NOVEMBEK 21, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



747 



time to time it receives some communication 

 of the highest importance to the general wel- 

 fare, and on such occasions it is mindful of 

 its immediate duty to the public. It lately 

 held a special meeting, at which Professor 

 Noguchi, of the Eockefeller Institute, demon- 

 strated the results of his researches into syph- 

 ilis, general paralysis of the insane, epidemic 

 infantile paralysis and rabies. None who 

 heard Professor Noguchi and saw the great 

 crowd of physicians and surgeons listening to 

 him couldi fail to recognize the profound 

 significance of this occasion 



No man of science works alone or in iso- 

 lation: and a vast amount of cooperative 

 work is being done in diverse parts of the 

 world on what may be called the " higher 

 types" of germs. Let us note the develop- 

 ment of the work. Let us go back haK a cen- 

 tury, to the earliest methods of Pasteur. We 

 may take 1855 as an approximate date for 

 the beginning of the founding of " the germ- 

 theory." Por many years the only method 

 which Pasteur had for the growl h of germs 

 in pure culture was the use of fluid media, 

 such as broth; and, under the conditions of 

 bacteriology fifty years ago, the use of these 

 fluid media was full of difiiculties. He had to 

 wait until 1872 for the discovery that germs 

 could be grown on solid media, such as gela- 

 tine or slices of potato. He had to wait until 

 1875 for the discovery that germs could be 

 stained with aniline dyes so as to distinguish 

 them, under the microscope, from their sur- 

 roundings. 



Pasteur lived until 1895 — that is, ten years 

 after the first use of his protective treatment 

 against rabies, and two years after the first 

 use in practise of diphtheria antitoxin — but 

 he did not live to see more than the beginning 

 of the study of the higher types of germs. At 

 the time when he died, many of the lower 

 types — ^the bacilli and the micrococci — ^had 

 been discovered, isolated, grown in pure cul- 

 ture on solid media, and proven, by the inocu- 

 lation of test animals, to be the very cause of 

 this or that infective disease. But the higher 

 types, such as the Plasmodium of malaria, 

 were still waiting to be worked out. Then, 



after Pasteur's death, came Ross's fine work 

 on malaria; and then came two discoveries of 

 no less importance — the discovery (Schaudinn, 

 Hoffmann) of Spirochwta pallida in cases of 

 syphilis, and the discovery (Forde, Dutton) of 

 Trypanosoma gamhiense in a case of sleeping 

 sickness. These two discoveries brought syph- 

 ilis and sleeping sickness, at last, within the 

 range of practical bacteriology. Long ago, 

 Moxon had said of syphilis that it was " a 

 fever cooled and slowed by time"; but the 

 cause of that fever was unknown until the 

 Spirochwta pallida was discovered. 



But to prove that it does not merely accom- 

 pany, but actually causes the disease, it had to 

 be grown in pure culture, and inoculated into 

 test animals, producing in them some charac- 

 teristic sign. Syphilis must be studied as 

 diphtheria, tetanus, typhoid fever and tubercle 

 had been studied. That is the meaning of all 

 the work done by Ehrlich and his school upon 

 salvarsan — that, in particles of tissue from a 

 rabbit in which the disease has been produced, 

 the Spirochwta pallida is present, under the 

 microscope, before a dose of salvarsan, and 

 is absent after it. 



The work has been of immeasurable com- 

 plexity, and there is much still to be done. 

 There are many species of spirochsetes dis- 

 coverable in this or that condition of bodily 

 life, besides Spirochwta pallida; indeed. Pro- 

 fessor Noguchi demonstrated seven species. 

 But he has cleared the way in this field of 

 bacteriology. He has distinguished those 

 which need some air for their growth from 

 those which can not grow in air; he has dis- 

 covered the method of adding a fragment of 

 sterilized animal substance to each tube of 

 pure culture: and these methods are of great 

 value. 



But that is not all. For he has detected 

 Spirochwta pallida in the brain, in general 

 paralysis of the insane. He has found it in 

 twelve out of seventy specimens. There is 

 no need to underline the importance of that 

 statement. 



Also, Professor Noguchi has obtained in pure 

 culture the germs of anterior poliomyelitis 

 (epidemic infantile paralysis). Of all the 



