Editorial. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
(   December,  1901. 
EDITORIAL. 
BIO-CHEMICAL  ANALYSES  AND  THEIR  VALUE. 
In  an  editorial  in  the  March  number  of  Pediatrics  on  the  "  New 
Diagnosis  "  occur  a  number  of  statements  which  are  rather  sugges- 
tive and  have  a  wider  significance  than  simply  to  the  modern 
physician  for  whom  they  were  written.  By  the  "  New  Diagnosis  " 
is  meant  "  the  recognition  of  various  types  of  disease  by  the  assist- 
ance of  the  new  discoveries  in  bacteriology,  physics  and  chemistry  ; 
many  of  them  rendered  practicable  by  the  newer  forms  of  the 
compound  microscope.  These  discoveries  are  familiar  enough — 
the  tubercle  bacillus,  the  malarial  parasite  and  many  more.  But 
the  speed  with  which  announcements  of  scientific  achievement  have 
succeeded  one  another  has  perhaps  blinded  a  part  of  the  profession 
to  the  fact  that  there  is  just  as  much  room  to-day  in  the  practice  of 
medicine  for  the  educated  fingers,  eye  and  ear  as  there  ever  was. 
The  new  field  of  work  has  not  replaced  the  old ;  on  the  contrary, 
both  fields  remain,  both  must  be  examined,  both  gone  over  from 
end  to  end  before  a  diagnosis  can  as  a  rule  be  considered  secure. 
Diphtheria  bacilli  in  the  throat  do  not  prove  diphtheria  unless  the 
patient  has  symptoms ;  the  diazo-reaction  in  the  urine,  or  the  Widal 
test  with  the  blood,  must  be  taken  as  coordinate  evidence  along 
with  these  spots ;  the  nose-bleed,  the  splenic  tumor,  and  the  fever, 
before  us  may  certainly  say  4  typhoid.'  The  new  diagnosis  has 
complemented  the  old.  in  a  manner  that  has  proved  and  will  prove 
infinitely  beneficent.  But  there  is  no  fair  ground  to  hope  or  even 
to  wish  that  the  chemist  and  the  microscopist  shall  supersede  the 
alert  and  well-educated  *  all-round '  physician.  As  they  say  in 
Germany,  '  You  can't  turn  a  man  into  a  test-tube.'  " 
In  an  editorial  in  this  Journal  (February,  1899)  on  "Germs  and 
Disinfection,"  attention  was  directed  to  the  fact  that  those  who 
understand  least  of  the  nature  of  germs  and  disinfectants  are  likely 
.  to  be  most  deluded  by  the  subject.  It  is  said  that  some  time  ago 
"  a  gang  of  coalers  at  Hull  refused  to  discharge  a  cargo  of  coals 
until  they  had  been  disinfected."  While  Dr.  Koch,  when  he  made 
his  first  visit  to  the  Hamburg  hospitals,  found  everything  prepared 
in  the  most  correct  style,  and  on  his  finishing  with  the  first  ward, 
being  invited  in  the  usual  manner  to  wash  his  hands  with  the  most 
scientific  soaps,  disinfectants,  etc.,  he  declined,  observing,  non- 
chalantly, "  There  will  be  plenty  of  time  for  that  presently." 
