The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-05-25
AUTOINFECTTON CAN HAPPEN BUT
 SELDOM DOES

Tho other day wA settled the ghastly auto. OXicatiOn obscgslon 20 far az mo heaith ol our readers is concerned, by showing that from
 the scientific point of view (physiolosy ana pathology injury or poisoning or the Dody py its own excretions Is impossible as long as one
 is able 10 be up and about. This ls not an .oac assertion make 1t only after many years or careful study of tho questions Involved, anu
 assure you ] can't afford to make rash asser- tons which competent medical critics or others may be able to refute. From time 10 t'me something l Fay or teach here does clash frightfully with the traditional theory or DeHel l of the general medical profession, particularly the older practitioners view, and this naturahy teropts poor but honest doctor here ana there
 to commit himself q bit hastily upon my in-
 sanity. But nevertheless go blithely on, apat-
 ing my stand not more than Jot or tntle,
 for nfter alI you sec my assertion bears as
 much weight as tho assertion of another acc r'
 unless he can bring to hls support some se'.h-
 tInc evidence.
 To-day we crave to relieve the casual read CTS mind of another deiusion which. regret to say, is fostcred by too many medical hu-
 thorlties" who are in the habit of writing or
 speaking so much that they lack the spnrc u.ic U time of studying thinking. The nasty itt!c notion of autoinfectiOn Is the doluSon sched- ulcd for demolition to-day, doctors ana ffiends, In an argument this autoinfection idca gets | the old timer out of many tight place. HOW over skIlfuIly you mancuver to isolate hlm or rather his hypothetical patient Tar rom the l haunts of men and then chalenege nm 10 | bring on Il hypothetical cold by exposing the hypo, hetcal patient to imaginary cold ana wet. he can invariably draw the rabbit out of the | silk hat all in fancy. by assuming that thc 1 exposure lowers the theoretical 'reslstancc | of the hypothetical victim and in that slate the | h, v becomes easy prey for the suppositious | germs every respectable hypothetical potentlaI patient traditonally carries on or In his per. | son. A tolerabIy versatile hypothetical patient always has with him fine assortment or | pathogenic samplcs---such as pneumonia germs, l tonsiIitis germs. typhoid, dlphtheria--oh, Oh, | not diphtheria we must be careful about that, | for even the dumbcst laymen look askance at | the doctor who would transmute an alleged cold into diphtherla.
 It Is a beautiful and most convenient little | trick this autoinfcction notion and 1t helps to | smooth the path for many of our foremost health authorities, federal, state or provincial | and municipal, enables them to get out lot | of writing or speeches without the boredom | of much studying or thinking. The only draw | back about 1t is that no one has ever proved | by experiment or even brought forward any scientific evidence to support the theory that an individual may be made i'll by germs he | Ina abitualy carries in his nosc throat or other body cavity The peculiar and characteristic | fact about known germ "carricrs" (such as typhoid carriers or diphtherla carriers) is that | they themselves are immune to the germs they ] give off, but other persons may contract tho disease.