BIOLOGY IN HUMAN AFFAIRS 



acidophilus organism in the intestine brought out the 

 information that certain types of food were necessary 

 to secure successful implants. 



At the lower end of the intestine the development of 

 varicose veins, commonly called hemorrhoids, represents 

 an extremely disturbing condition. Fifty years ago only 

 quacks attempted to treat this condition by injection 

 methods. Their methods were found to be dangerous and 

 not infrequently fatal. Yet continued study over a period 

 of twenty-five years has developed several methods of 

 injection, and particularly safe methods of prompt opera- 

 tion. The hemorrhoids are now removed under local 

 anesthetics with prompt healing and with the loss of 

 only a few days from work. They can, moreover, be re- 

 moved by electrical desiccation as well as by injection 

 methods. 



Among the unsolved questions of medicine are the rela- 

 tionship of obstruction of the bowel to the development 

 of serious symptoms of shock; the exact relationship of 

 putrefaction in the bowel to the onset of various degenera- 

 tive diseases; and, particularly, the control of infestation 

 of the intestines by worms — conditions which are extremely 

 common in tropical and oriental countries but which are 

 now beginning to be found with increasing frequency in 

 this country. 



The Blood. Long ago it was recognized that the blood 

 is one of the most important constituents of the human 

 body, that it is the fluid which gives life to the tissues, 

 that it takes from the tissues their waste products and 

 conveys them to the organs of elimination, and that it is 

 largely concerned with the ability of man to resist disease 

 and to overcome damage to his body. Not, however, 

 until the microscope was invented did scientific medicine 

 begin to have any clear conception of the constituents 

 of the blood. This fluid represents roughly from one- 



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