The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-11-03


his field. Professional ethics prohibit
them from attaching their names; but
every statement is made with the
highest authority.
Cholera infantum is name applied,
without great looseness, to whole
group Of infantile maladies. These diff
fer very much I'm important particulars,
but they also have many Characters
ties in common. For one thing, all. are
disorders of the digestive tract; for an
other thing, all are caused BY unclaan
and improper food, and for still an
other thing, all are most prevalent in
summer A familiar synonym for chol-
era infantum, in fact. is summer COM
plant" But this name is far from &C
curate for summer complaint" while
most common and most dangerous IN
the hot months, is by no means con-
fined to the summer
When cholera infantum appears in
it's true form-that is to say, as an in
fictitious dysentery-it is an exceedingly
fatal disease at any and every season.
Several authorities say that the death
rate is more than so per cent, which
means that two-thrds of the children
attacked by it die. In all large cities
il is epidemic throughout the year, and
in New York, where the dwellings OF
the poor are peculiarly crowded and
unsanitary, there are $1,000 deaths
from il each year. During the census
year 1904, when the last mortality sta
tistics were gathered by the federal
government. there were $1,000 deaths
from cholera infantum In the compare
lively few cities and towns that made
returns. Thus in the whole country
the mortality was we'll above $4,000.
he xyir I'D
form of the maIady is caused by a mi
mute organism now believed to be iden-
tical with the germ which causes the
terrible adult dyentery of the tropics.
This germ was discovered by a Japan
csc scientist named Shiga in 1898, and
psychologists have therefore called it
the bacillus dysenteriae Shiga. Two
years later the eminent American biol
ogist, DR. Simon Flexner, discovered an
organism of similar appearance in the
tissues of a patient named Harris at
Manila, and to this was given the
name of basillus dysenteriae Flexner,
or FleXner-Harris. 1t was soon noted
that the two bacilli were practically
identical, and since then it has been
found that besides causing tropical
dysentery they are also causing cholera
infantum.
A great many able men are now
studying cholera infantum and its or
ganism, particularly at the Rockefeller
Institute in New York, DR. L. K.
Hirshbers at the Hopkins hospital and
at some of the German universities. No
certain cure for the disease has been
discovered yet. but there is good reason
TO believe that within a few years a
protective vaccine will be perfected.
When that is accomplished it will be
possible to vaccinate children against
cholera infantum just as they are
now vaccinated against smallpox. 1t
is evident that this viii mean a great
reduction in infantile mOrtality-a most
important matter for the human race
as a whole.
The cholera infantum bacillus, like
that of typhoid fever practically al
ways enters the body through the
stomach and by the medium of bad
milk or contaminated food. 1t lives
and breeds in the intestinal tract and
sends forth very powerful toxins, or
poisons. These toxins cause most of
the familiar symptoms of the disease
the vomiting, the acute diarrhoea, the
fever, the abdominal pains and the
rapid wasting of strength. The on
slaught is so severe that the little pa
tient sometimes dies within a week,
and even when recovery follows an at
tack cOnValescence is always slow and
precarious. and the danger of sudden
relapse and collapse is always great
In its war on this terrible malady
modern medicine must depend as yet
on weapons that are necessarily crude.
An effort is made to remove the bacilli
and their toxins from the intestines by
irrigation, and stimulants are en-
ployed TO combat the distressing eX-
haustion. In addition. the fever and
other symptoms are combatted in the
manner that seems least harmful and
an effort is made TO administer nOur-
ishment. Further than that nothing
can be done. and so it is not remark
able that two-thirds of the children who
develop true cholera infantum die of it,
In many cases, indeed, the physician
is practically impotent and so must
confine himself to making the doomed
child comfortable and TO preventing
the spread of the disease to other chill
dren In the household, for cholera in
fantum, as has been mentioned, is de-
cidedly infectious. and every case is
apt to be followed by other cases.
Therefore, when the disease appears
in a house, it is well to employ the
same safeguards against it's spread as
would be employed in a case of typhoid.
All the bed clothes and other fabrics in
use in the sick room should be we'll