DEVELOPMENT OF THE MICROBE KILLER. 49 



tested each combination of gas in a manner similar to 

 that employed with the drugs, to see their action upon 

 raw meat. The results were carefully noted. Suffice it 

 to say that I met with nothing but failure. My gas 

 would not do what I expected. Three times I stopped 

 the experiments entirely, believing that what I was 

 searching for belonged to the impossibilities. I became 

 discouraged and lay down to die. But I could not die 

 peacefully. I was restless from thinking over my fail- 

 ure and dreaming about success. An idea came to me, 

 and I tried again and again. Each time I seemed to be 

 a little nearer success. This gave me perseverance, 

 until I found my little bits of meat improving every day 

 in color, the pores keeping wide open, without the slight- 

 est taint of fermentation noticeable. A little more im- 

 proving, and I had the antiseptic that proved to be an 

 antiseptic, without having experimented on my body. 

 There was great joy in store for me, and I could not help 

 going to my doctor, who generally looked in his book 

 when he prescribed another liniment for my rheuma- 

 tism. I asked him if it was possible to kill the microbes, 

 in the human body. He said ^' no," most emphatically. 

 ' ' We have to kill the patient before we can kill the 

 microbes." I told him, without going into details, that 

 I believed I had discovered something which would kill 

 them. He laughed and said : '^Dr. Koch, Prof. Pasteur, 

 and in fact the whole medical world is working on this 

 question, and no one has found the solution. And as; 

 for you, my dear Mr. Radam, I guess you have the fever 

 again." '^ Well, doctor," I answered him, ''fever or no 

 fever, I won't buy any more liniment, so good-by." 



Six months later he thought differently. Eight here 

 I may mention that I had a conversation of a somewhat 

 similar character, and which resulted similarly, three 

 years afterward with a professor at the Columbia Col- 

 lege in New York City. I went to him with the expec- 

 tation of getting a little information concerning the 

 photographing of microbes. Without showing me his 

 apparatus or giving me any information, he told me it 

 4 . 



