CATCHING HIS OWN GERMS

Evening Star, Issue 20422, 1 March 1930, Page 20

CATCHING HIS OWN GERMS

DOCTOR'S PINPOINT COLONY A doctor in Harloy street is said to have had the attack of influenza from which ho is now recovering. He is Dr David Thomson, who, with his brother, Dr Robert Thomson, has succeeded in photographing the elusive ’flu germ, land can “ spot” this criminal streptococcus from among thousands of classified prints just as Scotland Yard recognises a wanted man by means of its finger-print index. Dr David Thomson was taking an invalid’s diet when a ‘ Sunday Express ’ man asked if he thought the germ reported to have been discovered by Professor Isadora S. Falk, of Chicago University, was identical with that on which he and his brother have been experimenting for three years. ‘‘That remains to be seen,” said Dr David Thomson. “In any event, Professor Falk has made a wonderful discovery in demonstrating that the monkey is susceptible to the ’flu germ. Previously it was thought that no animal could be infected, and research work was hampered because wo could not ask human beings to volunteer. “I am particularly susceptible to influenza, and tried every imaginable form of inoculation until I became tired. I determined to find the brute in another way, by photographic recording and classification during health and illness. By a process of elimination 1 can now recognise the beast perfectly.” Dr Thomson’s table was strewn with bromide prints of scores of varied “streps,” which he is convinced maintain characteristic shapes when assembled in “ colonies.”

Each colony, the size of a pinpoint, has been magnified 1,600 times by a special high-power wide-angle lens used in film work. He is not satisfied with the mere recognition of shape He examines under a microscope selected chains of germs, millions of which go to the making of one pinpoint colony. “ Here is our enemy the ’flu," he said, selecting a photograph which looked like a collection of sponge-sur-rounded tablets. “I cannot tell you exactly by what instinct I spot it, but you will see it has invariably a sort of pimple centre. Next week I hope to photograph a culture taken from my sputum during this present attack. It is now in an incubator. “ My brother and I are alone in this work of codifying streptocci, Other

bacteriologists are sceptical; but we shall see.” Many London doctor expressed doubt whether Professor Falk’s discovery would have any considerable effect on public health. They pointed out that influenza is caused by a number of germs which depend for their strength on mutual assistance._ “ More important than the isolation ot the germ,’’ said one doctor, “ is the personal factor of the individual’s health and environment. Bacteriologists have long since discovered that to cure a disease the physician must do much more than recognise the germ which causes it. First and last, it is the individual’s own cleanliness, constitution, and care which pulls him through an illness. To give the germ a name does not help very much.” Influenza is again sweeping London and the South of England, and medical authorities are inclined to attribute tlio new outbreak to the heavy rain and floods experienced during the past ten days. 11 The present epidemic,” said a loading London physician to a ‘ Sunday Express ’ representative. “is no more virulent than usual. “ The symptoms m nearly all the cases 1 have come across have been an attack of shivering, accompanied by a bad headache and a rather high temperature. “It has been noted that influenza nearly always recurs after heavy rain and floods, and people wh6 live in low lying areas are the principal sufferers “ The effect of the dampness following the drought we experienced this year may have something to do with the severity of the new outbreak, but if victims will only tackle the complaint in its early stages there is not much to fear. “ A day or two in bed with the windows open is the best method of treatment.”