It was comparatively only a few years ago that science learned that the common source of many diseases before attributable to numerous causes was the existence of microbes or bacilli in the human system. These microbes are tiny animal creatures which feast on the healthy tissue of the body and waste it away. So far has science gone that bacteriologists have discovered that different kinds of microbes produce different kinds of diseases. They have even raised these animalcule, experimented with them, classified them, and by careful study have found treatment that in many cases will annihilate them.
Some diseases of the skin which are caused by bacteria are treated by light. Dr. Finsen, of Copenhagen, has perfected a method of concentrating violet rays of light, which, when cast on diseased tissue, seemingly penetrate it with bactericidal effect. Some of the experiments along this line are interesting. Dr. Finsen exposed a bacillus culture to bright sunshine and found that the light killed it in an hour and a half. The same work could be done by electric light in eight hours. He discovered that when the skin was full of blood the light took a longer time to penetrate. He proved this by putting a piece of sensitized paper behind a man's ear and this, after a considerable exposure, was not affected by the light. When the blood was pressed away from the ear an exposure of 20 seconds turned the paper black. Further experiments showed Dr. Finsen that blue rays of light would kill bacteria. In order, therefore, to concentrate these rays, he divided the lens, between the glasses of which he put a solution of bright blue, weak, ammoniacal copper sulphate. This served to absorb nearly all the rays except blue and violet, which were allowed to pass. These lenses are attached to the skin by rubber bands. Cool water is-run over the glasses to prevent the heat of the rays from blistering the skin. The weight of the glass presses the blood away from the surface, and the violet rays quickly penetrate the skin and kill the germs. Smallpox, lupus or tuberculosis of the skin, and many other skin diseases have thus been cured. We have described in another section of this book some of the marvelous attributes of liquid air. Its intense cold has the same property as great heat without causing a blister. Thus, naturally, the use of liquid air in some sorts of diseases where cauterizing or burning away is necessary has shown marked success. Putrid flesh is killed and foreign growth is removed by its agency. Ulcers have been eaten out and facial erysipelas has been cured by driving away the heat from inflamed tissues through rolling a glass bulb filled with liquid air over the face. Frequently it takes the place of the surgeon's knife.
Some scientist believe that hydrophobia cannot be cured, yet there have been cures of the rabies in their last stages, under the Buisson system. It is well known that the system of sweating by violent exercise, or by Turkish baths, removes impurities from the body. This is the system discovered by the French physician, Dr. Buisson, although it is said the Arabs have long known of this primitive cure. Commonly these nomads swathe themselves in heavy blankets of camel hair to cure snake bites. Dr. Buisson was called to treat a patient who was afftected with the rabies. He bled her, accidentally cut his own finger and wiped it incautiously upon a handkerchief wet with the patient's saliva. Although he cauterized the wound, he was seized so violently with the disease that he thought death was near. Knowing that a vapor bath frequently brings on stupor, be went to a bathing establishment to die in peace. At 127 degrees, Fahrenheit, he found himself cured accidentally. After experimenting, he found prevention easily possible when the treatment was used soon after the bite, and many marvelous cures have since been effected, even when the patients were in the throes of madness. A simple method may be used where access to a vapor bath is not possible. Wrap the patient in a blanket and seat him on an open chair over a pan of water heated by a lamp. It is not known whether it is the sweating that opens the pores, letting the poisons out and thus effecting the cure, or whether the extreme heat kills the germs, or whether both combined produce the result.
Appendicitis is a disease which is seemingly of recent origin, so much so that it is said to be fashionable to have operations performed for it. The disease is caused by the inflammation of the vermiform appendix, and the old name for it was inflammation of the bowels, from which many people died because of the crude methods then in vogue for treatment. Then the case was not considered one for surgery. The inflammation due to foreign substances in the appendix went so far that it burst the bowels, and the poisons from the abscess were emptied into the abdominal cavity, thus causing death. To-day upon the least sign of inflammation on the right side of the abdomen, near the hip, an investigation is begun in connection with a small, worm-like tube attached to the ca-cum.one of the intestines. It is less than half a foot long, and is about the diameter of a quill. This organ has no known use, closes by a rather imperfect valve, and, frequently, in adult males and females, becomes inflamed by irritation from fecal secretions, such as result through taking foreign bodies into the system. Fruit seeds, bitten finger nails, buttons and worms will cause inflammation. Great pain accompanies this disease, and any pains, swellings, tenderness, or rigidity of the right abdominal wall may indicate it. The surgical operation for appendicitis starts with an incision of several inches in the inflamed quarter. The abscess is probed, sometimes, although not generally. The contents of the abscess are washed out and foreign bodies are looked for. The tissues are wash with antiseptic solutions; then the intestine is drawn out of the cavity and the appendix is removed, after which the intestine is cleansed, sewed up and put back. Then the outer cavity is closed, although sometimes this is impossible at first, and an opening may be necessary for impurities to pass out.
The wonderful progress made in recent years in the use of new agencies and appliances by which to facilitate bloodless and painless surgical operations, is signalized anew by a remarkable discovery lately made which promises to become a boon to the world through its potency in mitigating human suffering. This discovery occurred in connection with the manufacture of bi-products at the Armour & Co. laboratories, where the chemists are now producing a substance called "suprarenalin." It is one of the most precious articles in existence, being worth $7,000 a pound, and is so powerful that one part of it, dissolved in 100,000 parts of water, will show its presence when tested with chloride of iron. It has, been found that the suprarenal gland of an animal-which is found about the kidneys, when reduced to a drug, possesses wonderful astringent properties; so powerful that operations on the eye and nose may be performed without the loss of any blood. With the addition of cocaine such operations are also painless. The great value of this to a surgeon will be appreciated when one realizes that in cutting around the eye he can have a perfectly clear field, and can do his work much more quickly, as a flow of blood would not only obscure the operation, but would make it necessary to stop frequently and wipe it away in order that he may see where he is cutting. The active principle has been isolated at the Armour laboratory, and has been named "suprarenalin," a word that has not yet gotten into the dictionary. It takes 7,000 grains of the fresh granular substance to make one grain of the "suprarenalin." However, it is very powerful, and solutions employed by surgeons in performing minor operations on the eye, ear and throat vary from 1-10,000 to 1-1,000 in strength. "Suprarenalin" is also discovered to be the greatest stimulant known, and is now being used in the place of strychnia and other of the old remedies which were employed hypodermically in cases of heart failure. ACETYLENE GAS, THE LATEST ARTIFICIAL LIGHT |
