Evening star., 1912-09-15
Copies of the various draw

from one to ten days. in order to obtain
the necessary strengths of poison needed
for treatment of patients. The longer the
spinal cords are allowed to dry the
weaker the poison becomes.
The surrounding shelves contain the
labeled hotties of poison of each degree
of strength. When a patient IS brought
in he is placed on a glass operating
table and an injection of the weakest
degree of hydrophobia poison is given.
Three such doses are given the first day
The next day the dose is repeated, except
that the next stronger degree is used. and
so on for ten successive days. BY which
time the original poison gotten through
the dogs bite is neutralized.
The method used in the study of various
diseases embodes a very unique system.
Several guinea pigs or rats are inocu-
lated with the disease which is being stu
died and they are placed in a great glass
jar about two feet in diameter Plenty of
food is given them. Then a wide stretch
of vaseline is run around the inside of
the vessel higher than the animal can
reach so as to make a barrier over which
the parasite that carries the disease can
not cross. wire screen is placed over
the top and the doctors wait for the de-
velopment of the disease.
~
The results are watched with as much
care in each individual case as the most
painstaking physician would bestow on a
human patient. The animals tempera-
ture is taken every day and recorded on
his chart as accurately as in the most
perfectly conducted human hospital The
amount of poison, instead of medicine
that is given is duly recorded. A COM
plete record of the case is kept until his
death.
AS several animals are kept in the same
lar, IL is necessary to distinguish them in
order to keep correct individual records
For this purpose there is an outline on
each individual record card of guinea
pig in the upper left corner. On this out
line it's distinctive markings are recorded.
For instance. if pig number one has
white nose, on the nose of the outline the
letter Nv" is written; if he has a red
spot on his left shoulder the letter .'r'
indicates the spot.
All the cards of the pigs in the jar are
kept on the wire netting above, and as
each pig is examined every day his cor
ton is marked on his card. After pig
dies he is d!ssected and his case studied.
The virus or antitoxin, as the case may
be, is collected and slides are made for
use under the microscope.
There are two chambers of horrors.
They are behind double doors such as are
used in bank vaults. so as to preserve the
proper temperature and protect the rest
of the laboratory from infection. The
first is the cold room. This is the stock
fOOIl f1eTe are kept the deadly Daclln
in a quescent state. In one bottle are
housed enough lockjaw or tetanus germs
to kill every man, woman and child in
Washington In another are kept the
deadly hydrophobia germs, more veno-
nous than the serpent's bite. Still an
other contains enough diphtheria germs
to change every mother in Washington
into Rachel wailng for her lost chill
dren. The room is full of these potential
enemies of mankind.
The other chamber of horrors is the
hot or growing room. When a growth is
desired of any particular germ the proper
medium, usually beef broth, is impres-
mated with the deadly germ taken from
: the cold room and placed in the hot room,
which is kept at the temperature of the
human body. Here they multiply rap
idly that a growth is obtained in from
forty-eight hours to a week, according
~ the germs being grown At the end
Of the time the medium is fun of the
deadly germ. From either room there
could be developed enough deadly poison
10 depopulate the world.
Eggs are perfectly harmless articles of
diet and good ones are perfectly whole
some. yet here in the laboratory sub
stance has been extracted from them
which by certain chemical changes can
he made so poisonous that if one grain