The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-12-30
DISCOVERIES BY INDIVIDUALS
PAsTEUR's GERM THEORY BASIs OF
PREsENT-DAY KNOWLEDGE.
Wonderful Instruments Devised to
Aid the observation-disclosures
Sanitary Science

ress in the science of medicine. which APP
pears in full in its issue Of yesterday, with
permission to use the same:
When the nineteenth century dawned the
medical profession was still dazed. so TO
speak. with the practice OF vaccination.
which had been inaugurated only three
years before. Exposure to cold was accept
ed as the common cause OF acute diseases.
and bloodletting, starvation. mercury, anti
mony and opium were the sheet anch-
ors'' of therapeutics. "Peritonitis" was
prevalent and almost invariably fatal, and
a major amputaton was weIl-nigh equiva-
lent to a death warrant. The study OF
gross anatomy was hampered by scarcity OF
material. histology was in fits infancy,
physiology was speculative. pathology was
a matter of plausible suggestion. diagnosis
rested almost solely on subjective symp-
toms, and the treatment OF disease was
traditional.
But through all this period OF apparent
stagnation influences were at work which
were destined to raise medicine from the
position Of a respectable trade to that Of a
science ever more and more bordering upon
the exact. Conservative surgery. as ex-
pounded by syme and Chopart. was grow
ing into recognition. Startling things had
been accomplished; Ephraim McDowelrs
holiness and success in ovariotomy had
slowly come to be recognized as foreshad-
owing an immense saving OF life, and the
discovery OF anaesthetization by at least
two Americans. Morton and Long, inde-
pendently. had practically done away with
anguish under the surgeons knife and
amazingly widened the sphere Of operative
surgery. But it was not until after all
this, together with the introduction OF elm
zeal thermometry and the defnitive aban-
donment of Towering measures" in thera-
peutics, that medicine entered upon its real
nineteenth century career. The pivotal
events Of the century have been the estab-
lishment of the germ theory of disease. SIS
elimination in antitoxine treatment, and.
the browning glory OF all. the Development
of preventive medicine.
The germ theory OF disease, for which We
ore really indebted TO Pasteur, is unoues-
tionably the fulcrum OF the aetiology. path
ology and therapeutics OF the present day.
We no longer, save in a remote sense. at
tribute disease to the visitation OF Provi-
dence or exposure to cold: we know that in
the great majority of Instances disease IS
due to an invasion from without. and not 20
perversity on the part Of the almost divine
organism with which the Almighty has en-
dowed US. Constitutional defects and
heredity, in our present view, play but a
subsidiary part in aetiology. and "scrofula"
is relegated to the lumber room. The sfa-
vorable soir' for disease is a soil made IA
vorable by some defect. usually an ac-
CURED one. of the normal resisting powers.
cAUsES OF DISEASE.
1t has been made clear during the century,
and chiefly in its closing years. that all the
infectious diseases are traceable to living
germs, each disease having fits specific
microbe, and the avenues Of CONTAINING ton
with these germs have been so fully ex-
plored that comparatively little remains to
be done in that direction. 1t has been shown
that typhoid fever is almost exclusively :.
"waterborne" disease, that We take the
germ in with the water we drink. But.
complete as the demonstration is, IL mas
been a difficult task to rouse the average
man from his sluggish incredulity. and con-
sequently the work OF guarding against in
furious impurities in our supplies OF drink
ing water still lags far behind what our
civilization demands. 1t has been shown
also that "the harmless, necessary" fly is
an active agent IN disseminating typhoid
fever and certain other diseases, notably
malignant pustule, and that malaria has
nothing to do with bad air" and is not a
balecul emanaticn from the earth, but is
produced solely By Laveran's pIasmodium.
which is nurtured for a portion of its life
history in the organism OF certain mos
q%uitoes. Furthermore, there is now good
raoeon 70 hofsox-a that IL f~~-
by mosquitoes. II has been shown thar
tetanus is in no wise dependent upon the
character OF the wound that precedes Il.
though there is doubtless a misleading
truth in the popular impression that step
ping on a rusty nall is peculiarly apt to
be followed by the disease. There IS moth
ing malign in the nail. tn the rust. in the
puncture character of the wound. or in the
fact that it is the tendinous structures OF
the foot that have been injured-there "a
nothing maIign in any one Of these things
per Settle pre-eminence OF the rusty nan
as an occasion of tetanus Is very simply ex-
planned: before IL can be stepped on II
must generally be situated on the ground
and. when it proves productive OF tetanus.
on soil contaminated with the germ OF the
disease.
THE WICKED APPENDIX.
Puerperal fever, declared by Oliver Wen-
dell Holmes and demonstrated by Semmel-
weis TO be the product OF infection from
without. is nos,sso interpreted the world
over. to the enolekous saving OF women's
lives. Destructive diseases OF the teeth and
their sockets are now traced 10 pathoeenic
germs, and it is hardly too much TO expect
that as a consequence the dentists art viii
be practically restricted before long to the
saving of the natural teeth In all but trau-
matte cases. In place OF the multitudes
who formerly died OF so-called "peritonl-
It's" We now see the vast majority OF per-
sons who have been attacked walking about
In good health. simply because the common
est cause OF the disease has been ascer-
tanned TO reside In the vermiform appendix.
an organ that IS removed with great facility
and with hardly an appreciable mortality.
But II is In the diagnosis OF morbid con-
ditions by the employment OF special IN
that more numerous advaDc