El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-07-13
HAS
SAVED MANY
FR0NDEbTH
Discovery of Meningitis
Serum of Incalculable
Benefit to Humanity.
CURE FOR CANCER
NOW BEING SOUGHT

Washington, D. c., July 13.-Seldom
has it been given to any one orSanIza-
ton to produce more IN the way OF d.
rect results for the welfare OF man
kind than has been the fortune of the
Rockefeller Institute Of Medical Re
search. With its personnel made up
OF men who represent the highest type
OF investigators in the realm OF expert
mental medicine, the 1lrst II years OF
its existence have been prolific of many
discoveries that have lent aid in the
world wide fight against disease and
death.
Discovery Of Meningitis Serum.
Standing out foremost among the re-
suits achieved Is the discovery OF Dr.
simon EleXner OF an anu-menlnGltlS
serum Where the mortality in menln-
gifts once was IS percent, today the
odds are reEersed-the patient has 10
chances to recover to 70 chances Of
dying. The serum which has wrought
this change and has resulted practical
" in the Punishment of the epidemic
form of this most horrible of diseases,
was first made at the Rockefeller in
stitute.
In the winterSf I9O4-5 there was an
epidemic of meningitis in New York,
with a record of 1855 deaths in $3.50
cases. The germ of the disease already
had been discovered by Il German bac-
tereolOglSt, but no one knew how TO
check its ravaSes on the inoculated hu-
man system. 1t was further known UEat
it lives in the white cells of the fluid
that bathes the base of the brain and
q portion of the spinal column
At this juncture DF. Simon F1eNner
took I'D the work OF trying 10 IND a
remedy for what seemed an lncurabIe
disease. He began his search by max
ing a series Of experiments on small
animals. He injected the germs into
the abdOmens OF the little creatures
some of whom died. but the majority Of
whom, after being sick for a short time
recovered their usual health Then lie
Tn.~A Of ~
He injected some of the serum into
the spine of a monkey. The little fell
low died as much a martyr to science as
ever q hero was TO his country. Then
it was tried on guinea pigs, and half
OF them were given the serum and the
other half were not Those which were
inoculated and then treated with the
serum recovered Those which were not
treated with the serum died Then it
was again tried on monkeys, the SCI UNI
administered being taken from a goat
This experiment failed.
PerseVeres in Experiments.
But DR.. Flexner was too firm in his
theories 10 be daunted by this failure /
He next inOcUlated other monkeys and !
treated them with the serum taken /
from monkeys. Those which were so /
treated recovered, while those which /
were not died The experiments we're !
carried far enough to demonstrate be- /
yond the peradventure of a doubt that
the serum is efficaciOus especially
when applied in the early stages Of
the disease. In these experiments about
25 monkeys and a hundred guinea pigs I
died that thousands of children might |
be saved.
The honor Of having first adminis-
tered the anti-meningitis serum to 4
human being belongs to Dr. L W. Iadd, /
of Ohio. There was an outbreak of the /
disease In d small town near Cleveland, ]
and he found patients who We're willing (
to use it. Recovery followed in so /
many cases that the treatment soon |
sprang into favor everywhere. and now
every country In the civilized world ]
down in history with vaccination, the
mosquito theory Of yellow faver, diph-
liberia anti-toXin and other great cis-
of the past century and quar-
ter.
Relieving LOckjaw.
Another discovery of the institute is
the fact that magnesium injected in
will often relieve lOckjaW
where every other known curative
agent fails. Even where the antitetanuS
serum treatment fails this will often |
give relief to the sufferer and serve /
to restore him to health a new meth
Cd Of administering anesthetics to peo-
pie with weak hearts has been found
operations who could not before seek
the surgeons skill A method of blood
vessel suture brought out by the in
stitute has been accepted by the en-
tire medical world
Many other discoveries have proved
in the laboratory, and only
await trial clinically before they can be
used generally 0y the medical world.
One of these is a method of transplant
ing a section of a blood vessel. Just,i
pipe broken by freezing, and replace it
with a good piece, so the surgeons lave (
cut out sections Of blood vessels and
Continued on next pagel.