Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 January 1901 — War on Microbes [ARTICLE]

War on Microbes

That the length ot a man’s life is much greater now than it was half a century ago is shown by statistics, notwithstanding all the talk of the good old days. Millions of years have been added to the aggregate number lived by man. These years have been gained mainly by the war on microbes. So long as the microbe was unknown as the cause of nearly all disease medicine was mere guesswork, while sur-

Their Destruction Has Noticea-bly Lengthened Hum&n Life.

gery was in many cases butchery. The discovery of antiseptics revolutionized surgical operations. In medicine, too, the advance has been astonishing. Many diseases have been practically driven out of the country. The terrible typhus fever—known as a “dirt disease,” which means a microbe disease—used to kill our forefathers of the early part of the century at the rate of 8,000 to 10,000 per 43,000.000.

Now it kills less than 80 individuals — a saving of 8,000 or 9,000 lives every year. If smallpox were as bad now as it was half a century ago, it would kill 9,000 people this year. But in reality it will kill less than 100, and perhaps not half of that number. When cholera tried to force its way in, a few years ago, we drove it off with the greatest ease. But if things were in the state they were in in 1849, it would have carried off 130,000 of us. In dozens of disease the same saving of life has been effected. Scarlet fever, if it were as destructive now as it was 40 years ago, would kill 41,000 people. It won’t actually carry off one-sixth of that number. Even diphtheria has been brought under control.