Show Ii D Death fb Vanquished B HI Science How the Death Rate Has Been Diminished Great Advance in the Healing Art Special Serums For Pneumonia Epidemic Cholera Bubonic Plague Typhoid Fever Yellow Fever Rabies Elements of Coal Tar 1000 by Cyrus Edson Edon Ed on M L D Dt the whole period from 1830 to I lit t ir ar advances in medicine I th 11 ibl b by the Initial steps tep 11 J p r T h i h r l t In fl th discovery of or tox li hn ul folloW olow followed d upon ono an r hoi hol 1ST b be e termed the first tI I lt t i t proa produced cd by Uy the action eUon of or oft ort t germ grm upon starch tarch taro or sugary t 0 1 j I H th germ enn splits SPIlLS up sugar b 1 d add 80 gAll g and alcohol so soV V other organic 1 tM acting upon I ta a the tha latter Into new now nowr I ha having vine poisonous r r j Thesa ThO 8 poisons II are Bre given to 1 In the tho Court of the Pasteur Institute Inc tit tc Nany of the Most Important t Investigations Investigations I in Serum Therapy Have Been Made at This Great Labora Laboratory Laboratory tory and This Picture presents Group of Investigators at Work I f al in Ill constant t ln r 4 tI un on U onti 1 ti j tc l Is H Fast th them fn ill 11 I It fH YM rm of i a I I x n a o tb Is tl fauna f fI I 1 v the hP t property of N lh and od our ew i C ii Iii iii i cau by y th the original J 1 Th The serum UM u to In i mi at lt I 1 1 i is Ii oiw of h n results c L j ili v r aid the other i ir 1 1 II i f flowing th au aue r i I 10 i i that i L chronological al j history of or them would be out of or the ques quee question tion lion In a brief newspaper article so 50 1 I will merely merel sum the h most mot Important results under the heads of ot the various diseases In Jn question que Progress In Serum Therapy Pneumonia Identified by Franket In 1884 1881 serum precipitated by Jansen in Encouraging ing In treatment reported by Lara Prot zoll De Do Roust Renzi elba ker and Wash Washburn Washburn burn Parre Parts reports hat bat he lies has produced a serum which was successful In twenty tWi nty eases case Ten Tell oth r clinicians have bave reported favorably on this serum jerum Experiments Experiment now IQ In progress In New York are giving encouraging results r but are as yet un und decisive d e Epidemic Cholera The inoculation of ot numbers of people in India with dead I 1 k 11 tI tIr I Ij IJ II II I J j I I I r niia T r of the hoet eMe bacillus has met Among 7 1 with success S I te there were WIC ea eases of o and n I fw deaths A 2144 coolies 8 on the estates les will a h were re not inoculated titers ware were SO 50 caw case and ISO deaths deeths showing a R death d th rate of 35 IK p lW 1100 In tn tho inoculated an 7 p per r 1 Xi in tho thoP I lOft left unprotected of or experiments there wore were In another et t four deaths d among lW inoculated I coolies i and end thirty deaths among 19 who ho remain remained ed unprotected Later experiments are I said to have resulted ever more favorably As to t its curative value I may add that t t the serum tm Is said to huge haVe reduced the I deaths In the tho Bird HIrd cholera hospital y 21 2 per pir j I I and that tat among treated earlier In the disease teh mortality was from 70 O per cent to 14 per cent I j Plague At there were ware warel w re reI l I two cases and eighteen deaths l I among fRi inoculated parsons as aR against t tI I i I ases and deaths among 85 tec tod This s shows a reduction c j 1 1 of SO per cent n In ln the sd death d rate e In Da I mamA maim the deaths among the inoculated I wore 16 per er Tent ent nt as me against 24 2406 2106 06 per cent I per cent among the unprotected Other experiments have resulted equally welt well I Typhoid Fever Inoculation with dead bacteria JI in n a number u of r cases Ss gives some I indication that t a persons n may be rendered 8 immune to the disease sease but nothing de do decisive claire has been n accomplished Yellow Fever Several Inoculations have been made but the results have hae been of a avery very verv uncertain nature The Indications I to ba he that In the thi very ery early earl stages of ot the dIsease disrate d serum exercises a curative influence e Rabies Tetanus Pasteur and his suc successors successors successors have reported man many cures and preventatives but the doubt as a to whether er the cases oases TV were ere genuine rabies and true tetanus always exists For these statistics I beg to acknowledge acknowledge acknowledge edge my Indebtedness to Dr Herman Horman M L Biggs of the New N w York board of health Chemistry In Medicine I have dealt so extensively with the sub subject jest of ot serum therapy because It seems s ms at this time Urns to be the treatment by b which we are destined to overcome many of the most serious diseases known to man roan but there is itt a science to which so far as practical practical results are concerned we are oven even more Indebted I allude to chemistry In all Its many branches physiological chemistry thermo 1 chemistry and electrochemistry It was too the study of thit science which led to the discovery that all substances consist of ot combinations of or elements grouped on reg regular r ular plans which might be to the grouping of ot blocks in a mosaic pavement ant UTIl the chemist after atter obtaining certain C molecules from one substances might re regroup regroup regroup group them so as to form a substance different It was found fur for instance in tance that the ele dc