The Washington times., 1917-03-24
POPULAR MEDICINE
BY DR.. HIRSHBERG
Intelligent Observation of Rules
of Hygiene Will De-
crease Illness.
BY DIR. LEONARD X. HIRsHBERG.

BY DIR. LEONARD X. HIRsHBERG.
There is a battle on between the
human race and the microscopic
germs which help to cause pneu-
monia. While few persons, compare
lively speaking, fall i'll with pneu-
monia, as many as four out OF five
victims sometimes succumb to its
ravages.
Weapons of defense and of offense,
however, are in the process of discov-
cry by DR.. Rufus 1. Cole, of the Rock
efeller Institute for Medical Re-
search; Sir Almoth E. Wright, of
London, and DR.. Alexis Carrel, of
France, not to omit the German sci
entists and research workers of other
nationalities.
1t is a strange fact that for nearly
1000 years-and records of one sort
or the other have been kept some
where-pneumonia, when honestly
diagnosed in institutions where sew
eral qualified men check up the work
of each other, despite all sorts and
changes Of treatment, has seldom had
a consistent death rate of less than
25 per cent. That is to say, opera
tions, sea baths, mud treatments,
open air, leeches, tub baths, and what
not, each had no less success than
present day treatments.
An Astounding Situation.
Nevertheless, the new methods in
vogue, such as the use of the Rookie
feller Institutes four ssrums, =he ap-
plication OF oils end hot cloths to the
chest, and the abolition of the usc OF
fever-reducing drugs, hold out the
prospects that records for recoveries
are about to be smashed.
DR.. Cole concludes that IL, pneu-
monia occurred at times in epidemic
form with the same severity that IT
assaults New Yorkers each winter it
would, to put it mildly. cause great
CONSERVATION and alarm. There are
at present 5000 deaths annually N
New York due to one kind of pneu-
types of pneumonia Yet the whole
city arouses itself over fewer infan-
tile paralysis victims.
1t is a false idea on the part of
many persons that pneumonia only
kills the drinkers. the aged, and the
unfit. More than half of its victims
between twenty and sixty years.
Most types of pneumonia are due to
the same bacterium, namely, the
pneumococcus, IS per cent of which
are caused by types 1 and 2. 10 to Is
per cent are due to type 3, and 25 per
cent owe their origin to type 4.
New Curative Methods.
The saliva of almost all healthy
persons contains one or the other of
these four kinds of bacteria Seventy
FIVE per cent of them are like type T.
Less than IL per cent were OF types
1 and 2. Pneumococci of these last
types tend to disappear from
healthy mouth, just as they do after
recovery from pneumonia. r-
Obviously, to prevent the contagIon
and spread of pneumonia its victims
should be isolated and quarantin..d.
Then a bacteriologist must go to work
swiftly to ascertain which of the four
types of bacteria are guilty in the
victim.
Once that is ascertained, optochin,
which is a new drug to be had at the
Rockefeller Institute, and is known
as ethylhydrocuprein, Is
from animals.
On account OF the difference IN
types OF the pneumonia germ, 1t is
necessary to find out which one Is
guilty before the serum treatment Is
begun. This is done by inoculating a
mouse.
II the victim of pneumonia Is lucky
enough to be infected with type 1
he has a good chance to be cured
with its corresponding serum. Type
2 is almost as good, but the serum
for type has not been very success
full.
OF IS patients treated with type
1 serum only eight died, as compared
with a 25 per cent death rate of the
same type without the use of the
serum, and despite all other treat
ment except the new drug optochin,
which promises much. The serum is
given into the veins.
ICopy't. 1917. by Newspaper Feature service.l