278 BACTERIA, YEASTS, AND MOLDS 



with bacteria. It is therefore necessary to protect the 

 wound carefully against possible contamination. This is 

 done by the physician in various ways. Although there 

 is thus some danger in vaccination, the chances of trouble 

 are very slight indeed, whereas the protection afforded 

 against smallpox is so great as to lead scientific men and 

 physicians to recommend its use unhesitatingly as a gen- 

 eral protection against this extremely violent and fre- 

 quently fatal disease. 



Modem physicians have two splendid weapons in fight- 

 ing diphtheria, one a cure, the other a preventive. The 

 cure is diphtheria antitoxin, a preparation that has been 

 known since a little before the beginning of this century. 

 If it is injected into the patient sufficiently early in the 

 disease, it is an almost certain cure. The preventive is 

 toxin-antitoxin, a mixture of antitoxin with the toxin (i.e. 

 poison) produced by the diphtheria bacilli. If a child is 

 treated with this mixture under proper conditions, he is 

 protected against diphtheria many years, perhaps for life. 

 The use of these two products is being adopted very widely 

 by physicians, and every housewife should understand that 

 it is a precautionary measure that is perfectly safe, and the 

 only known means of protecting a family where complete 

 isolation of a diphtheria patient is impossible. 



A method of vaccinating against typhoid fever has also 

 been devised and is coming to be extensively used. The 

 treatment is perfectly harmless, and it gives a very high 

 degree of protection against the disease. It is so efficient 

 that since 1914 it has effectually protected the armies of 

 the world from typhoid fever, the disease that previously 

 devastated army camps. This anti-typhoid vaccination is 



