BIOLOGY IN HUMAN AFFAIRS 



There is not as yet any specific method of treatment for 

 typhoid fever, however, that overcomes the disease im- 

 mediately. It has not been possible to prepare by inocula- 

 tion of animals any serum or vaccine that will overcome 

 the organisms in the body. True, vaccine will build resist- 

 ance against the disease in a normal individual; and it is 

 advised, particularly when one is going to travel abroad 

 or in the country or in any place of uncertain water supply, 

 that he be inoculated against typhoid fever. After the 

 disease is once established in the body, however, the vac- 

 cine does not cure it any quicker than the patient can be 

 cured by the usual methods of treatment. Neither is there 

 for typhoid fever, as there is for malaria or for syphilis, a 

 drug which has a specific effect on the germ. Research 

 is tending toward the attempt to discover such drugs or 

 specific biologic methods of treatment, but success is not 

 yet in sight. 



The Pyogenic Injections. Whenever germs get into the body 

 and begin to release their poisonous products, the human 

 being reacts with fever, chills, and with an increase in 

 the number of white blood cells. He seems tired, he may 

 vomit; and sometimes the germs localize and set up small 

 abscesses. There are many types of such germs. One group is 

 known as the pyogenic group, because pus develops when 

 they attack human tissue. The chief members of this group 

 are the staphylococcus and the streptococcus. Whenever a 

 sufficient number of these organisms get into the blood, 

 the person suffers with sepsis, which is commonly referred 

 to by the press as blood poisoning, although the same 

 term is also used for a venereal disorder. 



Usually the infection with the streptococcus or staphylo- 

 coccus begins at some single point on the skin or on the 

 mucous membranes. It may begin because a roughened 

 edge of a collar irritates the skin at the back of the neck, 

 the usual procedure being first a pimple, then a boil, then 



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