224 



THE AMERICAX MUSEUM JOURNAL 



Xow 3'our son in France runs a very 

 serious risk of becoming infected with 

 this deadly germ. Would you be will- 

 ing positively to forbid any experiments 

 on animals which could teach us how to 

 recognize this infection as early as pos- 

 sible ? Would you forbid any experiments 

 which might teach us how to conquer 

 or better still to prevent this virulent 

 infection and save his life? Which 

 would you prefer should suffer and verv 

 possibly die, a few minor animals or 

 your own son? If a horse or a dog or 

 even a tiny mouse can help in this 

 sacred crusade for liberty and civiliza- 

 tion, if it even suffers and dies, is it not 

 a worthy sacrifice? Should they be 

 spared and our own kith and kin give 

 up their lives? 



I need not wait for a reply ! I am 

 sure you would say "My boy is worth 

 10,000 rabbits or guinea pigs or rats ! 

 Go on! Hurry, hurry! and find the 

 remedy." That is true humanity which 

 will save human lives even at the ex- 

 pense of some animals' lives. 



Xow see the result. By careful ob- 

 servation and experiments with differ- 

 ent remedies the surgeons have discov- 

 ered valuable methods of treatment. 

 But very many still die. Prevention is 

 always far better than cure. At the 

 Eockefeller Institute Drs. Bull and Ida 

 W. Pritchett have discovered a serum 

 which in animals prevents this gas gan- 

 grene and yet does no harm to the ani- 

 mal. It is now being tried on the sol- 

 diers in France. 



Again I ask : Is it not our duty even 

 to insist on such experiments so that 

 our troops may be spared the dreadful 

 suffering and even death following this 

 virulent infection? If the Bull-Prit- 

 ehett serum proves ineffective should 

 not our efforts be redoubled ? The com- 

 mon sense of the American people will 

 reply : "Yes, by all means. You will be 

 recreant to humanity and to your duty 

 if you do not." 



Modern Surgery.— "Lister;' in How- 

 ard Mar.sh"s fine phrase, "opened the 



gates of mercy to mankind." Pasteur 

 and Lister are the two greatest bene- 

 factors of the human race in the do- 

 main of medicine. I am not sure but 

 that I might even omit the last five 

 words. 



The revolution which Lister pro- 

 duced in surgery is so well known to 

 every intelligent person that I need 

 say only a few words. Forty years ago 

 a wholly new surgical era was inaugu- 

 rated by Pasteur and Lister. In the 

 Civil War there were recorded 64 

 wounds of the stomach and only one re- 

 covered. Otis estimated the mortality 

 at 99 per cent. In more than 650 cases 

 of wounds of the intestines there were 

 only 5 cases of recovery after wounds 

 of the small bowel and 59 from wounds 

 of the large bowel — together only 64 

 out of 650 recovered, i. e., more than 90 

 out of every 100 died ! 



The complete statistics of the present 

 war cannot be tabulated and published 

 for some years. I give, however, the 

 result of one series of abdominal gun- 

 shot wounds as a contrast, on a far 

 larger scale and in far worse wounds. 

 Out of 500 such operations, 245 recov- 

 ered! and only 255 died. Contrast 51 

 per cent of deaths in these wounds 

 with mutilation and infection unutter- 

 ably worse than in the Civil War, 

 with 99 per cent of deaths, according 

 to Otis. 



Is not this a triumpli of bacteriologi- 

 cal and surgical research? Would you 

 prohibit similar researches now when 

 your boy"s life may be saved by 

 them ? 



Is not this one of the things that 

 have "been discovered" by vivisection 

 and has not such change in surgical 

 treatment been of "benefit to the hu- 

 man race"? In all honesty would you 

 be willing to have your son treated as I 

 myself (may God forgive me!) igno- 

 rantly treated hundreds during the 

 Civil War? 



This advance I not only think and 

 BELIEVE, but also I KNOW is due to 



