Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1907-06-15
Mankind Will Some Day
Be Proof Against Disease.

~, VERYONE knows that when a
J., man has once had yellow fever
and recovered he never contracts
the disease again, no matter how
much he exposes himself TO infection.
This ability TO resist the minute organ
isns which cause the malady is called
immunity. and In troplcal countries.
where yellow jack is always present. It
is turned to profit in various ways, says
the Denver Post,
Thus during the Spanish. American
war regiments of immunes were en-
listed In the south for service In the fe-
YER ridden country about Santiago.
Again. during the last epidemic OF yell
low fever in New orleans many persons
purposcly exposed themselves TO tnfec.
lion because the disease prevailed In a
very mild form, and they concluded
that II they were injected they would
quickly recover and would be immune
curing more severe epidemics In the flu
ture.
such immunity Is called natural inn
munlty, BECAUSE it is produced in the
human BODY by the mysterious work.
ngs of nature. \ good many diseases
leave It in their trail, In a more or less
marked form. yellow fever. as we have
ether. and measles and scarlet fever
are others.
To a less degree typhoid fever also
makes convalescents immune To future
attacks, though this immunity Is vari-
able and lasts for but few years. 9th
err disea ses. on the contrary, leave no
immunity whatever. One OF this sort is
influenza. A man might concelVahly.
have Influenza every winter for Il dozen
n
maladies which produce a quite oppo-
site effect The most conspicuous OF
these Is pneumonia, which leaves its
victim not less but more liable to- re-
Gated attacks IN future.
But all durable diseases, IL is plain,
leave a certain amount Of immunity
behind hem at the moment they make
theic exit, even II like neumonia they
produce an effect in the long run OF
greater. liability. A man. tor example,
contracts influenza and the germs in
wade his system. For a couple of days
perhaps his blood battles with them In
vain, but at tho end of the week 1t be-
gins TO Win In 10 days the germs or
the poisons they secrete, are overcome
ana the man Is we'll again.
At this moment II is obvious he Is
Immune TO influenza, because his blood
has In II enough germ killing power to
countefact the activity of the countless
hordes OF germs courslng through him.
For the time being. in brief, he Is PROOF
against influenza. Six months OF year
later the disease may lay him low
again. but so long as his blood is Keyed
up 10 lis work of germ killing and
POISON neutralizing lie Is, 10 all inteuts
and purposes. an immune.
1t early occurred to medical investi-
gators that some means might be de-
viscd for producing immunity artih-
cially, Two thousand years ago human
experience had proved that q man who
had once suffered from smallpox could
moi take the disease again and there
were crude attempts at vaccination, In
the eighteenth century Jenner. an Eng
lishman, gave Tire subject long study,
aud the result was the process OF vac
clnatlon as we know 1t today,
Briefly, this process consists in inocu-
latins a man with mild variety of
SMALLPOX in order that he may be inn
mune thereafter to more virulent and
deadly forms OF the malady. This mild
younger son of smallpox Is called cow
ron and cattle suffering from 1t are
maintained as unwilling manufacturers
of thss virus. 1t causes scabs TO form
upon the surface OF their bodies and In
these scabs are millions of coWpoX
Ecrms. The virus is made by dissoNing
Tho scdbs In some appropriate medium.
When you are vaccinated the doctor
scratches your arm until the skin is
broken and puts few drops of virus
into the little wound. You are thus in
uculatcd with CowpoX and in few days
the symptoms OF the dlsease-which
arc the symptoms of smallpox in minIa-
turo-appear. You feel tired and per-