Dangers of Experimenting with Disease Germs.

Manawatu Herald, 4 March 1899, Page 2

Dangers of Experimenting with Disease Germs.

The danger run by the bacteriologist who grows the germs of deadly disease in his laboratory for purposes of experimental investigation has been very forcibly brought to public attention by the recent occurrences in Vienna of fatal cases of the plague from the germs brought for such purposes to the general hospital in that city. We are told in an editorial in Natural Science (London, December) that such cases do not often happen. It says :— " It may appear surprising to some that such accidents are not of more frequent occurrence. As a matter ot fact they are very rare, and this for two reasons. The majority of pathogenic organisms soon lose much of their virulence when cultivated for any length of time outside the body, some become harmless in a few days, others not for weeks or months, while there are bacteria which seem to retain their pathogenic power almost indefinitely. In most cases virulence may be restored by suitable passage through the animal body. The chief reason, how ever, of the rarity of accidents lies in the routine precautions taken in the laboratory when dealing with " patho organisms. Such precautions are the first lessons impressed upon the student ; for they are necessary, not only as a safeguard to the experimenter, but also to preserve the cultures themselves from contamination. ... In

all laboratories the beginner acquires, or ought to acquire, the technic necessary for the protection of himself and his cultures by practice upon harmless organisms. Once acquired, it becomes in time practically a reflex action, and the fear of infection is scarcely present in the mind. Nevertheless there will always be reckless persons, and accidents will at times occur. Some organisms are especially virulent and dangerous to work with, for instance, the bacillus of glanders. Even typhoid fever is at times contracted in the laboratory, and one fatal case of cholera has been definitely traced to this source. Such instances are, however, so rare as to be ot historic interest. Laboratory infection is, in fact, a risk almost infinitesimal in comparison with the risks run in the post-mortem room or at the bedside, or even in a crowded omnibus. It is the dog in the road who bites you, not the dog you keep chained up in a cage. The recent case of plague at Vienna appears to have been due to carelessness on the part of a drunken laboratory attendant, if, at least, we may trust the accounts which have appeared in the daily press.