New-York tribune., 1918-07-28

Old Camp and Trench Plaques Routed
and New Diseases and Infections
Adequately Checked

very nlgn. NOW, on the other hand,
the production of tetanus antitoxin,
already known before the war to be
preventive when injected after in
jury, is so large that every wounded
man can and does receive an injec-
ton as soon as he is brought to a
dressing station, since which time
that particular horror has been
checked.
"The case of gaseous gangrens
was quite different. The disease it
self was known, as it arises occasion
ally as the result of accident in civil
life. It's bacterial cause was dis
covered by Professor WEIGH, Of
Johns Hopkins University, in 1891,
and has since received the name of
Bacillus welchii. But gaseous gam
creme on a large scale is an incident
of this war. Like the tetanus baciI-
lus, the gas bacillus inhabits the in
testlne Of animals and is discharged
with the excrement. 1t exists, there,
fore, in cultivated soil, and from tho
soil it gains access to the fur of ami
mails and thus wool often carries it.
In the subsequent handling of wool
and its conversion into clothing, the
gas bacillus may not be destroyed.
When, therefore, particles Of cloth,
as frequently happens, are carried
into wounds by bullets or shell frag.
ments, or when dirt is likewise car.
ried into them, gaseous gangrene
may arise.
The treatment of gaseous gangrene
and suppurations has up to now been
by surgical measures. Young sur
geons have had to learn the prin-
ciples of antiseptic surgery which
those of aseptic surgery had dis
placed, and older surgeons had to
revive their almost forgotten knowl-
edge of the treatment of infected
We unds. The new conditions led al
most Immediately in all the bellig-
erent countries to the investigation
of old and new antiseptic chemical
agents. A supreme effort was being
made to find means Of meeting this
prodlglous menace of wound infec-
tion. Among all this laudable effort.
the method which stands forth as
having met the surgical emergency
best IS the one which goes by the
name of Carrcl Dakin. The peculi
arity of the method is that it applies
in particularly searching manner
an old antiseptic-sodium hypochlo-
rite, deprived Of its caustic properties.
The method, however, includes the
bacterial control of the wound which
gives the indication when it may be
closed without risk. In this way
many, perhaps innumerable, limbs
have been saved and crippling has
been averted, and large numbers Of
lives saved as we'll"
Development of
The Antitoxins.
Among the scientists who have
achieved emirNnce in the alienation
OF wars horrors, Dr. FieXner men
tions DR.. c. q. Bull, of the Rookie
felier Institute, the discoverer of an
antltoxin for the gas bacillus. This
antitoxin, DR.. Flexner asserts, has
ushered in a rev era in the treat
ment of gaseous gangrene.
1T is applicable" he explains, Sin
the manner of tetanus antitoxin as a
prevention of Bacillus welchii or gas
gangrene infection, and it is more
ettlcacious in the treatment of de-
veloped gaseous gangrene than is the
tetanus antitoxin in developed te-
tanus. Moreover, recent experiments
have proven that the tetanus anti
toxin and gas gangrene antitoxin can
be made jointly, so that a single
serum Injection carrying both can be
administered successfully at one
operation. The discovery greatly sim
4 pliies the problem of affording pro-
lection to the wounded from tetanus
and from gaseous gangrene; and in
cidentally greatly cheapens the pro-
duction Of the protective serum"
II the war was made inevitable bv
modern industrial organization, as
L. Flexner believes, it was equally
made possible by modern medical
science. At least, without modern
medicine 1t could not have been
fought on so extensive and pro-
tracted scale. On the other hand.
DR.. Flexner permits US to hope that
some permanent blessings in the tie.,;
OF medicine may accrue to the world
from the present catastrophe.
The war on the colossal scale Ii,
which it is being fought" he says.
is an outgrowth of industrialized
nations; that it can be so waoed