The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-11-16


the heat, because there Is quick ad-
iustInent In water drinking sound rnen
chat fails to work In the face of the
slightest want of the normal balance.
Another superstition that has to do
with the health and safety of the race
has just been given solar pleNns
blow. / refer of course to the prohibit
ton In certain states against the use
of boo veal" or the meat from young
calves as a source Of food.
This fallacy, like a lot of other ira
ditions, hangs on niee the edelwetss
II the Alps. 1t arose in the ancient
days with Justice on It's side, for then
there was always DANGER II disease 10
s,.ung calves, and, added to the fact
hat, like olives. kuil",s and oysters
the very sight Of young salves' flesh
was w pleasant, I was son considered
danGe rOus as well US wicked to eat IT.
But all of this is now over. There
can no longer be any danger of disease
If these meats receive the inspection
that other cattle receive, and at pres
ent there is truly no evidence of result
Ing harm. To prove this, DR.. Fish.
painstaking eXperimenter, fed "boo
veal" to a score of people OF various
ages without anything but a pleasant
outcome. Thus another delusion is ex-
ploded.
In these summer days of poison ivy
and hay fever any discovery that con-
Germs those infections-for they are in
fections in man from the fertilizing
principles of pollen In plants--is hound
| to be of timely interest.
Ten years ago DR.. Paul Dunbar, an
| American doctor of Hamburg, Ger
| many, found that the hay fever of the
Germans could be combated in man
ner by the use of a vaccine composed
of the pollen from several grasses,
a m ~ NIL Ia
when used in this country, turned out
to be a disappointment.
Blames the Ragweed
Not disheartened by these 10 years of
failure comes now DR.. G. H. A. Cloves,
of the Buffalo Institute for the Studys of
Malignant Diseases, and announce his
successful observations that American
hay fever has been traced by him to the
long suspected goldenrod and ragwood.
DR.. Groves, by taking some of the
pollen from these flowers and scratching
I or vaccinating it into the arms of the
victims, has been able to quickly diag
| nose exactly the kind of hay fever that
attacks them. The sufferer Is really sem
sltive to the particular fertilizing agent
of the golden rod or ragweed, which has.
no doubt. been previously inoculated by
| bumblebee into his system. This first
| injection from the sting of bee, or may
hap a caterpillar, paves the way for an
oversensitive tissue to become more sus-
ceptible afterward every time the golden
rod blooms
DR.. Cowes was able to show that such
persons were very susceptible to the pol
| len by making solution of the pollen
as weak as one part to half a million
| parts of water. When this Is scratched
on the skin large welt or hive will ap-
pear 10 minutes later. If forced under
the skin. dizziness, itching and an attack
of hay fever can be brought on.
DR.. Cowes, however, has gone beyond
| merely diagnosing the malady. With his
co-workers in Buffalo he has been able
to form vaccine, or immunizing mix
ture, by first freezing the pollen and then
| dissolving 1t in water. He thus hopes TO
rid the country of .hay fever as st. Pat
rick rid Ireland of snakes.
Another novel proposition of the week
that can do no harm and may do much
| good has been offered by DIR. e. Hess,
of Germany, who suggests that those
large swellings over the Adams apple in
the necks of many women and men, called
goitres, may be cured, or at least ma
| terially reduced in size, by treatment with
radioactive substances. He finds that in
| go different localities where goitres aboun
the neighborhoods that are free of them
abound in radioactive springs.
What with the Friedman and Van
cines under fire, and new ones popping
up like Cadmus and his dragons teeth
every day, it is refreshing to learn that
two such conservative savants as Profs
Bierbaum and Rothe. of Prussia, have
gone about an investigation of the
great white plague in cattle that may
lead ultimately to the open sesame that
will eradicate tuberculosis in man.
Typhoid War Had Many Rivals
| These pcrrlo tod
into the blood stream and veins of a
herd of fine cattle many different kinds
of tubercle bacill and vaccines. They
were thus able. after overcoming many
technical difficultis, to find a mixture of
| dried dead bacili that vaccinated the
cattle against the dread scourge.. They
| discovered that they could thus produce
anti-tuberculosis substances In the blood
| which cam be removed and kept In a re-
frigerator. The serum is then ready at
hand as a standard with which to test
the claims of every new vaccine. such as
Friedmann's and Won Ruck's. without
endangerfng the lives of any patients.
This is taking the bull by the horns and
making him serve man with a vengeance.
Typhoid Mary of whom SO much has
been written. has at least 10000 rivals
and competitors If the medical press of
the world is to be belevd. These per-
sons, while not afflicted with typhoid
themselves. have the unhappy faculty of
lharboring a nest of typhoid microbes.
These emerge at unpleasant and unseen
apertures and enter the water, milk food
and linens of innocent persons in the
same households and shops Thus epi-
denies of typhoid arise, and many per-
sons are unwittingly laid low by people
who themselves never fall Ill.
! So extended has this menace grown
IA N 1anf off