Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 March 1885 — MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS. [ARTICLE]

MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS.

disk* Taken by French Physicians In the Cause of Science. Some interesting as well as some very jxtraordinary experiments were made it tne hospital for old men at Breteuil, where the cholera appears to have raged with special force. Although th.s asylum-hospital was perfectly clean—a model of its kind—and the aged men domiciled therein had every comfort which they were capable of enjoying, they died off as if they were suddenly poisoned. Time was when the Parisians would have suspected that poisoners were at work. Not more than a generation age a man, who was seen examining edibles at a market stall in a cholera season, was torn in pieces by a mob because he was supposed to be a poisoner, and because a white powder, which turned out afterward to be pulverized sugar, was found in his pockets. The Prefect of Police, M. Pasteur, and a large number of eminent doctors, went up to Breteuil to see why it was that the old men died off so fast. All the food and drink furnished for the consumption of the inmates was carefully examined. M. Pasteur has not yet made Lis report, but meantime a great deal of twaddle is talked about microbes. A certain doctor who wishes to prove to the world that the microbes of Dr. Koch are without any action on the human organism, and that the dejections from cholera are neither infectious nor contagious, indulged in a curious experiment. A woman of thirtyfive, who, was in the domestic service of the renowned Professor Vulpian, in whose laboratory the doctor who made the experiment is well known, died suddenly with every symptom of cholera fully developed. She had cramps, diarrhoea, spasmodic vomiting, etc. The doctor caused some pills to be prepared with the deletions from the/sick room, and, after he knew that the woman was dead, swallowed them in the form of pills prepared with a little gum and some harmless powder. The experiment was made in the presence of Drs. Charpentier, Pinet, Marcus and one or two others. The doctor up to date is in excellent health. But two Guinea pigs, which had received subcutaneous injections of the same fluid abso bed by the doctor, died shortly afterward with choleraic symptoms. Many es the leading medical authorities say that none of these experiments are conclusive. Desgenettes inoculated himself with the pest (we had a frightful picture of it in the Salon this year). Peter rubbed his gums with diphtheritic membranes. These two seekers after truth were granted immunity from the infection which they thus braved, but they did not prove that the maladies were not contagions.— Paris letter in Boston Journal.