Evening star., 1926-09-28
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

But as expressed by q bacteriOlogist
of Washington not long ago, "Pasteur
could not have made 1t clear to you
| if he had not been so great man,
| for the test of greatness is simplic-
| ity-and PaSteur was the greatest
scientist of his age
Yet. for many years after Jenner's
| and Pasteur's discoveries conserva-
| tives refused to credit them. Today
| Pasteur Is recognized as the father of
bacteriology, and his discoveries in
prevention of infectious diseases
have revolutionized medical practice
throughout the world. He studied
| the germs which were destroying the
French silk industry and the grapes:
| he paid the Preparations" demanded
| by Prussia as a penalty for losing the
war of 1870-paid it by saving the
prosperity of Frances basic enter
prises.
Until a generation ago all surgical
operations were desperate chances
with infection and gangrene. How
| the soldiers Of our Civil War suffered
and died Of gangrene. Then Lister
proved that it was because the sur
geons scalpel and other instruments
| were not sterilized. Today if a sur
geon permits gangrene he Is in
danger of being charged with Grim
inal malpractice. The British Medi-
cal Journal says that Lister saved
more lives than were lost in all the
wars of the nineteenth century. That
covers Napoleons butcher1es.
Half a century ago yellow fever
was the scourge Of our Southern
States and Of all the tropics through
out the world There came a military
surgeon, named Walter Reed. with
| a staff Of other scientists, who studied
| the origin and nature Of yellow fever
and traced it's spread to the bite of a
certain mosquito. Heroic devotees of
science tested the theories by going
| into screened Enclosures with the sus-
pected mosquitoes and permitting
themselves to be bitten-and they
suffered yellow fever. Thus it was
| demonstrated that older theories
/ that the disease was spread through
| infection were disproved. Not until
then was it possible to build the Pan
ANA Canal. because the disease
carrying mosquito routed whites and
| blacks and terrorized survivors.
Due credit is, given to the energy
| of President Roosevelt when he de-
manded that we should "see the dirt
| fly" in Panama, but not until DR..
Reed made the mosquito fly was that
possible. Now, how long has it been
since the South or any other part of
the civilized world has suffered a yell
low fever scourge? Yellow fever is
routed except in parts of Africa.
The greatest military hospital in
| the country is located in Washington
and is named in honor of the man
| who killed the power of the mosquito
and routed yellow fever.
! Marvels Of advance in surgery and
! therapeutics have come out of the
| World War. tuberculosis is not yet
conquered but almost. New methods
of treating it include surgical cutting
out Of the diseased spots of the lungs,
| followed by exposure of the wounds
| in the patients back-eight or ten
inches long by an inch wide and more
| than an inch deep-to the therapy of
direct sunbeams, and in time the great
gaps knit and only sound lungs re-
main.
| And what of the skill with which
| face surgery replaces the disfigure.
ments of ghastly wounds of battle, SO
that at least the wounded may now
laugh at scars" though he had felt
the wounds. which in former days
would have driven him from the sight
of plying public?
! Sanitation-so closely allied to med.
icine and surgery-has done more to
make the world safe for humanity
than has statecraft. The surgeons
work may be more or less spectacular
in its results. but when sanitary water
and milk and foods free from destruc.
tive bacteria prevent typhoid fever
scarlet fever and many other diseases
so familiar in former years, 1t is but