Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1909-06-04

-. against attack by typhoid
90 fever or not Certainly
leo Yzg gsSk there can be no reason
for contracting the NAL
ady unless one chooses. People now
adays do not catch smallpox if they
have been properly vaccinated, In
case they neglect that customary pre-
caution, it is considered that they have
deliberately exposed themselves to the
risk OF contagion. The same PROPOSE
ton will in future apply to typhoid,
inasmuch as means have been found
whereby, through incubation with
suitable vaccine" anybody may be
rendered permanently immune-that Is
to say, incapable of acquiring the dis
ease.
Typhoid In old time was known as
"putrid fever" 1t was one of the most
deadly of human malades, largely be-
cause the proper methods to adopt in
dealing with 1t were not yet known.
But even to-day, when it kills less than
10 per cent of the victims it assails,
1t is exceedingly destructive. 1t
caused 80 per cent of the total deaths
on the American side during the war
with Spain-the disease, which ragged
in the military camps, being distrib-
uted chiefly by flies. And it was re-
Gently estimated by Dr. George NJ. Ko-
Der of Washington, D. Ca recognized
authority on the subject-that, reck-
oning loss of wage-earning capacity,
expense for medical attendance ETC.,
typhoid fever In the United States
costs annually not less than $35000O,-
900. Accepting these figures, it appears
that tho disease costs the people of
the United States more than a billion
dollars every three years, writes Rene
Bach in Technical World Magazine.
The Immunizing Vaccine.
There is just one advantage in hav-
Ing typhoid. An attack of it renders
one immune to the complaint there
after-at all events practically so, in
asmuch as a recurrence of the malady
In a person who has once recovered
from it is uncommon. But it would
surely be very advantageous If such
immunity could be attained without
going through the sickness and suf-
fering, with incidental risk of dying
Fortunately, this very thing has at
last been accomplished. That Is to say,
a means has been discovered whereby
anybody may be rendered immune to
typhoid-the result being obtained by
simple process of vaccination. The
principle of vaccination for smallpox
is that of utilizing the germ of near
Unrelated disease of the COW, much
milder IN character, to produce i'm
munity against the more serious NAL
ady. This idea nowadays is begin
ming to be applied, with much success,
to other maladies. notably rabies-by
Pasteur's discovery-and cholera and
bubonic plague, the two latter at the
instance of Haffkfne, an Englishman.
Vaccination for typhoid-frst worked
out by Sir A. E. Wright of London
is based upon the same theory.
For some time past the United
States War Department has been bust
ly engaged with the problem of typhoid
vaccination, and at the Army Medical
Museum in Washington large quaint
ties of the immunizing fluid have been
manufactured and put up in sealed
glass tubes, ready for use-each tube
containing the few drops requisite for
dose. For military purposes 1t is of
utmost importance to find means
whereby the "putrid fever" which has
always been the most deadly enemy
of troops-commonl killing more men
than were slain by the enemy-shall
he robbed of its power to destroy.
How the Vaccine Is Prepared.
There is no reason, indeed, why sol
diers In the field In future wars
should suffer any loss whatever by ty-
phoid. 1t will doubtless be required of
every recruit as a matter of course,
that before being finally accepted he
shall be immunized against the mala-
| DIV. AS for the regular army, several
| hundred men, volunteering for the
purpose, have already been inoculated;
and, the investigation having now
passed beyond the experimental stage,
every officer and enlisted man will be
subjected to the treatment.
The vaccine" for typhoid is pre-
pared by an extremely simple process.
! A quantity of beef broth is made and
when it has had time to cool, few
typhoid bacilli are put into 1t. Find
ing it an acceptable food, they multi.
ply with great rapidly, until, after a
few hours, the vessel of soup contains
countless billions of them. They are
then killed by putting the broth into a
sort of oven and heating it TO point
in the neighborhood. of boiling.
This is the vaccine soup con
tanning the dead bodies of billions OF
typhoid bacilli 1t is now ready foI
use But first, TO make perfectly sure
that all the bacilli are dead, small
quantity of the soup is put into fresh
batch of broth, previously sterilized
bv heat. If. on microscopic examina