The Washington herald., 1906-10-23
CONSUMPTION TREATMENT.
Unique Methods Used by an English
Fighter Against TubercIe BacfIIf.

From the New York Globe.
One 81 the volunteer British officers in
that c0mtry's fight against the swarm
ing hosts Of the tubercle bacrli. Sir A. Z.
Wright, is now visiting this country. He
Is a veteran Of the anti-typhoid war and
did yeoman service in that campaign
with a typhoid preventive Of his own
devising. The public has as yet heard lit
tie about his work in the tuberculosis
war. chiefly for the reason that il Is of so
technical a nature as 20 be difficult Of
explanation 10 the civilian. Almroth
Edward Wright. although not anaton1-
ically constructed on lines suggest
| ing manual dexterity. is wonderfully
deNtrOUs in manipulating the delicate an-
paTatUs-the composite thT0ttled pipeJteS
this walled almost microscopic glass tubes
of bore smaller than "A cambria needle
and similar fragile devices-with which
/ he works
/ When be needs blood TO demonstrate a
/ point, "A thin glass needle is made 10y
/ drawing out "a glass tube over q flame. rs
/ half dozen jabs with this miniature
stiletto given the end Of his f1ra6nger.
/ the latter tightly wrapped with "a hand
/ kerchief, and from the miniature hem-
/ oTrhage thus produced the necessary
amount Of gore drawn up IN drops care
/ fully separated by little air bubbles. I'm
one OF HIS long nOsed pipetteS- Then
other things are added-disriiled water
OF salt solution and an emulsion OF tu-
/ hercle bacilh. These are likewise drawn
| into the pipette in little drops separated
\ by air bubbles
/ When the necessary ingredients have
] been collected TO form this curious
/ laboratory barber pole the whole lot is
/ squeezed ont into a dish and mixed. The
/ exact proportions desired are thus Sc
/ cured in amounts Of fluid 50 small that
/ ordinary methods of synthesis would De
Impossible. This little operation. which
/ is a part of his method for testing human
! blood. illustrates the extreme ingenuity
and deIicacy Of the work.
/ Since KOch's discovery Of the tubercle
! bacillus dozens of laboratories all over
/ the world have hunted high and low for
an antidote or antid0te producer for thar
! disease. Koch himself thought he had
found it, but the experiments Of other
1 workers did not bear out his claims. dis
| tuberculous vaccine, TR. proved TO be
uncertain and even dangerous in its &C
/ ton. Here matters stood for some time
until Enrich about eight years ago laid
the foundation for the modern theories Of
/ immunity He classified a number Of
i
/ blood which 1t was Immediately evident
played an important part in the immuniz-
/ ing processes.
/ The two of these OF particular interest
! in connection with consumption are
named agglutinins and opsinins; and IL is
| TO The latter that Prof. Wright apparent
/ " owes his success in treating tuber-
cUIOsis.
| These opsinins have the very remark
/ able effect of rendering any tubeTcle ba-
( Cilli present in the blood very diEestibls
/ for the ph1gOcytes. The phag0cyteS are
| the so-called white cells of the blood.
which play the part of police and scaveu-
| gers in the body. When there is no
| OpsOnic sauce the phagOcytes won't touch
/ the tubercle baCilli. When there is plenty
| of it they gorge themselves to repletion.
/ and incidentally fall of the bacteria.
/ Here obviously was a discovery OF great
| Importance. for il meant. in plain words.
1 that a person with blood fun Of Opsinins
was highly resistant TO the attack OF
/ tuberCle bacilI. and vice versa.
| SO what Prof. Wright does is 20 first
determine the Opsonic condition of his
patients blood. From this he calculates
the desirable dose Of dead tubercle baCinf
which constitute the immunizing vaccine.
| He continues the dosage. being governed
/ BY the varying OpSonic condition of the
/ patients blood. At several hospitals i'm
| Great Britain where this method of treat
ment has been followed very promising
results in the shape OF partial and com
plete cures are said to have been
achieved