Evening star., 1926-06-06
BY CARL SHOCP.

T IMAGINE the following incident:
The scene is the nursery of
maternity hospital. In one of
1he little bassinets lies baby just
four DAYS old 1t is half an hour
before nursing time. A young inferno
enters, accompanied by a nurse, who
is CARRYING in a container some white
fluid that looks like milk.
This baby Is four days old asks
the inferno.
Yes" replies the nurse.
"All right, then-it's time he was
vaccinated. Here. give me that
spoon"
A few drops of the white LIQUID are
measured out and the inferno then
carefully allows the fluid to trickle
into the baby's mouth and down its
throat.
That's ALL" remarks the inferno.
until the second and third doses
later on in the week. Well, here's
another baby that won't get tuber-
culosis. all right.
And perhaps we can imagine an IN
auisitive visitor walking in and de-
manding what they were feeding the
child.
oh" the nurse would reply, un-
concernedly. that's a mixture of milk
and some tuberculosis germs whose
ancestors have been bred for Is years
on sliced potato stepped in cows bile" ,"
The visitor would probably call for
the police, unless she had been read
ing the medical journals. In the lat
ter case she would know that this
strange rite synlboliZes scientific
achievement that may completely
transform. in the next generation,
| mans weary and so far rather un-
fx,l axr1, ,ct rfx HSc
prime disea observation-disclosures,
For the incident related above, no
imagination at all would be necessary.
were we living in France. Newborn
infants are being thus vaccinated
against tuberculosis in and around
Paris at the rate of 1000 a year, de-
spite the extreme novelty of the
thing. The French government is en-
forcing it on troops recruited from
the non-tubercular lands around the
equator. Medical journals everywhere
are giving it editorial space, express
ing a mixture of wonder and hope and
doubt. For IL the French physicians,
Calmette and Guerin, who have de-
veloped the vaccine. can continue
their phenomenal success. it means
that tuberculosis can he stopped from
getting even a first foothold in the
human body.
Perhaps many people have wondered
why 1t wouldn't be a simple matter to
develop a vaccine, a preventive, for
tuberculosis as has been done for
smallpox. Vaccination, of course, SIM
ply means giving the subject mild
form Of the disease by purposely in
jecting some of the germs into the
body. as is done in smallpox vaccina-
ton, making the dose mild enough SO
that it causes little discomfort, yet
strong enough so that the body reacts
to it and builds up in some mysterious
way not fully known a more or less
permanent resistance to any further
attacks of the disease.
The trouble with tuberculosis has
always been that any dose, no matter
how mild. has caused far more harm
than good. The tubercle bacillus sim
ply refused to be toned down to a
moderate enough strength. 1t could
be killed by heat or chemicals and
then put in the body but nothing at
all would happen. The body would
not bother TO react to a dead bacillus.
This was the situation 20 years ago
when Calmette and Guerin, casting
around for a life job in which they
might enrich medical science, decided
to find a way to weaken the tubercle
bacillus just enough, yet not too much.
many another in medicine. is a mix.
ture, OF romance and monotonous
work.
After several experiments they
finally started with some very virulent
tuberculosis germs gotten from q dis.
eased COW. They allowed them to feed
on bits Of sliced potato soaked in bile
taken from the liver of q cow. Not
succulent meal for any one but a dis
ease germ. certainly. but 1t suited the
purpose of the French doctors exactly.
The feeding of prize-winning horses
and blue.ribbon cats for long periods
is common enough occupation, but
| the French physicians did something
far more exciting. They bred tubercle
| bacillus and bred them for IS years
before they got the "blue-ribbon"
strain. All during those 13 years of
watching and waiting countless gen.
erations oe baOlllua appeared, lived on
SLICED potato for q while and died, leay-