Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-09-08
DISCOVERY IN SCIENCE
JOHNS HOPKINS HOSPITAL FINDS
NEW BACILLUS.
Germ Which Causes Summer Com.
plant" in Children Finally Iso-
lated by Psychologists.

A dispatch from Baltimore yesterday
says: The wealth Of John p. Rockefeller
and the grief he felt over the death of his
little grandson, "JacR- Mccormick, have
combined to give to science one of the
greatest discoveries since Koch found the
germ of tuberculosis.
The germ which causes the disease com
monty known as summer complaint has
been discovered, and the first authoritative
announcement Is made today by Mr.. Rookie
feller's chosen agent.
When little Jack died two years ago
the multi millionaire's heart was wrung
with the most poignant grief When he
came back from the grave in the dell near
Tarrytown, Mr.. Rockefeller reflected as to
how he might some of his wealth to
save other peoples loved children from the
malady which had caused so many tiny
mounds to rise in innumerable graveyardS.
Less than a month after the death of the
child Mr.. Rockefeller had put the machin-
cry of science into motion to discover The
cause Of the disorder so fatal to infants.
He announced a fund Of $4,000 to be
devoted to research, and asked Dr. William
III. Welch Of this city, one of the most dis
tinguished pathologists In the world to
conduct the inquiry.
Mr. Rockefeller declared that if the sum
of money set aside should prove insufficient.
he was prepared to make any required ad
dition
BY authority of DR.. WEIGH at the Johns
Hopkins Hospital the first announcement is
made today that a discovery second to
none that has been made in the last cen
fury, is a fact.
Now the great pathologist and his corps
of aids will bend their energies to the dis
covery of the drug or serum which Will
destroy the germs they have discovered
Where Discovery Was Made.
The investigation, which has been
crowned with success, has. been conducted
throughout the summer at the laboratory of
the Thomas Wilson Sanitarium for Chill
dren at Mount Wilson. in Baltimore county.
Between three and four hundred children
suffering from intestinal disorders are al
ways to be found at this sanitarum during
the summer months. There Dr. WEIGH sta
toned two students, in whom he has taken
great interest by reason of their intell-
gent devotions to bacteriology and micro
scopy.
One of them was Charles w. Duvall of
Annapolis, Md, who will gain his degree at
the University of Pennsylvania Medical
School next year. The other was Victor H.
Bassett of Aledo, H., student at the
Johns Hopkins Medical School. Their dis
covery is announced as the first victory for
the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Re-
search. But DR.. WEIGH does not hesitate to
give the young men full credit for the
actual finding Of the specific organism.
Mr.. Bassett, who had devoted several
years to microscopy, has the honor of actu-
ally discovering the germ that Mr.. Rookie
Teller seeks that he may destroy. To Mr.
Duvall is the credit due of isolating the or
ganism. Il. a-
Many Gases Furnished Proof.
When the searchers announced their dis
covery DR.. WEIGH and DR.. James H. NJ
Knox Of Wilson Sanitarium took up the
work Of verflcation. The result corrobo-
rated the claims of the students.
In forty-two cases out of fifty the specific
organism isolated by Duvall was found It
was also discovered that the blood of the
patient, in each case, had the property Of
dumping the germs isolated, just as the
blood serum in typhoid act upon the ty-
identifying the organism, for the blood of
the patient affected no other organism in
the same manner.
The cases Investigated by Messrs. DuvalI
and Bassett represented every form Of sum-
mer troubles Of infants except cholera in
1antum. OF which there happened to be nat
single case at the Sanitarium. The new
organism Is almost identical with that
which produces acute dysentery in adults
Few people realize what decimating dis
ease the so-called summer complains in
children Is. In Baltimore during the months
Of July and August, 1901, the health office
records show $40 children died of It, If this
average Is maintained throughout the coua-
try, then nearly $4,000 children succurb
each year during this two months. Only
one-thlrd as many persons die of consuInp-
ton. From the time Of Benjamin, In 17I7
the first to make the intestinal troubles of
children the subject of careful investiga tion
the SPECIFIC germ responsible for the dlsor-
ders had failed