180 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVII. No. 1208 



during the year" [among the Philippine 

 Scouts] . 



My friend and former student, Dr. Victor 

 G. Heiser, as director of health in the 

 Philippine Islands for years, vaccinated 

 over 8,000,000 persons without a death — 

 and with what result ? In and around Ma- 

 nila the usual toll of small-pox had been 

 6,000 deaths and about 25,000 cases an- 

 nually. In the twelve months after his 

 vaccination campaign was finished there 

 was not one death from small-pox. 



Per contra, in 1885 in Montreal, as 

 stated by Osier, one Pullman porter intro- 

 duced small-pox into a largely Mwvacci- 

 nated city. There followed 3,164 deaths 

 and enormous losses to the Montreal 

 merchants. 



But why say more ? We all know that a 

 single case in any community causes every 

 intelligent person to be protected by vacci- 

 nation. 



Gas-Gangrene. — One of the terrible and 

 new surgical diseases developed by this war 

 is called "gasgangrene." It has no rela- 

 tion to the poisonous gases introduced by 

 the barbarous Germans at Ypres. About 

 twenty-five years ago Professor W. H. 

 "Welch, of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, dis- 

 covered a bacterium which produced gas 

 in the interstices between and in the mus- 

 cles. This bacillus does not occur in Great 

 Britain. I never saw a ease of gasgangrene 

 in the Civil War, and but one case since 

 then in civil practise. On the contrary in 

 Belgium and France in the soil and, there- 

 fore, on the clothing and on the skin of the 

 soldiers these bacilli abound. Prom what 

 Bashford calls the "cess-pool of the 

 wound" the germs travel up and down in 

 the axis of the limb. If it escapes from a 

 puncture it will take fire from a match. 

 Gas has been observed within five hours. 

 An entire limb may become gangrenous 

 ■within sixteen hours. If the whole limb is 



amputated the gas may be so abundant 

 that the limb will float in water ! Death is 

 not long delayed. 



Now your son in France runs a veiy seri- 

 ous risk of becoming infected with this 

 deadly germ. Would you be willing posi- 

 tively to forbid any experiments on animals 

 which could teach us how to recognize this 

 infection as early as possible ? 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 

 very po^ibly 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 cru- 

 sade for liberty and civilization, if it even 

 suffers and dies, is it not a worthy sacri- 

 fice ? 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 hu- 

 man lives even at the expense of some 

 animals' lives. 



Now see the result. By careful observa 

 tion and experiments with different reme- 

 dies the surgeons have discovered valuable 

 methods of treatment. But very many still 

 die. Prevention is always far better than 

 cure. At the Rockefeller Institute Drs. 

 Bull and Ida W. Pritchett have discovered 

 a serum which in animals prevents this gas- 

 gangrejie and yet does no harm to the ani- 

 mal. It is now being tried on the soldiers 

 in France. 



Again I ask: Is it not oiu' duty even to 

 insist on such experiments so that our 

 troops may be spared the dreadful suffering 

 and even death following this virulent in- 

 fection? If the Bull-Pritchett serum 

 proves ineffective should not our efforts be 

 redoubled? The common sense of the 



