Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1912-09-17

cr<dH 49, 49,
microscope the doctor uses. Hcre 10 q
row OF little tubes with cotton for
shoppers. Each of them contains
typhoid germs enough to start big
epidemic Here are some tubes con-
tanning tcstanus germs, which under a.
microscope. look like little drumsticks.
and the poison or toxin they generate
In SO powerful that the cighticth part
Of a single grain Of it will kill horse,
q poison that makes the venom of the
rattlesnakc seem harmless In cons
parison.
There. mounted on slide. IN slice
of parafin SO thin that one might
stack up ten thousand of them in a
pile an inch high, are lot OF little
colorcd bodies taken from the spinal
cord OF dog. They arc called Negri
bodies, from the name of their dis
coverer, and when those little specks
are visible under the microscope you
may be sure the dog had hydrophobia.
II YOU do not believe 1t. put some or 1t
into Il mouse or Il guinea pig and see
how certainly 1t will go mad. Then
here are tubes OF measles germs,
typhus germs, malarial germs, pneu-
monia germs. thousand different
kinds of germs, and the doctor always
has methods of proving that what his
eyes tell him is right.
In studying microbes the laboratory
expert must have infinite patience. He
must have the touch Of an artist. the
Imagination of g poet, the hard sense
of tlie farmer, the passion for exacti-
tude OF the mathematician, the te-
nacity Of bulldog and the OPEN
mindethess Of the man who accepts
nothing as proven until 1t connot be
explained in any other way. He must
make the most painstaking measure
ments. keep mis- instruments absolute
~ sterile. try every theory he ad-
vanccs with the acid test Of practical
application. and make as sure as 1t Is
humanity possible that his reasoning
is correct.
OF lnestimabls Value.
What the study OF microbes has
! brought To- the human race in the way
! Of better health and longer lives, is in
estimable. Asceptic surgery has saved
war, both by preventing blood poison
! ing and the IKE, and by making pos
siblc operations that otherwise could
not have been undertaken. Since
Koch discovered the germ Of tuber-
| culosis the death rate from the white
| plague has been cut in twain Typhoid.
| diphthcra, yellow fever, hundred
| diseases Of man and animals have
been robbed CT their worst terrors
and all that is now needed IL the ac-
ccptancc by the people of the knowl-
edge that the laboratory has devel-
| opcd about germs and their ways, and
a nation wide and unreienting war
fare on the bad. ones. with the medi-
cal fraternity to captain the fight
| Much will be heard at the Intcrna
tional Congress of Hygiene and De-
mo2ra ply about what the world has
been doing during the past five years
| in it's efforts completely to master the
| microbe There are scientists every
| where engaged I'm efforts to run dowi
new microbes, and this now Is a fight
/, largely to prove the existence ol
| germs that are too small to be seer
4 even with the most powerful micro
scope. For instance. nothing Is better
| proved than the existence Of the germ
of yellow fever. and yet it is too small
/ to be seen even with the microscope
4 eyes OF the laboratory. The same Il
true of rabies. Malignant tumor:
have been transmitted by these invis.
ible microbes. and typhus fever ma.
be reproduced in the laboratory IL
monkeys, although the microbe which
| IN, 70 tt0o1f X