Evening star., 1953-11-06
Germs Aren't Always
Guilty, Doctor Says
Blamed Too Often as Cause
Of Disease, Group Is Told
By Thomas R. Henry

pIduluS hCkIleSS Oh GERMS, says Df.
Rene J. Dubos of the Rockefeller In
stitute. himself one of the foremost
scientists in the field of anti-biotics to
kill diSeaSe-cauSing micro organisms
There is strong evidence, he told Ma
tional Institutes of Health scientists
the other night, that bacteria and
viruses become dangerous only when
the Setup is fixed for them. Otherwise
even the most virulent of them are
harmless. Every person, DR.. Dubos
said, carries in the body throughout
life host of supposedly deadly mi
crobes" which live in blood and tissues
as harmless guests until something
happens to start them on rampage.
Although the presence of the right
micro-organismS is necessary for the
particular disease, DR.. Dubois insists,
the real cause is the something" or
combination of something's" of which
the present-day physician is usually
quite ignorant. There even is danger,
he told the National Institutes physicians
in lecture given in honor of DR..
Rolla H. Dyer the retired director, that
doctors who eliminate one form of sup
poSedly malignant micro-organiSm with
some Of the extremely potent new drugs
dlC JAoC l1dhlllS IOOLlI III VIC UOOy 1OA
the increase of some worse kind.
Experiments Cited.
Recent experiments have shown, DR..
DuboS said, that it is practically i'm
possible to infect volunteers picked at
random with some supposedly highly
infectious diseases, because expert
menters do not know how to upset the
internal environment so as to produce
the right conditions.
During the last war, he explained, an
epidemic disease causing great concern
to military authorities was bacillary
dysentery. In some areas nearly all
soldiers were victims. The causative
organism was well known. But when
investigators tried to reproduce the
malady in the United States with
human volunteers the effort was COM
plete failure. However, when doses Of
the bacillus, obtained directly from
sick soldiers, we're fed to the volunteers
not a single case of bacillary dysentery
was produced. The best that could be
obtained, and only in few, was mild
syndrome of food poisoning.
Efforts to transmit the common cold.
to which everybody seems susceptible,
lO volunteers IldNG D6SU SNudlIy uIl-
successful. The cause of this malady
which sweeps through communities is
almost certainly virus. 1t is contained
in nose and throat washings of cold
victims. But it is almost impossible
to transmit these at will. Volunteers
simply cannot be made to develop
sniff1es, except in few cases. Most
striking. Dr. Dubois said, have been re-
cent English experiments. Volunteers
were kept in complete isolation for two
weeks to make sure they were not on
the verge of colds at the start of the
trials. Then they were placed in con-
ditions supposed to be favorable to
colds-placed in drafts, subjected to
quick changes of temperature, made
to wear wet socks and sleep in wet
clothes. Still incubation with the
supposed virus produced only occasional
colds The real precipitating factor
which must be very common in every
body's environment remains unknown.
Epidemic Recalled.
The same thing was demonstrated
very Strikingly more than a century ago
when a cholera epidemic broke out in
Hamburg. This was at the dawn Of
the germ theory of disease advanced
by PaSteur and Koch. 1t still had many
bitter opponents among the foremost
physicians of the day. They held that
the micro-organ the two great
biologists had discovered were not the
causes of diseases but only secondary
invaders of diseased tissues. Koch had
Just demonstrated the germ of cholera
and it was found in the blood of all
the Hamburg victims One of his
principal opponents ridiculed the idea
he obtained tumblerfuls of the live
virus from the Hamburg dead and he
and his students drank them. None
developed any symptoms of cholera.
There was something unknown in the
temporary environment of Hamburg
which made it possible for the germs
to cause disease. This something"
did not exist in the environment of the
bold scoffers medical school. A
similar experiment was performed,
with much the same results, with
the tubercle bacillus, which Koch also
had just demonstrated.
Doctors of the Past.
Long before anybody knew anything
about germs, Dr.. Dubois told the Ma
tional Institutes doctors. many physi-
clans were very successful in treating
patients-and some of them acquired
large fortunes. They had no Sufa
drugs, no anti-biotics, no immune Sc
runs. They were not faith healers or
takers but extremely honest, reputable
men. The secret of their success, DR..
Dubois said, probably lay in a highly
developed and perhaps instructive skill
in treating the patient as whole rather
than boxing, as does the modern doc
tor, for one cause of a condition and
treating only that.
The germ theory of disease, he in
sisted. now is probably in its twilight
despite its magnificent successes during
the last century and despite the fact
that new germs and new germ killers
doubtless will be discovered. 1t will
remains as only part of new medicine
which will try to find scientific bases
for the art of the old doctors.
Every living CELL" DR.. Dubois said,
"is the result of all sorts of evolutionary
forces which have put it into equl-
librium with outside forces and with
forces within itself. Disturbance of any
factor in this equilibrium will result
in disease"
The next age Of medicine, he held,
will concentrate more on the equilibrla
than on germs.
Early Snow on the Mountain