AN ELECTRIC WAR ON DISEASE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10042, 9 January 1909, Page 1 (Supplement)

AN ELECTRIC WAR ON DISEASE.

r (Detroit Free Press.) j Hudson Maxim, boldest among experiB mentera —whose vanished; left hand for £ years liase remained eloquent , proof of hia devotion to his faiths, .whose great wealth, coined from his fertile brain, remains as J convincing evidence of the soundness of 1 his judgment—is as cautious as he is bold " in his prophecy. The huge, main fact 3 that science will furnish its Bethesda I Pool appears to him distinctly possible; ' but when, precisely how, it as to come, -■ he avers cannot now be forecasted. This, " let it be carefully noted, has been the ' attitude of modern science upon all I I epochal discoveries and- inventions, from i antiseptics to aerial navigation. Yet all ' of them —some quickly, some slowly, and I many, like the anti-toxins, as suddenly as 1 full-Hedged Minerva from the brow of ' Jove—have descended in their- complete • beneficence upon the unexpecting, astounded world. The dictum of a Hudson Maxim ; upon the possibilities, of electro-chemistry is not the far-fetched fancy of an autho--1 rity upon one branch of science rushing in upon a domain with which previous cx- ■ perience has left tiim unfamiliar. On the contrary, it is the sober, slow, logical out- . come of a broadly trained and deeply versed intellect studying the possibilities of a science which has long been its familiar tool and ally. The catholic learning and the originating genius of the creative chemist- were essential attributes of the mind that could achieve such triumphs with high explosives as make his name known to ail the Governments of the world. The profound knowledge and the daring skill of a scientist, beside whose achievements the ability of an ordinary "electrical expert" are child's play, were requisite for his devising of electric furnaces and his discovery of the calcium carbide now in common use. Chemistry and electricity both have been his obedient genii for years; yet they are only successors to the favorite study of his early manhood, followed in its developments with all the affectionate interest a man bestows upou the vocation which circumstances and some ambitions more readily attainable lead him to abandon. For had not Hudson Maxim become the most important aid of the American Government in equipping its guns and projectiles with smokeless powder and tremendous maximite, the world would have had a physician, his whole career devoted to the curb of the ills that flesh is heir to. As a young man he studied ardently the principles of medicine in the expectation of making its practice his lifework. He did not go on with it in the formal courses of the schools, for the numerous avocations of his active mind drew him into many other fields. But every step in modern medicine's advancement has been "a subject of intense interest and concern to him. His remarkable memory, famous among his associates for its scope as well as its amazing retentiveness, has left him, in the midst of his innumerable other activities, more broadly learned in the modern aspects of scientific medicine than many physicians in active practice. This, then, is the electric scientist who holds up to the race of man the golden promise of health for the future—of such health as humanity -has never known, with it 6 hope soaring beyond the cure of generations in the present to transmission of their blood, pure and unalloyed, by the latent germs of disease, to posterity. And these are the words of his forecast in all their boldness and all their well-weighed caution : "I am not among the number who believe in the indefinite prolongation of human life. "Life is a series of fermenta-"-tions—as Herbert Spencer stated it, 'a continual adjustment between internal and external forces.' Death is merely the neNeither at is desirable that individual huNeither is it desirable that, individual hu-

