36 



ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



Hydrophobia has been almost stamped out; and so has 

 benefited dogs as well as human beings. 



Smallpox has been practically eliminated in civilized coun- 

 tries by vaccination. During the eighteenth century, sixty 

 million people died of this disease in Europe and multitudes 

 were permanently scarred. The reign of this destruction and 

 death continued until Jenner's discovery in 1796. In Germany, 

 where compulsory vaccination has been enforced, there has 

 not been an epidemic for many years. Adjacent countries 

 not so protected have had numbers of epidemics. 



Typhoid fever in armies has killed and maimed more than 

 bullets. In the Spanish-American War, one-fifth of the sol- 

 diers in national encampments had typhoid fever. Among 

 one hundred thousand men there were twenty thousand cases 

 and sixteen hundred deaths. 



In 90 per cent of volunteer regiments the disease broke out 

 within eight weeks after going to camp. 



Contrast this to the recent mobilization in Texas, where 

 but two cases of typhoid developed and both recovered. In 

 1898 at the Jacksonville camp, with practically the same num- 

 ber of troops, there were two thousand cases and two hundred 

 and forty-eight deaths. 



In operative surgery wonderful strides have been made. 



Anti-vivisectionists would be content to use the same old 

 horribly dirty methods of surgeons employed in the days be- 

 fore Lister, and thereby offer up thousands of human lives to 

 their Moloch. Lister's discovery of antiseptics has reduced 

 the mortality in simple amputation from 70 per cent to prac- 

 tically nothing. Lord Lister in 1868 sacrificed a few guinea 

 pigs and rats, and we have the above results. 



The most useful advances in surgery are not necessarily 

 those which are the most spectacular, nor are these advances 

 based upon accidental or sudden discovery. A great many 

 people have the idea that animal experimentation or other 

 scientific research, consists in striking about hit or miss in the 

 hope that some valuable fact may accidentally show itself. 

 Nothing could be further from the truth. The scientific stu- 

 dent starts out with a carefully elaborated theory or belief, to 

 which he has given the utmost thought and his experimental 

 work is conducted along a well prepared plan for the purpose 

 of proving or disproving his preconceived theory. 



One of the most interesting developments in surgery of 

 the present generation is that which has as its purpose, the re- 



