than it once to diagnose case;
but remedial measures avail but little. IRE
vention is therefore the chief reliance of the
profession. 1t is sought, by sanitary precau-
tions to keep the food and water supplies OF
community uncontaminatcd by the germs OF !
this maady. But this is about as far as science
has been able to go The army surgeons just
mentioned, however, are hopeful that vacclna-
ton an innovation in dealing with typhoid, may
be employed advantageOusly against it, In
support of this theory they report series OF eN-
pcriments made with British soldiers In india
There were selected for incubation $50 men,
of whom twenty aftcrward were attacked
by the fever The percentage of cases was less
than | per cent of the number Vaccinated
Among S,G10 unvaccinatcd troops that were un-
der observation 213 cases occurred, or fully ~
per cent. These figures are not conclusive.
still larger number of lnoculatlonS InlSht SNOW
different results. At best the statistics indi-
cate not that absolute immunity can be secured,
but that vaccination in the manner prescribed
NAV lessen the chances of attack But while
it would be premature to assume that COM
plete demonstration has been afforded of the
efficacy of the treatment in question, some OF
the medical journals point out several disad-
vantages under which the experiments. We're
conducted-such the difficulty of obtaining a
supply of vaccine and of preserving it-thus
suggesting the possibility that under other con-
ditions the showing might be more favorable.
-FOUR SYSTEMS OF VACCINATION.
At least four general systems of vaccination
are known to medical men. Protection from
smallpox is secured by introducing into the hu-
man body the virus of entirely different dis
ease. cowpox. Pasteurs plan of dealing with
rabies to take the virus of the same dis
ease, found in the spinal cord of mad dog,
dilute it to weak poison and then inject it
into his patient The virus here employed
not subjected TO any other treatment to alter it's
properties or nature Hankine, to make
cine that would protect from cholera, cultivated
the microbes of that disease, breeding genera
ton after generation of them at a certain tenn
perature and feeding them with particular diet.
He thus tanned the species somewhat. That is
to say, the microbes were far less YiTulent than
in their original state. He employed two prep
aratiOnS. however, one much stronger than the
other. He began by inoculatng with the weaker
vaccine, and a few days later injected a suitable
quantity of the stronger one.
1t will be noticed that 5 a safeguard against
cholera Haffkinc introduced live microbes into
the veins of human subjects. His plague vac
cine was prepared in a slightly different man
ner. He made cultures of the characteristic
bacilli to be sure, thus attentuating their
vigor; but he killed them by raising his solution
to a temperature that was known to be fatal.
AS to the precise manner in which results
were obtained here there is for doubt. 1t
has been held by bactcriolOgists that the harm
wrought by baciIli is not direct but indirect.
1t has been thought that eXcreton, prod
uct, of the bacillus, and not the microbe itself,
causes the disease. The process is regarded as
a poisoning. and the products have accordingly
been called 'toXins' These be separated
from the bacillus; but ordinarily it is not neces-
sary to go to that trouble When dead bacl
injected into a mans veins it is easy to see
that their cXcretions, rather than the cOrpses of
the germs, the real agents of good evil
But when live bacilli are employed it is harder
to discriminate between their direct and indi-
rect effects. In Kochs tubcrculin Ga broth con-
broth. glycerine and pcptOne) live germs were
used. And yet Koch himself imagined that it
the products of the microscopic organisms
that wrought the supposed cure. a close rea-
ton then seems to exist between the toxins of