jNeitner is it. aesiraoie mat, muivmum Human life should 'be indefinitely, prolonged, for the species is better served by the destruction of old human derelicts, in order that they'may give place to those that are newly launched on lite. "If, however, science could- devise a veritable Pool of Bethesda, in which the germs of disease could be and degenerative "processes arrested, individual life could be- very greatly prolonged. Yet tliisPis. not ;so, important, as the.. benefits which wiuld accrue t-o coining generations. The eliminationgerms of . hereditary . disease in'TfalcntF'; would j>& ; the greatest ■ kind of a godsend to their children There remains among the inventions and discoveries which are possibilities of the future the devising of a method for the destruction of disease gernis in the human tissues, lympth and blood by an electrochemical process, which may or may not be one of electro-osmosis oe cataphoresis. It would be the greatest discovery possible for-man to make; he who should solve the problem would be at once the greatest inventor and the greatest benefactor of the human race. "I have not solved it, but that it can be solved appears to lie within the power of "man's invention. From investigations I have already made I believe that such a thing is not only possible, but very probable, and that before many years there will exist in very truth, a Pool of Bethesda in the foTm of an elec-tro-chemical cabinet, within which the victim of any dreaded disease may be cleansed of liis scourge. This augury of hope for the future is so enormous in its scope, 60 huge in its promise that a measurably, clear idea of the principles of modern me'dicine must be had in order to afford some reasonable foundation. The whole science of medicine is based) upon the attempt either to destroy disease germs existing in the body by directly attacking the geTms or by poisoning or modifying the media on which they feed' and thereby to kill them indirectly. There are in the science of medicine very few specifics, .the principle ones -being mercury. and quinine. It is not exactly known what are the effects of these agents; but it is known that they do, to a large extent, serve as specifics- for the disease which they have been successfully applied. "The (human -body is. fortified against disease in a. manner similar to that adopted in the national defence; for example, by France and Germany, along the frontiers and at all the ports of entry, these countries being very strongly fortified against invasion of a foreign foe. Disease ■germs must 'be much more active and vimlent in order to gain entry into the system "through its Wrell-fortifi&d frontiers than to remain in active operation, after having once secured a foothold. "It is well known; of course, that all infectious diseases are produced by microorganisms. There are two kinds of microorganisms, the vegetable' apd the animal. A well man, is not so easily attacked' by organisms. In' other words, the system 'has liess ability to, resist carnivorous microbes than it ihas to resist the vegetable microbes. For example, tli© bacillus of tuberculosis 'is* a vegetable organism. Tuberculosis is a scavenger and can gain a foothold in, the human body or otheranimal organism only when a proper culture medium has been created 1 there either by injury or by the influence of some other germ disease. Hence it is that consump-tion-and many other germ diseases work hand in iand. "There are germs which attack onlycertain portions of the body, while others penetrate and live within every tissue and fibre. Some of the protozoa are minute, enakelike creatures, which first enter the lymphatic systeim, -and', after gaining a foothold! there permeate the entire human organism, wheTe they swarm about in the blood and other fluids, and multiply with.enormous rapidity. They injure, tho individual in, two ways: First, by feeding ; upon the fluids and tissues of the body, and second, by their poisonous excretions. "Whenever a disease .germ enters the human body it is immediately attacked by the defenders of the body, chief among which are the phagocytes, or white cor--puscles of the blood/. . Unless the phagocytes are debilited or already overfed, the disease genns are inevitably destroyed. If, however, the phagocytes fail to destroy them, t!he next act of the body's defenders is to quarantine them and to localise their evil effects. This ie very common with tuberculosis. Post mortem examinations frequently discover lesions where' the_ bacilli of tuberculosis have been quarantined and starved out. -However, if the' animal organism is not sufficiently strong, then the disease germs contiiiually-enlarge their domain, feeding' upon their barrier walls, until they"finally break through into the circulation in sufficient numbers to defy all powers of resistance. "One might describe the human body as a republic of. amebfe, every peieon

fa being made up of a large number of microscopic individuals, just as a swarm of bees is mads up of a laTge number of individuals. The individuals of which, we are composed are mostly mieroscopio ill l " size, instead of being the size of bees. | r In the beeEive, what Maeterlinck terms is 'the spirit of the hive' dominates the L > entire swarm, and the life of the indivis dual is as nothing in the interest of the f life of the swarm. The Bame thing *s i true in the human body. In the beet hive they have their workers, their reproa ducere, and: their defenders. In the > creat swarm of ameb® which constitutes \ the human body we have oar rcproduicers, , our defenders, and our workers. The 0 white corpuscles of the blood are our main 1 defenders. In a dusty day in New York 1 City every healthy man inhales enough 1 germs of disease to destroy an. army 1 of men were it not for our human defens ders within the blood, who pounce upon t and destroy the invaders as fast as they • arrive. '"Every gland' of the body is a fortificai tion through which invaders entering the ' system of lymphatics mu6t pass in order ■ to reach the deeper tissues of the circulai tion. There are two main fluid Gystems in ■ the body—the one, the lymphatic system ; 5 the other, the circulatory system. Blood ■ is alkaline, while the lymph, or juice of ' the llesh, is acid. These two fluids are • separated by thin membranous tissue, ■ that we are, so to speak, an c 1... -ical generator; and the various nerve ganglia, ; to a very large extent, perform the func- ■ tion of resistance coils by which the nerve- ■ electrical fluid is controlled and liusband- ■ ed. » ''The medulla oblongata-, located at ihs centre of the brain, ,is the principle nerve ■ ganglion and the principal resistance coil ! of the body. The stratum of gray matter of the frontal cortex serves the purpose of a storage battery, and it is the main seat- of electrical supply in all volitional human functioning. . Thus it is that every lymph cell of the body acts as a'Tprimary battery or source of electrical energy, partly under the control of the human will and partly automatic in its action—that is to say, controlled by the involuntary nerve centres. "The stomach does not digest itself, although it is made of exactly the same substances which it is constantly digesting. The probable reason for this i 6 that we have the involuntary power of polarising and rendering ineffectual the atoms or molecules of the chemical agents that form the digestive fluids. This power, while . mainly involuntary in its action, and beyond the power of the will, is, like • most other involuntary processes, EOmewhat subservient to the influence of the will. We breathe, for instance, both voluntarily and involuntarily. To a certain extent, we digest our food partly voluntarily and partly involuntarily; and the process of digestion is, therefore, partly under the control of the will. "Not . only this, but practically our powers of resisting disease and of sending out the army of phagocytes to attack disease germs are, to a large extent, under the control of the will. It has been found possible, under hypnotic influence, to cause a blister to rise on the arm of a hypnotised subject, the subject being thoroughly convinced that a mustard plaster has been placed upon his arm. "Obviously, then, much of the defensive and disease-Tesisting powers of the human body are electrical in their nature, the nerve-electrical l fluid being generated from .an enormous aggregation of electrical cells. Notwithstanding the fact that I have conducted 1 a large number of experiments to help my foreview of this problem, I have not yet determined' by an experimentation whether it- is practicable' or possible to-utterly destroy all the germs of disease in the human body by any electro-chemical •process whatsoever. But other experimenters have demonstrated beyond the power of denial that it is possible to attack and destroy disease' gernis in the body by rpmp-rlinl n-anetft forced, into the tissues

