The Colfax chronicle., 1904-06-04
TUBERCULOSIS PREVENTIVE
Vaccination Suggested as an Effective
Means Of Warding Off the
Dread Disease.

1t Is safe to say tnat there is no sub
Ject in which the general public has
a greater and more abiding interest
than that bearing on the prevention and
cure OF tuberculosis. No malady is
more prevalent and none more fatal in
Its ultimate tendencies. The dreadful
taint of its hereditary influences has
lett its trace alike on rich and poor,
and there is scarcely family which has
not lost one or more of its members
by its direful and relentless ravages.
Nothing that has any bearing on this
absorbing topic escapes due attention,
interest and study. says the New York
Herald. The scientists work for new
facts, and the victims await results with
constantly renewed hope 1t is no won
der, then. that the novel view of the
Italian expert, Maragliano, that vaccina-
tion with tubercle bacilli may prove an
effective remedy, will be calculated to
renew the discussion of some of the
vexed questions connected with one Of
the problems of the age His theory
plausibility appears to be founded on
the well-recognized principle of stimu-
lating the natural vital resistance
against disease in the exposed individ-
ual.
The law of protection against any in
fictitious disease is based on natures
power to resist its poisonous influences.
In strong and healthy persons the sys-
tenn manufactures it's own antidotes
against the various toxins that may
find their way into the circulation.
Thus persons are rendered immune
against attack. In other words, the in
vading forces are outmatched by those
for defense. Scientifically these repel-
liant agencies have very high-sounding
names, although the antitoxins, which
belong to the group of so-called "anti"
bodies, are familiar enough to the or
dinary reader. These antagonistic prop
critics are manufactured in the blood,
mostly as new corpuscles, and are cal
culated to meet given emergencies of
disease invasion. 1t is with the view
of reinforcing such protective qualities
that Maragliano advises his method OF
vaccination, and on the same principle
of action as that which governs like i'm
munity against smallpox.
His method is to prepare cultures of
bacilli of varying strength, and, by
incubation, to produce an overwhelm-
ing quantity of counteracting antitoxins
In fha hIood of tho potiopf with ho
coming enthusiasm he claims some very
remarkable results by his procedure 1t
only remains now for other experiment.
ers to verify his results in practice.
This, according to report, has been
done to some extent, and il is to be sim
cerely hoped that his ingenious theory
may be still further substantiated. At
all events, it seems worthy of more ex-
tended trial in test cases, based, as 1t
is, on the present accepted views re-
garding natures method of throwing of
disease.
Although. regarding what he calls
passive immunity in person hereditar-
lily predisposed to tuberculosis, it may
be difficult to prove negative PROPOSE
ton that We may prevent thing that
may never happen. the plausibility of
the proposition will at least tend to al
lay unnecessary anxiety. especially as
he claims to have actually produced
such results in animals. So far as
he has gone along these lines the re-
suits have been very promising, but the
main issue rests upon the fact of posi-
tive cures after the malady has been
fully developed.
Whether the latter shall be ultimately
attested or not, the new remedy can at
best be considered not much more than
an adjuvant to the other well-recog-
nized means at hand. 1t may help ma
ture in her work, but cannot be expected
to supplant her. Fresh air, good nour-
ishment, abundance of sunshine and the
increased strength gained thereby are,
after all, the main elements of disease
and it is emiriently proper
that such should be the case, as, accord
ing to the general law of compensation,
those things that are of the greatest
good to all should have no restriction in
their dispensation. Thus, We can the
more complacently await any new de-
in the vaccination theory.