The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-07-27

of this disease among the breadwin-
ners and homemakers of the world.
SO far as concerns tuberculosis,
Koch's germ theory has led to the Sc
gregg ton of the bacillus, the dis
covery of its habitat, the knowledge
of the conditions under which it
thrives or deteriorates. The specific
has not been found, but in the last
years of the century the medical pro-
fession is Joined as it never has been
Joined before in a move upon the
| strongholds of this gravest i'll that is
| known to humanity disease that is
responsible for one-seventh of the
deaths IN the world. Hospitals for
| tuberculous patients are being urged,
| and education is busy with means OF
prevention. Physicians are confident
that specific is a promise that is to
| be fulfilled by the future, and that
| specific will be applicable in the light
! of tuberculosis as n germ disease.
Smallpox and yellow fever, as the
| dread scourgcs of the early part of
the nineteenth century, are no longer
| formidable. Quarantine methods throt-
tie them in their incipiency. AS dis
eases, too they have deteriorated in
malignity.
| Typhoid fever has been traced until
today the disease is regarded as
| badge Of ignorance on the part of the
patient. Even the homely boil, that
once bore the stigma of an outcropping
of impure blood, has been traced to
its active germ, capable of transplant
ing to any epidermis.
The anti-toxins for treatment of
acute diseases work a new departure
in medicine. To some extent they are
in the experimental stage, but some-
thing more than promise has been
| found in them.
Skin grating is an accomplishment
that anesthetics ana antiseptics have
made possible in hospital practice.
| Eye and ear surgery have been dig
niied into Srecialties in which prac-
titionaNs make fame ana fortune. The
neurologist in his srecial field repre-
sents the highest pinnacle in the med =
| ical profession. And these have come
out of that nebulOus stage of the gen.
| eral profession where phial of CalO-
mel and a lancet for bleeding held chief
| place in the physicians medicine case.
Electricity has come to the aid Of
the physician and surgeon in about
the same measure that it has taken
place in the other arts and crafts. 1t
has proved to be almost invaluable in
| cauterizations.
WORTH OF X-RAYS.
The neurologist finds the electric cur
rent an aid to his materia medica. In
the production of the sciograph, by
means of the X-ray, it is one of the
greatest aids to the surgeons dag
nosis. With the X-ray the anesthetic
and the antseptic, the surgeon, of all
the arts and crafts, is the modern mir
ace worker. Things undreamed of a
hundred years ago are commonplace
tasks in the modern hospital.
| Degeneration as a theory and study
has opened a new field to the student
of medicine, and one which promises
to develop a rational and essentially
| valuable speciality of the future. Its
champions today are path finding, but
already they have pressed home the
fact of n pathological side to eduCa'
tion, and it Is not impossible that the
public school children of the future
in the process of grading, will be pass
ed upon by a neurologist as well as
by a pedagOgue.
Dentistry has kept pace with medi
cine and surgery until artificial teetl
no longer are disfigurements to the
human face. Nature is so cunninglI
initiated as to require an expert to de
tect the handiwork of the dentist. Hi
mission has broadened until it no Ion
ger is to pull teeth, but to save teeth
With all that has been accomplished
for the healing arts in the past cen
tury, the last five years of it haV
been too productive of inovations TO
one to look upon the twentieth cen
tury as other than promising an illim
liable evolution in methods and speci
fiCs If only the theories and expert
ments now in hand are proved an
perfected the next centennial perio
will have been one of marked pro
| gresS
|