OUR ARAIY VERSUS A BACILLUS 



1147 



been fought with every weapon known 

 to modern science and still lurked in 

 every community, is now put to rout in 

 open combat by the aid of its own dead 

 bacteria. The illuminating light of dis- 

 covery makes possible the immunization 

 of an army of 85,000 men against a dis- 

 ease which is more prevalent in this coun- 

 try than in most civilized countries and 

 causes a yearly loss of something hke 

 $350,000,000 and untold suffering — a dis- 

 ease which has been the scourge of our 

 army and has killed and maimed more 

 than powder and shot. This same dis- 

 ease was directly responsible for an out- 

 lay of $20,000,000 in the British South 

 African war, and has been the cause of 

 great suffering and financial loss for 

 many years among all peoples in every 

 climate, in peace and in war. 



A SERIES OE DISCOVERIES 



Scientists of many nations have con- 

 tributed to the campaign for the eradica- 

 tion of typhoid, but to the United States 

 Army belongs the credit for the first 

 practical demonstration on a large scale. 

 From the discovery of the germ to this 

 remarkable demonstration was a span of 

 31 years, wherein the following impor- 

 tant contributions were made : 



(i) Eberth, a German bacteriologist 

 and anatomist, discovered the typhoid 

 germ in the year 1880. It belongs to 

 that group of bacteria which live on live 

 animal and vegetable matter and is 

 known as a parasite. Twelve thousand 

 of them placed end to end would meas- 

 ure only one inch. They multiply very 

 rapidly under favorable conditions, di- 

 viding into two about every 40 minutes, 

 which in the course of 24 hours would 

 result in the production of millions but 

 for the lack of sufficient food. 



They cannot develop in intermediary 

 hosts, such as fleas, mosquitoes, etc., like 

 certain other micro-organisms ; but they 

 can exist for several months in various 

 substances, and thus be transmitted from 

 one person to another. Fortunately, the 

 sunlight destroys them in from four to 

 eight hours. 



After being taken into the mouth in 

 food or drink or on the fingers, the 

 germ finds its way into the intestines, 



whence it is carried by the blood to all 

 parts of the body and produces a poison 

 known as the typhoid toxin, which affects 

 the tissues and organs in such a manner 

 as to cause the symptoms of the disease. 



(2) Dr. Ehrlich, a German scientist, 

 advanced the theory that besides the poi- 

 sonous toxin another substance is formed 

 in the body, as the result of the invasion 

 by the typhoid bacilli or other germ, 

 which is antagonistic to it and is known 

 as its anti-toxin. 



(3) In 1884 the great Russian scien- 

 tist Metchnikoff advanced the theory 

 that the function of the microscopic 

 cells, the white blood-corpuscles, which 

 are found in great numbers in all parts 

 of the body, is to act as policemen of 

 the blood, and that it is due to their 

 eternal vigilance that disease germs in 

 the blood, such as the typhoid bacilli, are 

 destroyed. He calls these microbe-eaters 

 ^'phagocytes." Certain diseases, such as 

 typhoid fever, smallpox, plague, etc., 

 practically never attack the same indi- 

 vidual twice, because these defenders 

 have become so active (energized) in 

 their efforts to overcome the germs dur- 

 ing the first attack that they remain in 

 this active state indefinitely. 



WRIGHT INTRODUCES PREVENTATIVE 



VACCINE 



(4) As the result of the work of Sir 

 Almoth Wright, an Irishman, the two 

 theories above were united to explain 

 the resistance of the body to disease. 

 He showed that the substance mentioned 

 by Ehrlich first attacks and sensitizes the 

 foreign organisms in the body, and that 

 the white corpuscles then absorb and 

 carry them away. 



A most remarkable exhibition of this 

 functioning is now given to the public by 

 means of moving pictures, a film having 

 been prepared by a French scientist and 

 exhibited by MM. Pathe Freres which 

 ''shows the white corpuscles of the blood 

 gradually ahering their shape and posi- 

 tion and fulfiUing one of their best- 

 known functions as scavengers and ab- 

 sorbing such abnormal substances as rni- 

 crobes, disease-ceUs, and granules of in- 

 ert matter." 



