Omaha daily bee., 1915-12-30
by WOODS HUTCHINSON, NJ. d.


Although. in the main, the march Of
modern medicine has been series Of
kriumphs. at certain points It's progress
has been checked. II not actually de
feated
While we have been steadily beating
back typhoid tuberculosis and diph-
liberia, most of the diseases which have
baff1ed US have been either maladies OF
later life, like cancer and arterial
kclerosis or conditions depending upon
long continued action OF variety Of Inn
perfectly known causes. like heart dis
base, Bright's disease and insanity.
But there IL also one disease among
lhe pure infections. whose germ has been
identified. whose active cause known for
IfFearly thirty years past which st!ll de
I files U.S. and that is pneumonia.
! In fact for some ten or fifteen years past
we have been faced with the singular
snd disgusting paradox, that Of the two
greatest and most fatal diseases OF the
lungs, while tuberculosis has been steadily
Reclining, pneumonia has been rapidly
Increasing IN deadliness.
Twenty years ago tuberculosis caused
bbout one-seventh of all the deaths in
the United states: pneumonia, about one
10 about one-twelfth Of the deaths, while
pneumonia has raised to one-tenth.
Yet. curiously enough. the community
keems entirely unaware of the shifting
relations in deadliness between these two
serious diseases. While it is desperately
afraid Of tuberculosis, II st'll regards
pneumonia as one of the rather more
basily recoverable of the serious dis
bases.
One reason for this is probably that
pneumonia of all types is q more COM
mon disease than tuberculosis and re-
huires. so to speak. only about half the
mortality to cause the same number OF
heaths; 20 that we have all known scores
Of people who have recovered from pnet-
tnonia. or lung fever"
Another Is that unlike most Infections,
one attack Of pneumonia confers no i'm
munity or protection against another: in
, ksct, rather the contrary; and man may
heurvive the first, second and even third
attack Of lung fever to die I'm his fourth.
One reason why pneumonia so baffled
medical skill was that although the germ
or, rather, germs-for there are at least
four varieties of them. each producing a
d fferent type of the disease-were we'll
spreads to other human beings. and It
was for a long time rather difficult 10
transmit It experimentally to animals.
Further than that, the pneumo-coccus
which produced the most serious types
of the disease was, IL not identical with.
butte hard to distinguish from two or
three types Of streptococcl which were
found in abundance in the human mouth.
about the roots of the teeth and in the
tonsils, even in conditions of perfect
health
So that we were driven to the dis
couraged conclusion, that some state oil
the system" or lowered resisting power
pr other unknown factor was necessary
in order to allow the pneumonia coccus
10 get foothold in the lungs and pro
luce the disease; and there the case
hung for a number of years.
Considerable Improvement in all but
the most virulent type OF cases was pro.
duced by the introduction of the open
air treatment, with abundant feeding
similar to that relied upon In tubercu-
hosis. But we could not honestly say
that we knew OF any drug or remedy
which appeared TO have a directly cura.
tive effect upon the disease.
About three years ago DR.. Rosenow o
he University of Chicago. announced tn
2 results Of an exceedingly brilliant an,
ingenious study of the different form
of streptococci, the parent type OF germ
from which most of the pneumococc
were believed to be derived. and tn,
changes In virulence or deadllness whicl
they would undergo under differen
methods OF cultivation and treatment
To put 1t very roughly. the practice
result OF his researches was that thes
Etreptococci. which are the ordinary pu
germs of dirty" suppurating and in
fected wounds. could, under certain con
ditions. become incubated or Matched I
higher degree Of poisonousness. so tha
they would attack the great vital organ
OF the body the lungs. the heart, tn
stomach, the intestines or the joints
After a particular group or strain ha
acquired the faculty OF attacking tn
lung IL became for all practical pun
poses a pneumococcus. and, II inoculate
into an animal. would breed true" an
show a tendency TO attack the lung
that animal.
Under a somewhat different form
Matching the streptoooccus would acquiI
an aptitude for the heart and the joint
and then become the streptococcus
rheumatism.
The next thing was. OF course, to tel
out his theory; and the last month he
seen reports Of results based upon Ros'
ISfows method from two different inst
buttons, the University Of Chicago no
pital and the Hospital of the Rockefell'
Institute in New York.
One hospital was using vaccine col
sisting OF an injection of a large nun
Der OF dead germs Of the pneumococc'
type grown I'm animals, or what Al
known as detoxicated or imprisoned
living germs OF the same type; the othe
with a serum extracted from the bloc
lof animals who had been injected Wi
cultures OF pneumococci and recoVere
Both were most encouraging.
Both had confined themselves chiefly
s=asz=z.Sss@