remedial ganets lorce<i into tne tissues by the electric fluid by what ifi known as cataphoresis. "A great many-have been deterred from conviction by the belief that remedial agents sufficiently strong to destroy the germs of disease in the human tissues would also destroy the tissues themselves. This is disproved by the fact that it is common to inject into the tissues powerful poisonous remedial agent 6 for the destruction of germ diseases in lesions with-. ; out 1 the destruction of the: tissues. Further, as exemplified' in certain diseases "that first attack the lymphatic system, like those caused by certain protoza, mercury is administered in large quantities, which 60 poisons the culture medium oil which they thrive that they are very largely destroyed, and, by long-continued; treatment, entirely destroyed. . "Heretofore the method of treatment by cataphoresis has been, by local applications of electrodes covered with a sponge . wet with remedial agent 6; and the remedial agents have been forced into the tissues by what is called the pressure of an electrical current. Tanners employed this method for forcing the tannin solutions into . hides to tan them, and the tanning process is very much accelerated thereby. "Another method —as, for example, in the treatment of cancer—is to insert a zinc electrode into the cancer. It. has been found that the electric current is quite efficient as a remedial agent from the fact that the diseased tissues oiler less resistance to the electric current than do the surrounding healthy tissues, thereby localising the remedial effect of the electric fluid on the diseased tissues. This is the reason why the electric current, in this case, is supposed to have selective faculty for the searching out of the disease. "A well-known inventor in the field of electro-chemical chemistry, I. L. Koberts, discovered) that substances may be passed through a mechanically impervious partition under the influence of the electric current. For example, by this method the atoms of chlorine can be passed out. of the solution from one side of the partition, through the partition into a solution of caustic potash upon the other side of the partition, there producing chlorate of potash. In this case none of the liquid is able, mechanically, to pass the partition, which, being of a. gelatinous character, is impervious, except to the electric current alone. ■ .... "It has occurred to me that, if the human body were to be interposed between two such, solutions as a part of such a partition and 1 the other portions of the partition be made non-conductive, then electric currents could be be made to pass through the human body, thereby carrying remediajl agents into the body in a way more efficient than heretofore. But, as I have said, Y have not tried this experiment, and I offer it only as a suggestion to other experimenters in this field of investigation. "It is, however, a question whether or not the atoms of a remedial agent like chlorine, whiile being drawn through the body under tlie influence of electrical currents, would be capable of breaking away from the current, to react chemically either in attacking the disease germs or combining with the tissues of the body. If it should be found by experience that they are incapable of parting. company with the' electric currents under these conditions, then, possibly, by interrupting the electric current at frequent intervals, the remedial agents, released while in transit, might thus react. But this, again, is only a suggestion, not yet beyond the veriest theoretical stage. . "As an adjunct to the influence 01 the electric current in passing remedial agents : through the system such agents might possibly be injected into the blood, and thereby reinforce the effect of the agent passed ; into the tissues directly by the electric current. , "Persons who have doubt a:s to ability of' chemical agent© to pass through, the skin into the tissues in sufficient quantities to have any practical effect may -satisfy themselves by applying a small quantity of nitroglycerine to the skin. ; They will, find that they will have one of the sickest spells of their existence, and 1 that this eick Bpell will take plaoe within a few minutes. , . "A good experiment, which, might be tried, with the proposed electro-chemical cabinet, would be to take a victim of tuberculosis with an initial lesion _in one of the lungs, and to pass remedial agents directlv through that portion of the body, and observe whether or. not the bacilli were completely destroyed, permitting the to, heal." - The uneducated- woman has., often the quickest perception,, the finest tact, the most vivid' sensibility;she will feel, without speaking, she understands your inmost ' thoughts, she knows without beixtjg told.—., i Black aodi White. .■ "