THE FRONTIERS OF MEDICINE 



whole body is found to be in a debilitated condition. The 

 blood is not in a normal state, and the reactions of the body 

 to infection are not up to par. 



Perhaps the greatest discovery of medical science in 

 relationship to the control of such conditions has been 

 the usefulness of physical methods of treatment. The ap- 

 plication of heat — either through hot water, hot air, 

 electric heat, or other methods — is usually beneficial. 

 A competent expert can secure for the patient, through 

 the proper use of drugs and physical methods, a consider- 

 able amount of comfort. Sometimes, by the injection of 

 foreign protein substances, he is able to arouse the system 

 to such an extent that the body will shake off the 

 disease. 



Infectious Diseases. Again and again it has been pointed 

 out that the greatest step ever taken by medical science 

 followed the discovery by the chemist Pasteur of the germ 

 causation of disease. When the cause of a condition is 

 known, it is possible to prevent it more certainly, to treat 

 it more accurately, and indeed to eliminate it entirely, 

 if one can obtain public cooperation. When the mode of 

 transmission is quite certainly determined, the task be- 

 comes even less difficult. Thus, typhoid fever, which was 

 formerly one of the great scourges of mankind, is now 

 quite generally under control, and from many communities 

 has been almost completely eliminated. The death rate 

 from typhoid fever has fallen from 35-9 per 100,000 popula- 

 tion in 1900 to 7.8 in 1920, and to an even lower figure in 

 1930. The death rate in large cities of the United States 

 is less than 3 per 100,000. Of typhoid fever the cause 

 is now known. It is understood that the disease is trans- 

 mitted by infected food and water and by carriers of ty- 

 phoid germs. A medical diagnosis exists in the form of a 

 test of the blood which indicates fairly certainly whether 

 or not the individual is subject to the disease. 



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