Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1913-02-28

der dream. These days men
L are seeing vision of univer-
sal happiness, world Of per-
feet men and women and happy-eyed,
strong limbed children. They are lift
ing the veil that hangs between the to-
day and the tomorrow of science and
showing to us the golden vista of a
world that is free from pain. They
dream, these men of science, and they
work. 1t is well that they do dream,
too, for it is of dreamers that the
blessings of former ages came. The
abyss between the abstract and the
concrete is first bridged but by the
filmy matter of which dreams are.
The dreamers of the wonder dream
work in terms of bacteria and bacilh,
microbes and serums, vaccines and cul
lures. They do not, perhaps, really
know that they are dreaming, yet, so
fanciful is their endeavor that cold
svllables and blaek.and-white word
etchings do not tell the story.
Think, then, that the human body is
citadel, fortified against attack from
without and garrisoned within. There
are, of course, as always in real cita-
dels. traitors within the walls. Again
as always, there are defects in the
very walls. The men of science call
the microbe inhabitants "maGgnant' ~
and "benevolent." The population is
cosmopolitan For instance, in the sa-
Iva of the mouth there may be half n
hundred different sorts of microbes
perhaps all benevolent" perhaps
not. Practically always there are
among the hordes upon hordes of the
microbes each one of us harbors
treacherous ingrates, always on the
alert to give comfort and aid to the
enemy that attacks from without, ever
ready to take part in internal upris-
ings. On the other hand, there are the
leucocytes, loyal always and prepared
to battle for our health with invader
or traitor. The leucocytes are some
times known as phagocytes, eaters OF
cells. for they devour their enemies'
Under the proper conditions, the leu
cocyttes can take care of all "mahg
nantn microbes by themselves, un-
aided 1t is when the odds are against
them that disease comes and men must
bring aid.
II is from the study of microbe hfe,
as outlined in unscientific terms above,
that physicians have made of some OF
their dreams golden truths and are
pushing on, year by year, to the ultima
thule of their hopes, world without
diesase. The latest development OF the
theory of vaccines is remarkable
thing. 1t is no less than this: man Is
cured by his own disease. The modern
phys;cian makes culture of spe'
cific disease germ. That means that
he takes some of the microbes who are
causing trouble and lets them propa-
cate in test tube, beyond the habitat
of the human body. These germs he
kills by heat. Their dead bodies he
iniects back into the body of the pa
tient. He. will use few million
germs. but that need not be alarming
for million germs would have plenty
of room on the head of pin. Also,
the microbes, being dead, cannot mui'
tiply and the tissues of the body are
able to cope with them. A specific an
tidote is produced by natures inter
nal chemistry and this either destroys
the troublesome bacteria or renders
them helpless before the savage rush
of the phagocytes. Chronic colds, IN
fluenza, bronchitis, carbuncles, ds'
eased teeth, even pimples, can be
treated this way. The physicians
speak of the specific that the body
makes for itself, as "autogenous VI
rus.'
The possibilities Of this form OF
treatment are illimitable. The man
with the chronic cold or the frequent
and persistent attack Of tonsihtis can
thus be made immune from his par
ticular type of minor ailment, as the
man who is vaccinated for smallpox
cannot contract that disease and as the
man who submits to the typhoid vac
cine is safe from that scourge.
The story of the wonder dream Is
not all told here. The telling will not
be completed until it is said that the
scientists are growing new bones, arc
transplanting bones, are grating skin,
are making whole men and women OF
crippled wrecks, are, even, promotng
morality with the surgeons scalpel. 1t
is a great thing, this dream, q wonder
full thing. There is more to be told.