Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 September 1893 — THEY DEAL IN DEATH. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THEY DEAL IN DEATH.

BITS OF ORGANIC MATTER DANf GEROUS TO LIFE. | r sw Diphtheria, Malaria, Pneumonia, Typhoid Fever and Asiatic Cholera Microbes hook and Act—Methods of Checking and Controlling Diseases. Valne of Vaccination. It is almost a “fad” nowadays to ■peak of microbes and bacteria. The most uneducated layman knows that

cholera and pneumonia are caused by micro-organ-isms, small beings invisible to the naked eye. Still, bacteriology as a science has been in existence only a short time. This

science has shown that the world of micro-organisms is composed of species like the rest of living nature. Thus the microbe of cholera and the microbe of pneumonia have properties essentially different. It is interesting to know how the microbe acts after it enters the system. Its objects are to multiply and feed, and its methods of propagation are simple and rapid. After it has grown to a certain length it divides in the middle. The two thus created soon form four, and so on. Suppose a microbe divides into two during the course of an hour. These divide into four after two hours, into eight after three hours, etc. When twenty-four hours have passed the number of microbes attains the formidable sum of 62,500,000. In two days there are 287,500,000,000. After a week their number could only be expressed by a figure of fifty-one periods. Microbes feed on tissues and blood, hut their power does not lie in this. They poison. Each microbe has tbq

faculty of secreting a certain poison in the system at the,place where It vegetates. These j parasites by their process of life bring about a decomposition of the substance they

have fastened upon and these decompositions have specific poisoning effects on our system. The symptoms of this poisoning are identical with the symptoms of the disease of which the microbe is the generatdr. It can easily be proved that it is by the action of these poisons exclusively that the disease is caused. If, for Instance, one cultivates the isolated microbe of cholera, under conditions favorable to its growth in some nutritive liquid at the right temperature for a certain length of time, it will decompose the nutritive liquid, which thus takes the place of tissues, and thus form a certain quantity of its specific poison. How can this mysterious and intisfble foe be successfully grappled with? The most simple suggestion,’says a

writer In the Chicago Tribune, seems to look for isomething that will destroy the miferobe, the direct cause of the disease, even after it had taken strong .foothold in our

system. A long and patient coot*# of experimenting will undoubtedly bring to light a pumbef''' of substances, each capable of destroying a certain species of microbe, without, at the same time, harming the system. 'At present only a few such substances are known, and these were found by chance. For instance, everybody knows that corrosive sublimate and Jovoforme are capable of destroying the germs of suppuration and of wound fever. These are, in consequence, extensively used in surgery as aseptics, «nd antiseptics. A simple suggestion’lor killing microbes In the system could be based on the fact that certain micro-organisms perish at a temperature oply a few degrees above

the normal temperature of our body- " Why not, therefore, when the first symp- 1 toms of a disease! brought abotit by' such microbes appear artificially, raise the patient’s

temperature a few degrees, so killing the germ and preventing the disease? Some of the methods have been satisfactorily tried. At present, however, there is''a better means that bas already giVen splendid results and is destined.tjq astonish the world. Vaccination against cholera, pneumonia, typhoid fever, eta, is now only a question of time. It may be a lew years only before a child can be vaccinated against every infectious disease and be thus protected for life against the greatest danger that constantly threatens humanity. One of the chief difficulties in all these examinations is that man cannot be experimented on. Now and then a courageous scientist, thoroughly convinced of the correctness of hia ideas, will experiment on blm-

self. < He will vaccinate hi ms elf against a certain [disease and then ltry by all possible / means to contract it. If he fails to get it it proves, of| course, that hi? vaccine is good.

▲ll experiments on man made in this direction have so-far proved successful. Science happily has no martyr In this cause. • ' Certain animals cannot contract certain diseases, They possess a natural immunity. For instance, it is impossible to give a chicken pneumonia, although a mouse will readily take it. Pasteur’s first -discovery in SsHSSIit

