The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-08-25
TYPHOID FEVER)

appear w hHiS Settles UdNG DSSH
= prepared by specialists and med =
= icaI men OF wide reputation. =
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business in the sick room must stay
out.
If the water supply of every large
city were guarded properly, typhoid
fever would be confined to imported
cases. As ii is, it happens frequently
that the disease appears in the coun-
tryside surrounding the watershed, and
the debris of sickrooms finds its way
into the storage lakes. There the
germs flourish and multiply. Soon they
are running in every one of the city's
main. The result, of course, is an
outbreak of typhoid and the usual roll
of deaths
The way to avoid such an accident
is to see to it that the streams which
flow into the water supply are not
contaminated. When this seems a task
of hopeless magnitude, it is best to
filter the entire water supply. Filtra-
ton. however, is sorry substitute
Undoubtedly it rids the water of a good
many germs; but to say that it kills
all of them is grossly incorrect.
The damage in typhoid fever is rot
done by the bacillus itself. 1t is done
by toxin or poison found in its It's
sues. The body fights the disease, first
by turning the germ-eating blood
serum upon the germs, and secondly,
by manufacturing an anti-toxin to
counterfeit the toxin. Whenever a toxin
OF any infectious maladv appears in
the human blood, the latter begins aU-
tomatically to make anti-toXin to
neutralize it. If the blood manages
to manufacture enough to do the work.
the patient RECEIVERS; if the toxin gain
upon it, the patient dies.
This fact is the principle at the bot
tom of a typhoid vaccine made by Sir
AlmrOth Wright, the great English
pathOlOgist. Dr.. Wright cultiVates ty-
phoid bacilli in bouiliOn until they at
tain to- healthy growth Then he
subjects them to a high temperature
for a day or more. This heat kills the
germs themselves; but it does not
change the toxin within them.
The dead germs, each with its bur-
den of toxin are injected into the pa
tient who is to be immunized. First
billion germs are injected. A week
or two later a second injection is made
this time of two billion germs The
result is that the blood of the patient,
invaded by all this toxin, begins TO
manufacture anti-toxin in enormous
quantities. Pretty soon enough has
been made TO neutralize all of the toxin,
but instead of stopping, the blood
Keeps on The extra supply of anti
toxin thus formed remains in the
blood for a good while; and If the
patient is exposed afterwards to ty-
phoid infection, and live germs wander
into his system, the toxin in them is
overcome at once and they die. Thus
the patient is protected against typhoid
fever.
Other investigators = Chantemesse,
McFaydan and RoWland-inject typ
phOid bacilh into horses and let the
blood of the latter manufacture the an
ti-toXin. Then this blood is drawn and
/ injected into human patients, where it
pOunCes upon typhoid toxin just as Wig
orOusly as if it were at home.
These two methods of fighting ty-
| phoid have won little favor in the
/ United Substantially, perhaps. because
of the great fear of serums and anti
toxins which prevails in this country
/
/ have been employed with great sue
| cess. During the Boer war DR.. Wright
| inOculated thousands of British sol
diers with his typhoid vaccine. 1t did
| not stamp out the disease entirely, but
/ the reports of the army surgeons show
/ that those who were inoculated were
! considerably less susceptible than those
who were not; and that even if they
| contracted the disease after all, theiT
! chances of recovery were increased ma
/ teTially.
During the war with Russia the
| Japanese made extensive experiments
/ with typhoid vaccines. AS a result
/ there was little, if any, typhoid in the
/ japanese army. Inasmuch as this mall
ady in past wars commonly killed more
men than the bullets of the enemy, the
value of the experiment is obvious
/ Within a few years, no doubt, such
vaccines will be employed extensively
in the United States.
The study of the reactions which
! take place between blood and germ has
brought forth an ingenious and effect
| i've method of determining the pres
ence or absence of typhoid fever in
patients whose outward symptoms are
puzzling This method is based on the
| fact that when typhoid germs invade
/ the human blood, the latter begins &c
produce, not only anti-tOxins to neu-
/ tralize the toxins in the germs and leu
cocytes to gobble them. but also q
number of mysterious substances called
agglutinins, whose function it is &c
make the germs grow sticky and gather
/ in clumps and so lose their capacity fol
multiplying.
! These agglutinins appear in a par
/ tents blood very soon after the ty-
phoid germs first invade his body
| Therefore. when they are found, it is
/ pretty safe to conclude that he is in
/ fected and that, in a short while, the
] more conspicuous manifestations of the
mSlady viii appear
The agglutinin test-called the Vida
reaction, after its discoVerer-is made
by drawing a small quantity of blood
! from the patient, diluting it, mixing il
with a culture of virulent typhoid
germs and observing the mixture Un-
der a microscope. If the patient ha:
typhoid. the agglutinins in his blood
viii cause the typhoid germs to gather
in clumps. If the patient iss not in
fected. there will be no typhoid agglu
! Trims in his blood, and in consequence
the germs will continue to swim about
freely.
| This test unluckilV iS NOT inVa ri