The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-05-06
Progress in
Therapeutics
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKlN,

]
I clans had 10 study. has lost its hold on
I medical men. and there are many schools
/ which do not teach it at all. The practice
I of pharmacy was once an essential pa-T
/ Of the medical mans life. Who does not
/ remember the cay when the physician
/ compounded his own prescription. and
/ who does not recall his quaint saddlebags
Win their muiUtuGinOuS small bottles
/ But with the rise Of the drug store all
I this has passed, save in remote rural dis
I tricts.
/ For generations surgery was in the
| hands of the barber. Bleeding and dress
ing were about as far as il progressed.
| Then surgery became the associate Of
| medicine. and since then has acquired
new respectability, perhaps Outshining
medicine itself in its triumphs. But as
surgery has advanced in the practice OF
/ medicine, Dharmacology has refrigerated.
| The American Therapeutic society
breaches the gospel of pharmacOlOgy and
pure, standardized drugs.
Since 1876, OF in only a third Of d cen
fury, practically the entire system OF
| therapeutics has been overhauled Dur
I ing that time has been discovered the fact
/ that bacterial agencies are the essential
causes Of Inflammation and suppuration,
and of all specific diseases. Pasteur's
great discovery Of the principle Of fer
mentatiOn occurred within that time
bringing in its train many millions of dol
lars to commerce and saving thousands
OF lives and millions Of hours of human
ana animal suffering. For all the genera
lions before medical men had to fight in
visible, unknOwable something's They
were ike the school girl who said cleo
trlcity was q force known only by its
manifestations. That was all they knew
about disease. With the enemy at last
driven from cover, having been seen and
recognized by means Of the microscope
IT was comparatively easy to fight him
Consequently, there has been more prog
TeSs in therapeutics in three decades than
( there was in the sixty centuries Of his
torlcal existence that went before.
NDa nsaH NH gfFara.~
progress of therapeutics to the advance
OF drunken man. He says that there
nave been many ups and downs. side
luTcheS and backward slips in therapa11-
ucS, but withal, much progress; innumer-
able pathies have had their little DAY
or their hundred years, but each has CON
ulbuted its mite to the general progress
Of the mass
Perhaps the most promising of the re-
cent therapeutic discoveries relates to a
very commonplace thing-lactic acid as
eNempitied IN buttermilk. One noted phy-
slclan, IN his enthusiasm. has recently
termed II the elixir of life There is =
little bacillus which makes its home in
Tactic acid that is the sworn enemy of
every accomplishing germ that inhabits the
human frame. It goes after them with
the instinct and avidity with which ter
Tier goes after a rat The great value of
saline purSatives in keeping the intes-
Una! ,lhdI tract Tree from decaying matter has
long been known But now Tactic acid
IS TO come along and prevent decay
There are many forms in which it may be
adnlnlstered-but usually il is admins
tered as powder or in boullion.
The discovery Of this principle Of intro
9ucInS one germ to wage relentless war
rare on another is believed BY many med
zeal men to have III it great possibilities
for the future. They think It may mean
as much to the treatment of disease as
the discovery of anti-toxins II is agreed
that II is as yet difficult TO tell lust how
far this principle may not be carried,
n IN 70 lou lot 81
yet receive from it
The bee sting cure for rheumatism, often
supported by the observations of lavmen
az last IS Youched for by a prominent ply
stefan, who tried it on himself He saws
that he first tried the baths at a cole
orated watering place without success in
getung free from his SCiatica Going hack
nome ne determined to try the bee sting
cure as a last resort He admits that he
mad little confidence in it when he start
ed On Oct y he applied seven or eight
bees TO the sciatic nerve. The next morn
ine' without limp or pain, for the first
time IN three months, he was able to walk
across the floor. He returned to bed and
was stung half-dozen times more and
again that night Continuing the treat
ment -FOUR days he found himself abso-
Iutely free from rheumatic pains He
stil continued the treatment and cured
himself Writing, in the medical journals.
ne reminds the members of his profess
SION thst he IS a man 81 years old, who
years. He says the pain of the stings
was not as severe as that of the disease
and that he took no Opiates because he
wanted 10 make clinical observation
OF his case He concludes that there will
still be proud skeptics. who, like Naama0 !
will swear BY their ancient remedies and
despise the humber Jordan. but as for
nm ne Is content with anything that ef-
fectS the cure
The use of magnesium suIphate in the
treatment Of tetanas or loclljaw has re-
Gently come into prominence. Clinical OBJ
serv2tOns show that in a great many
cases II has effected a relaxa ton Of the I
muscles when every other known remedy 4
had failed. Already the death rate had /.
Deen decreased to a remarkable degree /
and the employment Of magnesium sui
plate is expected to bring it even lower
The tendency Of medical research in the I
treatment OF typhoid fever is now away
from the idea OF an anti-tOxin and toward /
the finding Of some agent which will en-
aole the physician to recognize the dis I
ease in its earlier stages. There are 50 4
many ailments whose symptoms are al
most wholly like those OF typhoid fever
mat in most cases the physician is not I
able TO diagnose the disease with abso-
lutte certainty until it has reached the
stage where il responds less readily to
treatment. What IS hoped to be accom- (
plished is to find some method for recoR-
MIXING the disease like the tubercular re-
action in tuberculosis
Army surgeons, who have given to med
ical science some of its greatest trfurnphs
over disease, think they have discovered 1
a vaccine that will in the end prove ss
effective against typhoid as the vaccine
for smallpox IS effective against that dis
ease. Vaccination against typhoid fever
viii not be made compulsory in the army /
but it is the intention of the war de-
partment TO urge the soldiers to be vac
Cinated.
Recent discoveries have enabled phvsi- !
clans to know the conditions that lead to
the formation OF gall stones in time 10 I
prevent them from forming. A remark 1
able instance Of the ability of z healthy
body to throw off foreign clements has
been brought to light by Dr. Balm in his
experiments with gall bladder diseases
He introduced large gall stones into the
bladders OF healthy dogs, and found thai
In every case they were completely dis
solved and thrown eff without any per
nanent injury to the dog. A new method
d blood TRANSMISSION has been devised. and
5gain the dog is useful to the doctor. 4
small artery is taken from the neck of "A
small dog, all the blood is driven ont OF
L and Il is soaked for a term In a salt
solution 1t IS then attached to an ar
terry in the arm Of the donor Of the blood
ana to vein in that of the patient who
S to receive IL. The connecting link thus
formed has been found to serve its pur-
pose admirably.
The wide lack Of uniformity Of strength
II the many therapeutic prepa "a lions in