The evening world. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1887-1931, 1912-09-19
Noted Scientist Whose Dis
covery Saved Millions De-
scribes His Experiments.
FOUGHT LONG BATTLE.
Guinea Pigs and Horse Were
His Victims for Benefit
of Humanity.

A modest comfortable. stout gentle
man who has saved more than n million
lives, and will save millions more as
time goes on. stood on the dock of the
Thomas Brennan yesterday with tho
70 visiting German doctors who In
spected Ellis Island and told how he
discovered the cure for diphtheria.
II was only when some bearded doc
tor approached and removed his hat
In courtesy. listening a while respectful
ly to the stout mans words, that one
realized he was a man OF Importance.
Otherwise his look was blank and abb
stracted and his manner stolid. even
heavy. Yet this man II Dr. Prof. L.
Loeffler, who In 1853 startled the sclen-
tito world with his discovery And
since then he has leaped into fame
again and again. retiring Always TO his
test tubes and his germs when he
might have shone as the foremost ply
SLOAN scientist In tho world.
Lake all great men DIR. Loeffler docs
not pretend TO be great lie is willing
70 tell of his work In an understandable
way and not with polysyilablc mouth
ings. a. many OF our modern doctors do
when they achieve some little thing.
To him his germs are so many little
naughty children which must be cor
rected and even sent away II they can
not be made TO behave. Some OF the
germs are Dlnels," according 10 the
professor, and some more elhn like mys-
terious COLLINS who must be known
h..
WHAT THE DISCOVERY Is AND
WHAT IT MEANS.
In perfect English, though heavily
accented. DIR. Loeffler told for the bene-
1t OF The Evening World readers In
simple language exactly what his dis
covery was and what II means.
The ravages OF dlphtheria were ter
ribls along In 1884, said the scientist.
and we were all trying to ind = cure.
We knew there must be q germ at work.
but could not locate It. l cut out Sec
tons OF the infected membranes and
examined them under microscope.
There was no germ visible or no evil
dence of bacilh. as We might say.
Either there are no bacllli or they arc
too small for even this powerful Micro
scope 20 detect l thought, and 30 for
. month or two j wasted time In try
Ing % ind more powerful apparatus
Then one day ! made a cross section
Of an affected part Under the nom.
brane was nothing and over 1t nothing.
but under the first layer OF tissue
found my germs. That was a happy
day In my life. The diphtheria germs
vsre not tho wriggiy creatures you
80 pictured at times They were slug
Ssh and died easily when brought to
light. In other words. they were hard
10 raiss. l tried a culture OF gelatine.
but Il was no use. They would not
row. Then / tried bouillon made Of
serum and II was still no use. -Four
months had passed when ! added u lit
tis sugar to the bouillon and. behold.
the germs grew. l nursed them care
fully until i had enough to experiment
with.
y have heard there II n big move
nsnt In America against cutting up
animals and I may TO criticised. but
n / had not several good guinea pigs
- work on there would have been no
discovery. I took some Of the baciili
ed made an incision In the skin OF
. guinea pig. planting the terrible little
things. They grew and sent out q
poison which I found In the blood of
~ pigs. Many pigs died from dlph-
iberia, not In the throat more than
any part OF the body. before ! found
what l wanted Here was tho solution.
Nature Is strong. but she cannot figh,
Q constantly increasing amount OF
poison. But nature can adapt herself
10 small quantities OF poison In the
blood and build up defense. AZ the
poison increases gradually the defense
becomes stronger. Life Is a constant
battle between minute forces within. !
took some OF the poison from the pig.
and injected II Into a big animal; a
horse. II happened. was available. TIL,
horse grew sick and then we'll again
for he had only the constant amount
of poison injected at tho time 30 content
with. His blood had built up n fghtinl
corpuscle which conquered tho poison.
MORE POISON FOR THE HORSE
TO FIGHT OFF.
AFTER time the new assnt OF war
fare would die from inactf <ity, for tn,
defenders OF the body ara xood soiaiar