Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-01-27
MEDICAL / PROGRESS
Wonderful Strides in the Last Quarter
Of a Century.
MARVELS OF { MODERN SURGERY
Mankind Lives More Nationally
Now Than Formerly
SURGERY
BATTLING WITH DISEASE
Copyright, 1900, by Cyrus Edson.)

Nopsrisnt, ISOO, by cyrus Euson.)
Written for The Evening Star.
LII all the history of mankind there has
been no movement, at once so widespread
SO single-hearted, SO fraught with import
| ance to humanity, as the advance in scien-
tine discovery, made by the doctors of
medicine, during the last quarter of the
present century.
At all times since medicine became an
art there have been men Of unselfish pur-
pose ready to devote their energy, their
health and even their lives to the advance
ment of their profession, but where one
such existed in older days there are now a
thousand. The whole plane of professional
thought has been elevated. The vast mass
or the regular practitioners no longer look
upon their calling a mere method of
livelihood, but rather as a means by which
they may aid in the divine task of better
ing the conditions of the human race.
To this end every one, in greater or less
degree, has become a discoverer, or at least
an explorer in search of discoveries. The
merest student, like one Of Napoleons SOL
dlers, realizes that the baton of fame lies to
his hand, and longs for the day when he
may add something of value to the store of
knowledge which has been heaped up
around him. This lust for discovery in
creases in the individual from year to year,
and While many failures are recorded, the
number of successes has gone far during
the past twenty-five years to raise medi-
cine to the plane of an exact science.
physicians who practiced at an earlier
period look back to it, as men remember
their childhood, in wonderment at their
former ignorance, and the men and women
who submitted to the treatment of those
days are sometimes lost in amazement at
the feats accomplished by modern practi
TONERS.
Advance in Surgery.
There iS hot 70
the lay mind SO strongly the advance in
surgery. This has largely resulted from
the discoveries of Lister, who was the first
to realize fully the danger of germ poison
Ing in wounds, and the principles of whose
antiseptic treatment govern surgery to this
DAY. me absence of such treatment was
one OF the causes of the tremendous NOR
tanty OF the civil war, and of former wars
and Its absence rendered fatal large class
OF operations which are now regarded as
safe. Among these the most important are
those affecting the abdominal cavity.
In the older times only one or two per
cent of such operations were successful, but
today less than one per cent are fatal The
removal of tumor or cancer has become
matter of comparatively trifiing moment
while the excelsior of part or all the stom-
ach, of part of the intestines, or of part of
the liver, or kidney is no longer regarded
as occasion for establishment. 1t is possi-
Die, however, that the most beneficent re-
suit OF modern surgery is seen in cases of
appendicitis, disease which, while still
unrecognized, carried off it's tens of thous-
ands and hundreds of thousands, whose
death was charged to inflammation of The
bowels: The percentage of deaths from APP
pcndlcitis is now figured at four to six
per cent This may almost be regarded as
reduction of from so to 80 per cent, for
when the disease is once developed If he
comes practically tincurable in the absence
of surgical treatment
Other important factors in the advance
OF surgery have been the improved methods
of anaesthesia made possible by the discov-
cry of cocaine, and the more intelligent use
OF chloroform, ether and nitrous oxide gas
These methods, by rendering the subject
motlonless, nave made the wock of the sur
seon comparatively easy, while they have
saved an infinity of pain to the afflicted
which can only be appreciated by persons
VINO suffered under methods now happily
discontinued.
Another discovery. which while facir
tating the work of the surgeon has also
lessened the suffering of the subject. is
that of the Roentgen ray. This taken with
the Edison microscope enables the surgeon
to make quick and thorough examina-
ton of any injury to the bones or of gun
shot wounds. and afterward to avoid an
amount of manipulating or of cutting which
would materially increase the patients
affection
Wonderful Changes in Living.
But while the feats of surgery are more
spectacular SO to speak, than those ac-
complished by the physicians, the feats of
the latter are more far reaching in the
good they have done. 1t is possible that
the best results have arisen from improved
methods of living, and these improvements
are nowhere so plainly to be seen as in
New York. Twenty years have wrought
wonderful changes in the city at the Hud-
sons mouth. Drainage is better, the water
supply is improved, plumbing is more per-
feet, the pan closet has almost disappeared
tpnpnr avfS
cleanliness is growing more common and
these changes are even more evident in the
tenements than in the private houses which
are not under public supervision.
There are today no such slums as those
which disgraced New York in the 7O's,
Suburban trains and the Brooklyn bridge
have thinned the population, and Manhat-
tan Is no longer crowded as in former days.
The vast fruit raising industries Of the
south, the increased grain output of the
west, the meat packers of Chicago and the
truck farmers Of New England have
created a food supply such as our fathers
never dreamed of. The people know bet
ter what to eat. and how to cook and eat
it. They wear better clothes. Their whole
plane Of living has been raised, and in the
great work of education and enlightenment
which has made this possible the maya
zines and the daily press have had an hon
orable share. Attention to the facts and
opinions given out by the physicians, and
carried broadcast by the newspapers, as
well as the more material changes, have
healthiest great cities in the world.
Under the benign influence of enlighten-
ment and cleanliness a considerable class
of disorders known as zymotic, or filth dis
ease, have been almost wiped out Of exist
ence. Typhus fever, for instance, Is as ex-
| tinct as the great aux, and there are few
| physicians in practice today who have ever
| seen a case Of it. Many years have passed
since there has been a serious outbreak Of
| cerebro-spinal meningitis. La grippe still
exists as most of US have reason to know
but only in a very modified form. 1t no
longer devastates whole cities as in the
days before King Filth was dethroned, and
| only occasionally and gently reminds US
| of the ravages of which it was once capa-
BILE.
Microscope Factor.
The advance of the medical art proper
although so rapid in itself, has been slow
compared with that Of other sciences, but
this is owing, not to any lack of enthusiasm
| in its devotees, but to the mysteries of the
processes of life, which are SO difficult of
solution, and also to the fact that medicine
necessarily develops in the wake of the