Evening star., 1927-04-21
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

The London Times Weekly has cele-
brated, with a special health and
hygiene number (April y, the centen-
| NAL anniversary of the birth Of Jo-
seph Lister, and at the same time
| the centennial of the birthday or Louis
Pasteur December 27, 1929 and the
birthday of Sir Patrick Manson, the
father of tropical medicine" QS44'
1929.
The special number of the Times
| Weekly is extraordinarily rich in its
review of the marvellous progress IN
medical and surgical science within
the time marked by the century OF
Lister. Pasteur and Manson. 1t may
be presumptuous for q mere layman
| to comment on the facts OF so COM
plicated and progressive sciences as
surgery and medicine, yet the romance
| of their development is excuse Tor
even a layman's interest, guided by
such a mine Of facts from scientists
as contained in the Times Weekly.
A comment upon a certain expert
ence Of the layman, made by a as
tinguished bacteriologist OF WASH
ington, may be taken in self-defense
against any charge of audaeity. be
sides, this is not scientl1c treatise
for enlightening doctors of medicine
but cursory sketch for the generahty
of readers.
The story eliciting the remark OF
the bacteriologist aforesaid was an
account of how the writer, then Nv
ing in Paris, accidentally became an
eye witness and ear-witnesss TO Louis
Pasteur's first announcement or VIC
x-ala fnt a
of hydrophobia. 1t was in the Fan
of 1885. when the writer noted
groups of men standing on the portlco
of the Academy of Science and ne
ioined the groups, out of sheer curl
osity lust when there came the
sound of great hanclapping within
the building.
has announced a wonderful discovery
how to prevent or cure hydro
phobia! C'est merveilleuX!
Next morning, the eager cor[e-
spondent American visited the apo-
ratory where M. Pasteur personally
conducted him for an hour or more
amongst his guinea pigs ana rapplts
and explained the whole theory OF
tha attenuated serum, the gradually
increased strength of daily doses ana
the greater rapidity of incubation Oh
his serum that the incubation OF the
germs introduced into the bite OF
a mad dog or mad wolf. Before the
Germs of the bite could incubate the
| SERUM had already incubated ana
| stimulated the resistance OF the
blood of the victim until he was mn I'M
mune against the bite germs Wnen
| they incubated their bacteria. nov
natient he was with the dullness ana
oINO nf
60. the writer cabled the first news
of that scientific marvel to America
h1,+ . greater marvel was necessary
before the cable could be used. 1t was
necessary for very limited knowledge
| of French. and absolutely blank knoWl'
| edge of the new science called bac.
| teriology. to grasp and digest the mover
| story given out by one recognized as
| profound genius of science. And thls
| is the comment of the Washington oac
| teriologist, decades Thereafter;
ssThe fact that Pasteur made you
| understand, under the circumstances
only demonstrates what genius he
was. An ordinary man would have sc
| shrouded the essentials with technique
| that YOU could not have known what
| he was talking about. -
Prior to the Pasteur discovery 4O
! per cent of victims of the Lites or mao
! dogs or mad wolves died without nope
| of cure Under Pasteurs treatment,
| less than l per cent die--usually be
cause the treatment is begun too late
for the serum to outrun the incupauon
| of the hydrophobic wound.
X X X X
The discoveries of all three--Lister'
| Pasteur and Manson-were along
similar lines. "the science of the in
finitely small" They overturned the
! hitherto theory of spontaneous life
derived from inert matter and proved
that all such life was derived from liv-
| ing organisms.
Joseph Lister, born in Essex, Eng
land, succeeded his father-in-law as
clinical surgeon of the University of
Edinburgh. He found that when
wounds were kept absolutely free from
contamination or exposure they were
free from suppuration. In 1874 he
! wrote to Pasteur:
ss.AII0W ma fo taxa this 0I3nQetuHttN