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Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 23, Issue 8, 30 January 1912, Page 2

UNKNOWN

Among tbe communications received from reauers, says Dr. Andrew Wilson, F.R.S.E., in the “Weekly Tele : graph,” and which I have been preserving pending a fitting time to reply thereto, one interesting letter bears the suggestion that I should devote an article to the “serum treatment of disease.” The writer justly remarks tiiat this treatment has now attained a very great prominence in the hands of medical men, and as it is most desirable that the public should at all times sympathise with the .efforts of science to eradicate disease and to effect a cure of illness, an article on the subject, it is urged, might give some instruction regarding this mode of combating the ills to which !'e:*h is heir. The word “serum,”* it may first be reremarked, is .-applied in science, to the fluid part of the blood. Indeed, we might regard the serum of blood as the actual fluid, seeing that tfiere float in it the white and red corpuscnles of the blood, each kind of .solid, particle' having its own and proper work to do in the maintenance of the body. Regarding serum as the real blood we find it to represent an accumulation of fluid charged .with 3ouris.hing properties which it has derived from the food. The colour of the blood, it will be understood, depends on 1.1 1 e fact that the red corpuscles floating, in the serum exist by millions, and therefore to the unassisted eye present the Wood fluid as a uniformly red tint. There is little doubt that in addition to containing the nourishment necessary to maintain the cells and tissues of our bodies the seluim also' exercises a certain natural power of killing or destroying disease germs with which it may he brought in contact. Probably the recognition of this fact was that which set scientific men on the track of discovering whether or not the germ killing powers of the blood fluid could be utilised in the service of the body to which the fluid belonged and by which j the serum was produced. There seems to he little doubt that where we find certain animals, for example (and also certain human beings), incapable of being affected or inoculated with s a particular disease, the cause bf their freedom therefrom..is to be regarded as due to the serum’s power of disposing of any of the i particular germs which may gain admittance to the body. In such a case the body may be regarded as naturally fortified against’ the attack of the germs in question. The further thought naturally came to the front in the course of the researches to which I have alluded, .that if Na-' ture thus provided means of preventing or of curing diseases through the action of the blood fluid, whether it might not be possible to produce artificially the substances, such as, ; used by the physician, might effect a : similar result. Out of some such conception as this grew the serum treatment of disease. We thus, remark at the outset that the physician in using this treatment is practically following strictly on the lines which Nature herself has marked out in what ’ may be called her natural ■•are of illness. Perhaps the best known example of lie successful application of the ■lerum treatment of disease to the relief of human illness is that represented by the serum or anti-toxin treatment of diptheria. It is necessary here to explain that when germs enter the body and set up disease they do so because they are capable in the blood of producing a poisonous substance, known as “toxins.” So long as these substances are manufactured they tend to affect the body and, as a matter 0 f fact, to-give rise to the particular symptoms of the disease caused by the germs. Sooner or later, however, it is found that when the growth of the germs has attained its maximum, so to speak, certain other bodies are produced in the blood, these latter being known a s “anti-toxins.” Probably the serum of the blood fluid having overcome the inroad's of the germs develops the anti-toxins, which may therefore be regarded as the antidote to the bane which has afflicted us in the shape of disease. Be this as it may, it is certain that when we recover, say, from a fever it is because the anti-toxins which have been produced in the blood, probably in part at least as the result of germ growth, rout the germs and prevent their further development, and in this way, therefore, we see how nature, by producing these anti-toxin substances, effects the cure of the disease. Turning now to the experimental side of the question, for we must remember that experiment is simply the means of our getting to know the secrets of Nature, tbe anti-toxin of liptharia, now so largely used in hospitals, is obtained from the horoe. This animal is hot one liable to be affected by diptheria, or at least very slightly so. PTence it may bo concluded that its, blood supply possesses qualities of a highly protective nature. Pure cultures of diptheria germs are made in laboratories from the bacilli obtained directly from human cases of the disease. These cultures are used to inoculate j the horse, the operation here being : a mere matter of a pin prick with a | very small and specially constructed j syringe. For a period of some weeks these inoculation experiments are carried out, and at the end of the period it is found that as a result of the inoculation with diptheria germs the horse’s blood has developed, a very special and strong anti-toxin, strong that is in the sense that it acts ns a very distinct poison to the

diptheria germs. Nowadays, thereto! e, when a doctor is called to a case of diptheria he use's the antitoxins obtained from the blood of the horse, and in this way re-actiou is produced in the patient and recovery,’ rendered possible. The former huge deathrate from diptheria has been very largely reduced since the introduction of this treatment. I may add that serums for the similar treatment of typhoid fever, lockjaw,,, and cholera are already in use, and there is no doubt the list in future years will he materially extended. Much research and laborious investigation, however,' a re naturally required in order to establish definitely the curative powers of any special serum.