Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-05-11

80 band OF tissue remained to show where 1t
~ had originally been tied. And now catgut
igature is furnished in Theoretically sealed
tubes, immersed in sterile solution.
Later experience demonstrated that anti
septics from anti, against, and septieos,
"putrefaction' less toxic
irritating to the tissues; SO this method has been
placed in surgical practice by the aseptc method which
aims to breUent sepsls.
The science of bacterology dates practically from,
Lister and every medical man of any attainments
call most of the bacteria and germs by their first
and speaking terms with all nearly all of
their families.
Even the mamas of the civilized world when little
Johnny Margaret "barks the skin off" their knee
cuts finger hurles for the Hoo because they aren't
taking any chances with infection of any sort.
1nasmuch every uncooked thing eat and drink.
the air breathe and everything we touch is loaded
with bacteria.-even harmless, necessary milk
swarms with them,-the question naturally arises.
"Why do not bacteria kill all?
A FEW decads ago Iliya Metchnikof-then of St
Petersburg of Paris-pointed out that certain
white corpusces of the blood which he named phago
cytes" from bhagein, ito eat" and cytos "cel1')
the natural scavengers of the blood They const
tue themselves sort of police force, militia, and stand
ing army combined; and when any germs enter the
body Immediately these valiant defenders pounce
upon them
They proceed wrap themselves round the bacteria
much would turn rubber cot inside out the
finger they then pour out poison that kills the
germs, after which they digest them their leisure
When they have reached the stage of gudntnn snffe
they unwrap themselves from the remnants of the din
ner, and repeat.
This good for the host and the phagocyte but bad
for the bacteria. Sometimes however the legions of
phagocytes, white leucocytes call them.
reduced in number, germs that numerous and
powerful enough to destroy them gain entrance Then
the victim who furnishes the battle-ground for these
microscopic terrors becomes really i'll. When this
he IS in for siege of something Unless the dis
be aborted eruptive diseases, by
ing the patient with calcium sulphid until he smells like
very bad egg by giving intestinal antiseptics and
thereby killing off the bacilli, in typhoid he must
wait until the disease has its
The that disease runs its course self
limited is that at the expiration of certain time
five to days in pneumonia fourteen to
IN typhoid, seventeen to twentyOne in smallpox ETC.
the swarming armies of germs have thrown such an
amount of excrea into the circulation that this poison
reinforced by the toxin developed from the decompos
ton of billions of dead bodies of their comrades kills
them ofunless they first kill the patient This shows
that dead germs may be extremely useful In fact the
deader they the useful they may be in murder
ing their sisters cousins, and aunts.
This is the principle Of vaccine therapy few billion
parasites developed in Couture" Then they
killed by boiling and, together with their lend prod
ucts filtered off, and injected into the patient. This
is most dscouraging to the army of invasion. and IS
probably the scientific known method of terminal
ing their existence.
Another of defense against the infinitely little
foes of humanity is the development by the cells them
selves of poison nmical to the welfare of the bacillus
This is antitoxin- marvellous agent it is too.
The phagocyte frequently becomes satiated from
overlooking, or apathetic and Unconditional from dis
enlargement Then he requires serum stmulant
The germs that he should be actively destroying are
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