Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1912-08-15
comparison with the work that this tool
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In studying living blood-drops on the
microscopic slide, watching the myriadS
of red blood cells as they floated into
view and out again, some keen-eyed STU
dent saw here and there in the blood OF
rats some bodies which did not belong
there-certain swiftly moving, long-tailed
microscopic animals. Later, in the blood
OF Texas cattle, other forms were found
within the blood-cells themselves. How
could these get there more easily than
through the bites Of insects2 The cat
tle-ticks were carefully studied; the par
asites were found, and almost immediate
ly all blood-sucking insects were laid un-
der suspicion; for it was proved that
they carry these blood parasites from
beast to man, or from man to man, with
almost the precision of an inoculating
needle.
For centuries the cause OF malaria was
supposed to lie in the dew OF the mias-
matte lowlands. Today the worst mala-
rial regions OF the world are inhabitable
by those who screen their houses against
mosquitoes and who quarantine each
malarial patient to prevent the mosquito
from becoming infected.
As late as 1898 talked with merchants
in San Paulo, Brazil, who did business
in the great coffee-exporting city OF San
tos, and they told OF the fatal dangers OF
single night in Santos where yellow fe-
yer was endemic. In Rio de Janeiro, as
well as in Santos, Europeans fled to the
hills by four o'clock. The discovery
that yellow fever is caused by parasite
injected only by mosquitoes Of certain
kind has made II possible to rid these
great tropical cities Of their worst enemy,
and save every year more lives than are
lost in great battle.
THE EXCLUSION OF GERMS.
The surgical revolution of the past
thirty years means that all living microbes
are now excluded from wounds, or are
prevented, by the use OF antiseptics, from
growing there. Before the importance
of such precautions was understood, a
broken leg or arm, if the fracture was
compound one, had only even chances
of recovery, wound through the intes-
tine was. In ninety-nine cases out oi
every hundred, fatal, blood poisoning
was so frequent that one surgeon would
be treating hundred cases, lockiaw was
OF the commonest occurrence, and erySip-
elias often followed operations.
To-day, out OF hundred cases OF COM
pound fracture, not ten are fatal the op-
Grafton on the intestines has become so
common under the protection Of antisep-
tics that in thousands OF cases it is re-
sorted to merely to find out what trouble
may be concealed under the abdominal
wall; bIood-poiSoning has been reduced
to cases of neglected wounds; erySipelas
following operations is almost unknown,
and that horrible monster, the germ of
lockiaw, has at last been hunted to his
lair,-the intestinal canal Of the horse
so that now wounds occurring in the
barn-yard are treated with especial refer
ence TO the danger from this exceedingly
poisonous germ.
If you would know what disinfectants
mean to your everyday life, you have
only to 60 out of the beaten track oi
travel, into such places, for example, as
Arabia or Persia, there to experience the
sense of utter helplessness that comes to
you there in case of accident, and to see
the suffering from neglected wounds.
The microscope revealed the fact that
in the dust-mote world there live greater
monsters than mankind had ever dreamed
of-monsters that are killing every day
their thousands and tens of thousands.
Once the armor-plate OF the skin is
broken, these foes get into that marvel
ously complex fluid of wandering cells
which we call the blood, and then the
struggle begins.
This struggle in the blood has now be-
come a real thing in Our lives the more
clearly il is comprehended the better will
be the chance of physicians to help the
body carry on winning fight.
Aueglected wound gives the few germs
that get in, time to multiply by the mil
lions and produce their deadly poisons
-poisons as deadly as that in the fangs
of an Indian cobra. But these poisons
call out into the blood from their places
of production in the marrow Of the bones
and in the spleen, millions of large white
mobile cells-the phagocytes. With a
speed that few OF US realize, these are
hurried along through the biood-vessels
to the infected wound, and engage there
in struggle with the invading microbes.
With the microscope, men have studied
this struggle in the blood as generals
study through their field-glasseS and with
topographic maps the movements oftheir
troops.
From wondering what ii all meant,
they have come to discover how to aid
the phagoeytes in their struggle. They
have found that, although far away from
the actual scene of the conflict, like the
families who remained at home during
the Civil War, the unattached cells OF all
parts of the body are doing their share
by manufacturing in their protoplasm
those so-called anti-bodies which, when
poured out into the blood and carried to
the field of injection, counteract the pois-
ons thrown out by the attacking germs.
They have gone step further. They
have undertaken to stimulate these healthy
cells to manufacture these anti-oodies-
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