The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1901-01-21
DR.. Converse Says Antisep-
tic Wash is Of the
Most Use.
PREVENTS POISON OF TIE BODY
Vaccination a Good Pre-
ventive But Hard to Tell
How Frequently One
Must Be Innocu-
lated.

The surprisingly small percentage Of
deaths among the smallpox victims cared
Tor at the countys pesthouse at Snake
HiA BY County Physician DR.. Charles B.
Converse and Medical Superintendent DR..
George W. King is most gratifying. Per-
haps in no similar institution In the
country has the success In treating the
unfortunate victims of the dread disease
been as great as right here in our own
county. Despite the antiQuated and
limited accommodations and lack of mod
ern facilities for the care Of patients in
the Snake Hill pesthouse, but few who
are brought there, except where the dis
ease Is far advanced when they are ad-
mitied, die from the disease which is re-
garded with so much fear and loathIng.
Not one of the seven cases recently
cared for there resulted fatally. In his
twenty-four years service as County
physician Or. Converse has handled over
z,OO0 cases of smallpox with a remarkably
low death rate. During the last fifteen
years the average deaths in this county
from the disease have been about one in
ten. In Philadelphia during q recent epi-
demic the death rate was 50 ped cent.
and the average rate there and elsewhere
is from 20 TO 80 per cent.
With characteristic reticenee DR.. Com
verse refused to discuss for publication
his method of treating victims OF this
dread and loathsome disease aside from
rnodestly describing his remarkable sue
cess to some antiseptic wash with which
the patients are bathed from the very
beginning.
Being urged by a News reporter to
express his views on the subject of vac
cination as preventive of smallpox for
the benefit OF the general public, ths
County Physician finally said
Il am a firm believer in vaccination as
prevention. Ia all my experience with
the disease I have never known pa
tient to die of smallpox who had been
successfully vaceinated within twenty
years of the time he was afflicted with
it"
How often should a person be vaccin-
ated?'' he was asked.
THAT is a difficult question to answer
| the County Physician replied. "Ordinarfly
II one is vaccinated in childhood and
again at about Il years of age, it will last
for the average life, but different peopis
are different constituted, some systeIns
being more ready to become infected with
the disease than others. Smallpox is gem
orally believed to be a germ disease, al
though the germ mas never been discov-
cred. If a germ finds it way into sys-
tenn prepared to combat 1t, either from
natural causes, vaccination or previous
attack of the disease, it rarely developes.
on the contrary, if the system is in cer-
tain condition it is like sowing a seed in
| suitable ground-the disease is sure to de-
veloy and its virulence depends in the
main on the condition of the patients sys-
tenn"
What do you, consider safe average
LAS l have said before different people
are differently constituted, but a safe
average would seem TO be once in i've
years..
rs a second attack of the disease pos
Yes, but not usual. The theory that
a person cannot have the smallpox more
than once has long since been exploded.
have known a person to die of the dis
ease at the second attack. This was be-
cause the effect of the first incubation
of the system by the disease itself had
died away and the system was no longer
immune to the attack of the germ.
What method of treatment have you
adopted that has made you so successful
in combating the disease?"
81 do not know that have been more
successful than other physicians" replied
LIT. converse.
But the death rate among patients
who have come under your treatment iD
known to be remarkably iow?''
THAT, perhaps, is due to an antisepti9
wash we use. To begin with, the per-
centage of smallpox patients who die in
the early stages of the disease itself Is
comparatively small. Death usually re-
suits from the system of the victim be-
coming poisoned by the absorption OF the
toxic matter produced by the decomposl~
tion of the contents of the pustules cover.
ing the body.
THE most successful treatment Of
smallpox cases would therefore seem to
| depend on the use of an anti-septic that
will neutralize this poison and cleanse the
| body without injury to the patients sys-
| tenn. This we think we have here.
1.-The use of carbolic acid or bi-chloride
of mercury over such a large surface OF
the body generally results in the drug
impregnating the system and killing the
patient
Smallpox takes from seven to four
| teen days after exposure for the first
! symptoms to appear. Death generally
occurs on the tenth or eleventh day Of
the disease"
| At this point Dr., Converse expressed
| the desire not to discuss the subject fur
| ther. He said he did not thiRk that any
| thing more he might say on the matter
would be OF interest to the public, and
that he was axnious to avoid publicity a.
| far as possible.