elementary atoms or of such an m unpromising as a coal tar might be regrouped M Co as to form the active principles In other substances as the tho oil of and quinine QU wintergreen and ic acid and in fact tact an infinity of or nitrogenous products Given a quantity of ot coal tar ibo thu chemist of ot today with the aid of or heat electricity and some other necessaries can produce the active principles of ot al at almost almost most any an in fruit or vegetable ve and In my opinion the tho time Unto Is not far tar distant when such foods will be produced for actual feeding purposes s and be combined with some basic tissue let us say sa for Instance wood nood alp In such a II way that it will be difficult except by the tho appearance ap rance to dis distinguish distinguish distinguish between the natural and the arti artl I Curatives From Prom Coal Tar TarIn TarIn In recent years yearb the chemists hae have evolved from coal tar such drugs as s antl anti salol and anda IL a host hoot of less loss known remedies such as no human mind can remember or contain i iThe iThe The chemists have also succeeded succeed d In Iso Isolating isolating I lating Ing the tise I of o a large 1 number of druit such Buch as coca ceca o ned and l d m mcl pro ro dicing cl l from them such agents as cocaine au nu and which have hae proved of or immense value In tho tim practice of or medicine and surgery and lastly I would add that physiological l chemistry has proved an tin inestimable aid in the ding dlag diagnosis of diseases and that analyses or examination of the urine MM sputum blood saliva perspiration perspiration tion even eh the Ibe edE breath of or pat patients give to us an accuracy In this regard to which the tho earlier physician was o a stranger It may be said In fact concerning most mt diseases that the past two decades have witnessed revolutionary onao methods in their treatment Rheumatism for tor instance has been found to result from faulty tault metabolism metabolism or in fact tact from poisonous changes In the food during digestion and may IDa in inmost inmost most m t cases be controlled by changes In diet and also in part by b new Typhoid fever we know now to be b caused by poisons generated by certain germs ger which Infect the bowels bow and which thrive on nitrogenous food We therefore withhold such u h food and admin administer adminIster ister such medicine as at will tend to de stroy and dislodge the germs and coun their poison in the system stem We Ye have learned also that th t In cases of at pneumonia monia the patient wIIL wil usually recover If he can n be carried pat paia a certain critical ti point et in his Paa and ana this h can be fre frequently frequently accomplished o jJ in case cae by the inhalation of pure oxygen Even the mu much Jh dreaded con consumption when taken at Its first stage f Is susceptible l in r of cure and ii I 1 might m go on citing clUng other instances of ef f Improved treat treatment treatment ment mont almost infinitely Victories Over O i Disease But asks the reader whet what effect have these new methods and amal new remedies had upon the general death rate The an answer answer Is contained COnto ned In the following table which shows the reduction In the death rate In New York City during the past years yean ars A A similar reduction has been effected In every community In itt Inthe the civilized world Per General cent death under rate Total Deaths 5 on entire Deaths De I 5 total pop 1874 S m 13 2787 rr 87 1875 Its 1 1876 6 It 10 21 7 Jl 1 1877 6 1878 2413 Jl 1800 iS H j 2541 41 1881 1882 17 8 2961 13 55 25 2580 SO 1184 3 I 2582 2182 82 1815 35 li 7 2555 2115 1886 43 2999 2599 1617 16 26 2629 2 1188 1738 43 2629 Ii 1689 9 25 2532 1890 1800 2487 1891 1821 1631 1892 2526 fg 1893 ai 1891 2 6 1895 1826 43 J 2311 1896 7 2152 1897 1 1953 1898 1838 1 1 1973 1893 1159 6 12 2 m 36 1841 1 Manhattan and the Bronx 2 Greater New York There re can be no n doubt d that the people of ot this day da go ge through life lite with less le s of or sickness and les le less s of pain than those of or years ago and a delicate but Indubitable proof of the Improved conditions Is shown bown in fie r e death rate of children under 3 I years jears of or age a e whIch In New York has been bt en reduced from t per percent cent In 1874 t to ro per cent in 1898 But while sickness has certainly de tie decreased creased I do ilo O not net pretend that there Is any the less lean l work for the doctors In point of ot fact we are busier than ever eer before People P come to us u now with complaints which they the would have slighted twenty years ago and died of ofa a ft little later but having recovered reco ered through the taking of Or prompt measures they th go on living a to their friends and a source of continued profit to the physicians In fac paraphrase a well welt mown couplet r rHe He who wiro Is sick and gets away Lives to be b sick another day The people of or tl s generation know themselves more mort thoroughly than their ancestors They hey realize hanan ache cheor che or ora ora a pain in man like a in bicy cl ole that the tha m of order and that any an delayed delay the treat treatment treatment treatment ment may ma result disastrously dl Twenty five fie years rs ago the constant cry of or the physician was Had they the called me sue earlier 1 I might have saved saM his Ms life It ItIs ItIs itIs Is less often heard now CYRUS EDSON M 1 D |