The Story of Germ LifeConn, H. W. (Herbert William)
Science
The Story of Germ Life
Conn, H. W. (Herbert William)
Bacteria; Bacteriology
Physicians have understood this, and, especially in recent years,
have guided their practice by it. If a moderate dose of quinine
will check malaria in a few days, it does not follow that twice
the dose will do it in half the time or with twice the certainty.
The larger doses of the past, intended to drive out the disease,
have been everywhere replaced by smaller doses designed to
stimulate the lagging body powers. The modern physician makes no
attempt to cure typhoid fever, having long since learned his
inability to do this, at least if the fever once gets a foothold;
but he turns his attention to every conceivable means of
increasing the body's strength to resist the typhoid poison,
confident that if he can thus enable the patient to resist the
poisoning effects of the typhotoxine his patient will in the end
react against the disease and drive off the invading bacteria. The
physician's duty is to watch and guard, but he must depend upon
the vital powers of his patient to carry on alone the actual
battle with the bacterial invaders.
ANTITOXINES.
In very recent times, however, our bacteriologists have been
pointing out to the world certain entirely new means of assisting
the body to fight its battles with bacterial diseases. As already
noticed, one of the primal forces in the recovery, from some
diseases, at least, is the development in the body of a substance
which acts as an antidote to the bacterial poison. So long as this
antitoxine is not present the poisons produced by the disease will
have their full effect to weaken the body and prevent the revival
of its resisting powers to drive off the bacteria. Plainly, if it
is possible to obtain this antitoxine in quantity and then
inoculate it into the body when the toxic poisons are present, we
have a means for decidedly assisting the body in its efforts to
drive off the parasites. Such an antidote to the bacterial poison
would not, indeed, produce a cure, but it would perhaps have the
effect of annulling the action of the poisons, and would thus give
the body a much greater chance to master the bacteria. It is upon
this principle that is based the use of antitoxines in diphtheria
and tetanus
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