42 Background of Work and Study in Public Health 



lished in the Michigan School Moderator-^ another editorial on 

 Pasteur's vaccine from an attenuated culture. 



Great is M. Pasteur, the French savant. Nothing since [Edward] jen- 

 ner's [discovery of smallpox vaccination 2°} is more remarkable than his 

 recent discovery of the cause of splenic fever, and of simple means for 

 its prevention. He has been able to check the ravages of this fatal disease 

 by means of a peculiar vaccination. Germs of this disease are grown in 

 the laboratory and under certain conditions, the key to which M. Pasteur 

 has discovered, a mild form of virus is developed. Sheep vaccinated with 

 this virus suffer a slight sickness and thereafter enjoy complete immunity 

 from the dreadful scourge. As an example of what he could do, M. Pas- 

 teur selected 50 sheep, 25 of which number he vaccinated with the modi- 

 fied virus. These were but slightly indisposed, and soon recovered. After 

 fourteen days he inoculated each of the 50 sheep with splenic fever virus. 

 The 25 vaccinated animals resisted the infection; the unvaccinated ones 

 all died of splenic fever within 48 hours. The practical value of this dis- 

 covery will be reali2ed when it is known that the loss to the flocks of 

 France from splenic fever has annually exceeded $4,000,000. Vaccina- 

 tions have become general in the departments around Paris. 



M. Pasteur has opened a great field for study. He is practical and his 

 researches are wonderfully suggestive. What if we shall be able to dis- 

 cover and stamp out the germs of yellow, typhoid and miasmatic fevers, 

 by and by, and to reduce the dreadful mortality of diphtheria and scar- 

 letina. It now seems probable! M. Pasteur is evidently on the right track, 

 and a multitude of trained observers both in America and Europe will 

 follow his leadership. 



The Michigan Board of Health, interested in preventing the 

 outbreak, or controlling the spread, of contagious diseases, con- 

 tinued to publish each year compilations of the geographical dis- 

 tribution of diseases throughout the state. Very likely Erwin 

 Smith helped to prepare the Board's weekly reports and summaries 

 which analyzed the diseases of increasing or lessening prevalence, 

 their supposed or known causes, and any valid remedies or cures 

 therefor. In the secretary's report for the year 1882 ^^ was con- 

 tained a reference to Robert Koch's experimental studies of " con- 

 sumption," and it was indicated that tuberculosis, whether in man 

 or animals, is a communicable disease caused by a " microscopic 

 bacillus." In November Smith, in his " short account of the bac- 

 teria," called this the "Bacillus tuberculosis." 



"2 (35): 235, May 18, 1882. 



"" See, Dr. Warren T. Vaughan, Strange malady, The story of allegory, 25-27, 

 Doubleday, Doran and Co., 1941. 

 *'P. 518. 



