Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1917-04-04
NO EASY LIFE NOW
FOR EVEN BACILLI
Wise Doctors Sic Good Ones
On Bad Ones-War in
Your Throat.
BUGS SPREAD DISEASE
By A. R. GROH.

Once upon time there was a
happy family of Bacillus Diphtheria
who had set up housekeeping in the
throat Of an Omaha citizen.
They were wriggly little fellows,
ranging from one and one-tenth mi
cromillimeters to four micromillime-
fcrs in length. In other words. it
the biggest Of them had been placed
end to. end it would have taken just
100000 of them to reach one inch.
They were active little cusses.
though, and about every ten minutes a
uew generation of them was born,
grew up and married and raised tami-
lies Of their own. ,
Then the doctor came. He looked
at the throat. He took a "swab,
which is bunch of cotton on the end
Of a wire. He swabbed out the
throat. Then he rubbed the swab on
A preparation in a glass tube and he
corked up the tube and told the pa
tent he would call again tomorrow.
He sent the tube to Sherman 4
McCopnelps drug store at Sixteenth
and Dodge streets, where it was
placed in an incubator with a lot OF
other tubes.
Get Fat and Sassy.
Immediately the Bacillus Diphthe-
ria family found living conditions
much improved. The preparation was
lust full Of food. They began increas-
ing and multiplying more rapidly than
ever. They got fat and sassy and
raised children so fast they couldn't
keep track OF them.
Next morning their hopes were
rudely blasted. For they were taken
to the Office of DIR. Millard Lang
field, city bacteriologist and diagnos-
tician.
he reached into each tube with a
platinum wire, got about billion
II the bacilii on the tip, placed them
on a glass, stained them and put
them under powerful microscope.
In an instant he could see that the
bacilli were of the diphtheria family.
That is what he does every morn
ing. Doctors who have sent in the
tubes are notified by telephone or
mail and they tell their patients
whether they have diphtheria or not.
Good Little Bugs.
If they have, the happy bacilli fami-
lies get another jolt when the anti
toxin Is administered to the patient.
The bacifli in diphtheria antitoxin
are good baciili. They don't steal
or drink or gamble and they hate the
bad bacilli that make people sick
Whenever an antitoxin bacillus meets
a Bacillus Diphtheria he jumps on
hmm like a terrier on rat and
kills him. They kill the bad bacilli
by the million.
The Omaha city baeteriologist
makes examinations in cases of. tu-
berculosis, typhoid fever, cerebro-
spinal meningitis. He knows all the
different bscilli by sight.
In the case Of meningitis fluid Is
taken from the spinal canal by tap
ping. Where the disease 10 present
this fluid is thick.
The epidemic form Of the disease
is treated by serum injections. When
the attendant physician thinks the
disease is we'll he again taps the
spinal canal and sends the fluid to the
bacteriologist, who puts q little of It
in tube with some copper sulphate
and heats II. II the disease is all
gone the fluid will reduce the copper
sulphate. Failure to reduce the sui
phate indicates that the disease isn't
entirely cured.
The life Of a bacillus now is not
al easy one as il was in the oiden
times when epidemics used to slay
their millions.