Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1909-05-14
Experimental ReSearch--the
Greatest Of Liie-SaVerS.

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In Harper's. DR.. W. W. Keen. one
81 the most famous OF American sur
geons, presents in his article on RE
cent Surgical Progress" a striking
comparison Of the accomplishments
Of the friends and foes of experiment
tai research:
What the Friends Of Experimental
Research Have Done.
(f) They have discovered antisep-
tic surgery, and so made possible the
wonderful results Of modern surgery.
To complete his benefieent work.
Lord Lister was compelled to go to
France by reason Of the stringency OF
the English anti-viviseetion laws.
(2l They have made possible prac-
tIcally all modern abdominal surgery,
including operations on the stomach,
intestines, liver, gall, bladder, pan
creas, spleen, kidneys, etc.
(s) They have made possible all
the modern surgery of the brain.
(4) They have demonstrated how
lockiaw spreads from the wound;
how sometimes II can be arrested and
cured; and, still better. how II can
be prevented. SO that practically tet-
anus has been banished from surgi-
cal operations.
(5) They have reduced the death
rate in compound fractures from six
ty-fve per cent. to less than one per
cent.
(6) They have reduced the NOR
tality Of ovariotomy from two out Of
three to two or three out of one hun
dred.
(D They have abolished yellow
fever.
(sl They have made possible the
cure of nearly all cases of hydropho-
bla.
C9) They have cut down the NOR
tality of diphtheria in New York City
alone from 15S per 100000 in 1894
to SO per 100, 900 in 1905. and prac-
tically the same story is told all over
the world.
(10) BY the use OF the serum re-
Gently discovered by Flexner at the
Rockefeller Institute they have
changed the mortality in cerebro-
spinal meningitis from seventy-five
per cent, and even ninety per cent. to
thirty per cent. or less.
(1D They have shown the cause
of acute tetany after operation for
golter, so that it now can be pre-
vented.
(12) They have almost completely
abolished the dangers of maternity,
reducing its death rate from ten or
/ more mothers out of every hundred
to less than one in every hundred.
(13) They have shown the cause
and the method of propagation ant
of prevention of the deadly malarlI
which devastates whole regions an
armies. Its extinction is only mat
ter of time.
(I4) They have reduced the NOR
tality of tuberculosis by from thirt,
to fifty per cent, for Koch's dlscov
cry of the tubercule bacillus is thu
I foundation stone of all modern pro
gress in the treatment of tuberculo
sis.
(15) They have enormously bene-
fited animals by discovering the
causes and the dangers of tuberculo-
sis, Texas fever. anthrax, glandersl
hog cholera, and other infectious dis
eases of animals. thus enabling us to
combat them more successfully OF
even to prevent them.
What the Foes of Research Have
Done.
Nothing but to stand in the way
of progress. Not single human life
has been saved by their efforts; not
single household made happy. Not a
single disease had had its ravages
( abated or abolished.
The victims of their sincere but
misguided zeal are men, women and
little children. Even the lower ami
mails may we'll cry, Save US from oui
friends.