«mb* is injected,,jjnder their skin, only have a slight and rapidly pan-

ing attack, if mlcrobes that have been in contact with the air for soma "months are injected. After the chicken on which Pasteur experimented had regained its 'natural

strength and normal condition he made a second injection with ordinary micrdbes not been in contact with the air long. He found the chicken had acquired perfect immunity against the disease, large Quantities of very active microbes exercising no effects whatever. Pastteur at once saw the close analogy between this case and the case of a person who after passing through one attack of scarlet fever is protected against a second one, and basing his work on this first fundamental observation built up his whole system. By long contact with the air the microbes, which had given Immunity to the chicken, had lost a great deal of their virulence. They had been weakened. The next thing to be done was to weaken the virulence of the different kinds of microbes, to inject them, cause a slight affection, and thus bring about an artificial immunity. This has been tried for almost every known disease and in almost every case with satisfactory results, especi-

ally in animal diseases, where extensive experimenting Ws possible. Thousands of sheep and f horses and cows are vaccinated yearly against a great number of diseases. Pas-

teur’s treatment Is recognized as effective all over the world, though only practiced since July 6, 1886. In view of the cholera danger, a few words about the progress of vaccination against this most dangerous and terrible of epidemic diseases seem timely. The first man to try vaccination against oholera was a Spaniard, Dr. Feran. He went to work most unscientifically. He made ose qf his, knowledge more for making Sttfltobd, bept histreatplaced himself on a bad footing with the scientific world in general. The consequence was that great opposition arose against him and his methods, so that ultimately he was forbidden to practice. Dr. Haffkine at the Pasteur Institute last year made some more experiments, and a few months ago published a few notices relating to his work. He found a means of weakening the microbe of cholera, and discovered that after vaccinating himself with this weakened virus he had obtained perfect immunity against the disease. He tried many means of taking the disease, injecting strong and active virus, but without any results whatever. After observing a number of other cases, he expresses his opinion that the problem Is solved. A German named Kleinperer also vaccinated himself, and found that his immunity was so great that an injection of a trace of his blood to an animal conferred Immunity on it in turn. Dr. Haffkine has expressed his intention of practicing his vaccination in Siam on large numbers of patients. Vaccination itself is perfectly harmless and without danger. The slight discomfort felt during a few hours is insignificant, iand the immunity acquired flffliqst Cholera apparently absolute. NewHpaQgjjg M Necessities of Life. The newspaper has become a necessity to Americans, and to be shut out from a knowledge of what is going pq ta lift# world would be as great a to rdship to them as any other except lack'of food, clothing, or shelter. The life is more than meat, and., the body more than raiment, and the satisfaction of the mind is as legitimate as the satisfaction of the bodily wants, and of a higher order. The newspaper is the university and the library of the people, the common school of manhood. It is the gr6at debating club of politics, the exchange of business, the record of each day of human experience. It is necessary to the proper discharge of the political duties of the citizen. But a newspaper, at least a good newspaper, is more than a necessity. It brings into the narrowest life some sense of the vast life of the world. It is full of tragedy and comedy, wit and passion, the heroic and the humble, the crime and the merriment of nations. It is a great realist history. It is a daily commentary upon human nature.

> Cannibals of the Ocean. Such fierce carnivorous fishes as exist in the depths of the'ocean are unknown qt the surface. There is a “black swallower," which devours other finny creatures ten times as big as itself, literally climbing over its victim, first feith one jaw and then with the other. Another species is nearly all mouth, and, having no power of locomotion, it lives burled in the soft ooze at the bottom, Its bead alone protruding, ready to engulf any prey that may gander into its cavernous jaws. There is a ferocious kind of shark, resembling a huge eel. All of these monsters -are black as ink. Some of them are perfectly blind, while others have enomous goggling eyes. No ray of sunlight ever pierces the dark, unfathomed caves in which they dwell. Each species is gobbled by the species next bigger, for there is no vegetable Ufa to feed on.—San Francisco Examiner. -

. Driving a Horse to DrinkA sculptor in town has had the horses of several fashionable private b stabled 'at his disposal for models this summer. One day some of the sculptor’s .friends had some whisky to drink in his studio. They gave the horse a little The next day J the groom wondered why that hors* tugged at his halter so when he was, being led to the studio. He seemed to be Very anxious to get ther£ - He was restless and whinnied txaxiagiy, and was entirely useless as a?model, until the sculptor thought of the whisky. The horse got another drink,_a ad thereupon became a model model. Now he demands a drink every fiay before he will pose, and occasionally be demands a drink between drink*.—New York Sou

PNEUMONIA.

ASIATIC CHOLERA.

TUBERCULOSIS.

TYPHOID FEVER.

ANTHRAX.

DIPHTHERIA.

MALARIA.