River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1908-03-19

you will see, when / add this drop
Of blood from the typhoid patient,
how the bacilli will cluster and clump
and lose their notion"
Dr. Young deftly adjusted the slide
and with delicate manipulation com
pleted the test The reaction was
TYPICAL
How interesting." said the charm
Ing girl who was being initiated into
some OF the more striking phenomena
Of the laboratory. If indeed she was
not sincere in her profession Of inter
EST for these somewhat unaesthetic
.echnicalities, she certainly did not
fail to find attraction in the handsome
young physician who was demonstrate
Ing them. Her eyes followed him in
every movement and beamed with adj
miration and sympathy.
And are these real live germs, the
kind that cause all the mischief"
She inquired
There are enough bacilli in that
tube Of boullon to give typhoid to an
entire city
she gave playful little scream and
stepped back. "Oh, how dreadful!
And how dangerous you are who work
with those things every day! | believe
shall have to be careful how close
let you come"
You needn't fear. See, now they are
safely slowed away in the incubator,
and here 90 my hands in the anti
septcs I shall be perfectly safe
again"
From the by-play that followed it
was evident that she took his word
for it.
after tomorrow you will hear the
scientists talking of the Young test
just as they now do of the Vidal test
lis q reaction | have discovered to
establish the identity of the cholera
germ, and there is q test-tube culture
0f cholera in that incubator that may
make my name famous. I've grown
hem under certain new conditions
At the medical meeting tomorrow
lght they will be the illustration of
my maiden paper / can't explain to
you just what manipulatiOns | shall
make TO cause the reaction that will
chow that it is cholera and nothing
Else, for you wouldn't understand it.
But, pshaw! this isn't interesting to
you. I'm bore when l get on my
hobby You'll excuse me-"
why, Jack, you know I'm terribly
interested in science, and especially
in what you accomplish. Oh, l know
we're all going to be proud of you"
They walked out of the laboratory
together-perhaps closer than the
necessities of the space demanded.
But hospital laboratory is an un-
canny place, and one would naturally
lean toward the confident guide who
possessed such a mastery over it's
sinister elements.
There were two other occupants of
The laboratory The doctor and his
fair visitor had not been unconscious
of their overwhelmingly ObliViouS to
it, Perhaps they might have been less
self-suficiently comfortable had they
observed the attention with which
their dialogue had been noted.
Penton, a junior house physician.
was the first to speak. Connected
fool, that man Young. It's more luck
than sense that has given him his
advancement. He never did anything
wonderful at college when | was in
his class Humphi | never had to give
way to him then. But he had the
cash aud could go right on and | had
to drop out q year and work. Now,
I'm taking orders from him! Making
discoveries. Just his luck to fall into
something new. They'll all pat him
on the back whether it amounts to
anything or not Then therell be no
living with him"
Penton looked bitterly enviOus, but
Heller, the pharmacist, evidently har-
bored deeper feeling. His face bore
the picture of jealousy and hatred.
Yet, he spoke lightly.
She's a mighty pretty girl, that
Miss Alden. He seems to stand very
we'll with her But there's many a
slip-ha!" His chuckle sounded harsh
and unnatural
We'll, | must be going" said Pen
ton He glanced back furtively at the
incubator as he left the laboratory.
Heller paced nervously up and down
the room Ten years ago Young
whipped me for something l said to
that same little Alden girl" he NUT.
tered. He has crossed me a dozen
times since that. She and l got along
well enough as school-mateS until he
became acquainted with her; then
he made a good deal of her business
his own The last few years she has
not even bowed to me. | can see
whose influence that is. And that
other deal He had to discover ir-
regularity in my method of buying
drugs! Claims he'll report me as soon
as he has completed his investigation
Pretty sort he is! No other house
physician ever made it his business
to find out where | bought the drugs,
or what l paid for them, or whether
| got anything out of it. Humph.
| suppose my job is gone.
What a lot of deadly rubbish
che paused before the door of the in
cubatorl-liying poisons kept multi
plying by that heat. More deadly than
barrels of arsenic. Lord. And no
one can tell more than that the vic
tim has contracted the disease. Let's
Gee this little plaything." He opened
the door of the oven and took out a
tube-culture He started suddenly as