The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-02-12

I
 ress, no achievement of science more revolutionary in charact- CT has ever marked a more dis tinctive epoch in medical prac- tice than has Ehrlich's discov- cry of Salvarsan ("6O6'D, Harvey's discovery of the cir culation of the blood revolu- tionized ancient methods, and made surgery an art and sci ence. Jenner's experiments with the virus of cow-pox pay ed the way to almost universal vaccination, which has we'll nigh rid the world of that most horrible scourge, smallpox. And the discovery of Salvar- san marks another epoch in medical science which Is a marvel and a boon to the world. But as nearly everything which has been made known N about this great discovery has been written for medical journals and clothed in such technical terms as to escape the under standing of the hundreds of thousands of the laity who 1aye a most vital cause for ln-
 crest in the matter, l will in this article written for the laity divest my remarks as nearly as I can of all technicalities and endeavor to give a brief but comprehensive synopsis of what is known of this great twentieth century discovery and what its importance is, to mankind.
 The name "Salvarsan" is that giver by the originator pr. Ehrlich, to the remedy which is also known as '"606,' being the result of the six hundred and sixth experiment in his research for a specific for certain form of blood poison which Is today, and which has been for thousands of years, the great est of all banes to the human race consumption not excepted. Specific being transmitted from person to per. son, but Is transmitted congenitally has 1t permeated the blood of millions of all the races of men that 1t ha' come to be regarded as an almost uni
 versal malady affecting great ma
 iority of all the inhabitants of th' world especially of the civilized na
 tions. It is an infectious malady in
 troduced into the system by contact and by inoculation. It is hereditary as before said, chronic in evolution, in
 definite in duration, intermittent ant symptoms, lesions and eruptions, ane until within the very recent past has been generally regarded as incurable and more to be dreaded than leprosS or lupus. Of antique existence, tho date of origin is unknown, but myth ology ascribes its origin to Apollo who, being offended with Syphilus. z shepherd, cursed him with the offen
 sive disease, and to this incident is ascribed the origin as well as tho name of the malady. Chinese manu, scripts four thousand years old de scribe the disease, and human bone' found in the sepulchures of the Gaul! have by certain characteristic patho logical lesions, given proof of its ex istence among those people in remote ages In the prehistoric ruins found at Saone ct Loire, a woman's skeleton
 was discovered, apparently that of al Asiatic, and by the characteristic no
 dulles on the legs, Virchow and Parrot recognized the evidences of the Dis prove the existence of the diseas
 among the Peruvians prior to the Span | ish conquest. It is also known tha the disorder existed in Mexico befor
 the conquest of that country and iron
 bones found in the Metropolis at Cairo and by writings on papyrus and in scriptions on stone, it is known tha tians at least fourteen hundred year
 before the dawn of the Christian ora
 That the disease existed among tn ] ancient Hebrews is reasonable sur mise from reading the fifth ,chapte of Proverbs. where this warning 1 given: Keep thy way far from hel and come not near the door of he 1 house, lest thou mourn unto others and thy years to the cruel, and tho mourn at thine end when thou has consumed thy flesh and thy body An l from statements in Gen. XII. some au thorities think that Pharaoh, King o Egypt, contracted Specific Blood Poiso from Sarah, the handsome young wifi | of old Abraham. Whether or not thi