The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-12-19
SHORT COURSE IN srREpTococcoLoG'

Whether you consider reptiles interesting and
 beautiful or not certainly your education is
 defective if 1t does not include an elementary
 knowledge of herpetology.
 Just so, every should have short course
 in streptococcology for the sake of his own
 health and safety Here 1t is. Take 1t or re- | main ignorant, you prefer.
 Of the several types of bacteria or germs that commonly produce Inflammation or suppura- tion once called Strepto s)ccus because it occurs in the form of chains like strings of beads rath- CT than in single units like grains or seeds (coc- cus) or groups or punches like bunch or grapes tStaphylOcoccus). IS the most virulent and malignant to man. Most laymen have read or heard of the part played by one or another strain of Streptococcus in outbreaks of septic sore throat carried in milk from cows that have inflammation of the uddcr. Then there is the frequent association of a Streptococcus with acute infectious arthritis (infammatOry rheumatism, rheumatic fcver). We know that erysipelas is caused by Strep- tococcus. Drs George r. and Gladys Dick re- ported in 1921 that they had produced typical sore throat by inoculating volunteers (students) with pure cultures of a hemolytic (blood de- stroyng corpuscle- -dissolving) Streptococcus isolated from early acute cases of scarlet fever. Again in 1923 the same famous brother and sister team, having proved that one may con- tract scarlet fever without the rash, reported that lin further experiments they had ovserved that the same Streptococcus hemolyticus may cause typical scarlet fever in one person, sore throat and malaise and fever without any rash in a second person, and perhaps no i'll effect at
 all in third person who happens to be im- mune.
 Still later the Drs Dick reported their obser- vations of the effects of noculating volunteers with hemolytc Streptococcus cultures obtained from the skin of patient suffering with erysi- pelas; the students inoculated felt o. k. from A to 46 hours after the inoculation. The time elapsing from the moment of infec- tion to the beginning of illness Is called the
 incubation period In scarlet fever the incuba- iton period is ordinarily three or four days, but sometimes only 90 to 40 hours and in few
 cases as long as six days
 At the end of the A to 46 hours incubation. f fIo eff apfa tonstis, with fever, malaise headache, leuko- cytosis (sudden increase in the number or white corpuscles, phagocytes. in the blood). The illness lasted three four days. Cultures from the throats of these volunteer invalids
 showed the same hemolytic Streptoccccus as had been obtained ordinarily from the in1amed skin of the eryspelas patient, but none of the volunteers had crySipelas
 Thus it is evident that the same germ may cause scarlet fever in one patient. sore throat and fever without rash in another patient or I erysipelas in still a third case.
 And that isn't the half of what the strepto- coccns can do. 1t figures as the main or per- haps the only germ responsible for the most serious septic infection of wounds and acute septicemia (acute blood poisoning). It Is re- snonsibIe for the most serious cases of appen- dictis and peritOnitis In Tact you may quote me as saying the Streptococcus is thoroughly bad customer without single, redeeming req | turc.
 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS When the Dictitians Disagree | One dietitan says vegetables should Dc
 cooked in plenty of water in an open vessel.
 otI,cr says they should be cooked without any
 water in a tightly covered vessel. (M. A. WI l Answer--It Is q matter of personal taste or | preference. It is always well to use the water | in which vegetables are cooked to make soup | or gravy.
 | No Egg Massage. Thank You l You claim the skin doesn't absorb. Don't take
 my word for it, but just rub your face with
 plenty of the beaten white of egg and let l it dry thoroughly, say for 20 minutes. If the | skin does not absorb anything, why the tight
 ening of the skin and the muscles under the
 skin? l.. q. P0
 ! Answer--And say .babies don't have collie. I in spite of the fact that one know hollers like everything if his dinner happens to be 30 mtn-
 utes late getting back from the movies.
 shortly to have nn inpactcd moar extracted. 1 selecting tho ADcsthetIc
 Local anestipetic will not suffice. Gas makes | nic III. Ether has terrible effect my hair. Could a scdativc. sueil as - De used cf- TcctiycIy? Is a doctor's prescription necessary to obtain H? (H. LD
 | Answcr--,rhe physciian, surgeon or dentist can administer whichever anesthctic he deems best. without prescription. Leave 1t to the doc ecopyright. John F. Dilie Col