FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165  
166   167   168   169   170   171   172   >>  
tubercular consumption. In January of 1891, Dr. Koch published to the world the composition of his remedy. It consists of a glycerine extract prepared by the cultivation of tubercle bacilli. The lymph contains, as it were, the poisonous matter resulting from the life and activity of the tubercle bacterium. The fluid is used by hypodermic injection, and when so administered produces both a general and local reaction. The system is powerfully affected. A sense of weariness comes on. The breathing is labored. Nausea ensues; and a fever supervenes which lasts for twelve or fifteen hours. It is now known that the action of the remedy is not directly against the tubercle bacilli, but rather against the affected tissue in which they exist. This tissue is destroyed and thrown off by the agency of the lymph; being destroyed, it is eliminated and cast out, carrying with it the bacteria on which the disease depends. The results which have followed the administration of Koch's lymph for consumption of the lungs have not met the expectation of the public; but something has been accomplished. Ignorant enthusiasm has meanwhile subsided, and scientific men in both Europe and America are pressing the inquiry in a way which promises in due time the happiest results. ACHIEVEMENTS IN SURGERY. It will not do to disparage the work of the ancients. The old world, long since fallen below the horizon of the past, had races of men and individuals who might well be compared with the greatest of to-day. In a general way, the ancients were great as thinkers and weak as scientists. They were great in the fine arts and weak in the practical arts. This is true of the Hindus, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, even of the Aztecs and the Peruvians. The art work of these old peoples, whether in sculpture, painting or poetry, surpassed, if it did not eclipse, corresponding periods of modern times. In some of the practical arts the old races were proficient. In architecture, which combines the aesthetic and practical elements, the man of antiquity was at least the equal of the man of the present. In one particular art--a sort of humanitarian profession based on natural science and directed to the preservation of life--the ancients had a measure of proficiency. This art was surgery. The surgeon was even from the beginning, and he will no doubt be even to the end. The great advance which has been made in surgical science and practice is sh
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165  
166   167   168   169   170   171   172   >>  



Top keywords:
practical
 

tubercle

 

ancients

 

general

 

affected

 
tissue
 
results
 

destroyed

 
consumption
 

bacilli


remedy

 

science

 
Aztecs
 

Peruvians

 
fallen
 

Greeks

 
Romans
 
compared
 

greatest

 

Egyptians


Hindus

 

individuals

 

disparage

 

thinkers

 

horizon

 

scientists

 

modern

 

directed

 

preservation

 

measure


proficiency

 
natural
 

humanitarian

 

profession

 

surgery

 
surgeon
 

surgical

 
practice
 

advance

 
beginning

present
 

eclipse

 
surpassed
 
poetry
 

peoples

 

sculpture

 
painting
 

periods

 
antiquity
 

elements