Evening star., 1915-11-14

N INCE that morning last October
~ when a call from Long Island
"A VI came over the wire to DR.. Adolph
W Eichhorn to send the serum which
alone might save the life of aged
lawyer stricken with anthrax, five sim
liar messages have come to the De-
partment of Agriculture and five tubes
containing the precious fluid have been
sent on their beneficent way At least
twice in the race against death the
magic cure has won from the rider of
the pale horse.
So virulent is the poison of this dis
case that except by immediate eXclsion
of the affected part, not always posi-
BILE the life of the patient can be saved
ONLY by the injection of some powerful
serum which stops the fatal growth of
this rapidly growing germ. The great
est demand. however. for the serum and
vaccine is for The protection of cattle,
so 900 of which die annually from this
infection.
The publicity caused by the heroic
efforts of the physicians to save the
life of the aged Mr.. ckpole, said DR..
Eichhorn, has brought about one thing
" hich / greatly regret-the apparent
claim that | discovered the treatment
of anthrax by means of serum. This is
not the fact, and ] am glad to have a
chance to correct any impression that L
ever thought such a thing. If 1 were
that sort of charlatan ! would soon be
exposed, for the isolation of the germ
and the method of treatment by inject
ing a serum are well known and au-
thenticated, having been discovered as
early as 1896 by Eilert. In 1870 Da-
vaine proved that certain ricrocosms
were the cause of anthrax, and from
this meteorological discovery has
grown all that we know about this dis
ease In 1876 Koch confirmed the work
of Davaine, and then Louis Pasteur
produced anthrax in cattle by feeding
them hay sprayed with cultures which
he had made of the bacillus anthracla.
AS a result of this experiment he pre-
pared vaccine containing the weak
ened bacillus.
so you see that it would be ridicu-
Ions to say nothing worse, for me to
pretend to be the discoverer of this
dangerous growth or its treatment by
incubation.
'All we can claim is. that we have
prepared what we believe to be an eX-
celIent serum which may be used by
injection as cure and a vaccine con-
tanning the spore of the bacillus to be
used as a preventive against anthrax;
and the further fact that We had Il
supply ready when the call came for
its use in the case of Mr.. StackDole and
the others.
''One of the gains. however. made by
this publicity is that more people know
the dangers to human beings of this
disease; and in addition to the calls
for the serum, we have had many let
ters from physicians, especially from
the south where anthrax is most prev
alent, asking for notes of the symp-
toms and instruction for the treatment
with serum in these cases
Anthrax is an acute infectious dis
ease caused by specific vegetable
nicro-organismS. and as every species
of domestic animal is more or less sus-
ceptible to its attacks. the disease. un-
checked, may become one of the great
scourges of animal life.
Fortunately man is not as liable to
take these organisms into his system
with his food as cattle are, and the at
tack is usually less virulent when
they enter through abrasions in
the skin than when taken intern
ally for they then gain an en-
int he har they