Vaccination Against Asiatic Cholera.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 312, 31 October 1888, Page 4

Vaccination Against Asiatic Cholera.

\)n Xkjlulvs Flodouovitcii (J\m\li.i\> h hose name has recently come betoio the world ot medical science a-> the discoveLer ot a \accinal prcvcnti\o against Asiatic cholera, is a young man ot Unity yeaid oi age. Always a close, keenly -seai clung, and unflagging industrious studenuuid medical experimentalist, the young Ru&-ian icienUst, since he hrst became a disciple oi M. Pasteur, in the early pait of 1866, has worked with an enthusiastic and urn emitting energy in the pursuit of tangible lOfeulfcs m germinal disease^, at the same time personally conducting the daily moculatoiy courses foi hydrophobia among the large number of patients fiom all paitb of l'usoia. Tin key, and South-Eastern Europe. The vaccinal tieatment of Siberian plague, ci anthrax, among cattle and sheep, which yearly half decimates neaily every huge sheep run in South Russia, and occasionally attacks the human body in a malignant and aggiavated form, occupied Dr. Gamaleia toi many months pievious to hi-5 attention being devoted to the choleraic miciobe. In justice to Di. (iamaleia and his leputation, I should here explain an unfortunate incident which, hlteung tlnough the Russian and foreign Press, may convey a misappiehension. The hrst germinal microbes ot Asiatic choleia weie obtained bv Dr. (iamaleia horn Professor Koch, oi Bcilin, and these h<i\e been cultivated in the toimei's laboratory heie. It is not necessary for me to recapitulate the particular method and experiments pui&ued by Dr. Gamaleia in hie. lesearches, which have led to such splendid results, and winch were fully explained in the remarkable paper recentJy read by the .Russian scientist betoie the membeis of the Academy oi Sciences at Paris. I may obsene, ho\vc\er, that there is this special dilloience in the lymph admmisteied toi hjdiophooia and that ior Asiatic cnolera. The former contains the living microbe ot rabies, the latter the dead miciobe. Hence, as there can be no legeneiation fLom the dead choleraic mieiobe, the introduction of the vaccine pie\enti\c into a sound body is perfectly innocuous, excepting, oi couise, some lew degiees of vacemai lever which it may produce. On this point Dr. Oamaleia was unable accurately to inform me tins morning, as he is now waiting the development m his o\\ n system oi three choleraic inoculations made upon himselt. After proving his expenments on living j animals Dr. (iamalcia, with the courage and I taith of his theories, always makes his own body the first subject for practical operation. Though ne-\er bitten by a rabid animal, the learned doctor has submitted himselt to threediiierentinoculatory courses lor hydiophobia. The hist course Mas immediately before he left JVI. Pasteur's laboia tory to establish the present bacteriological station here. The doctor insisted on being inoculated ior • good luck,' as he expressed it to M. Pasteur. Meeting Dr. Gamaleia shoitly after his return here in 1886,1 asked him jocularly what he supposed his sensations would be if he were suddenly to discover an aversion to wafer and develop an inclination to growl and bark. Quite seriously the doctor replied, 'My dear sir, the development ot such symptoms would be extremely interesting to me !' Not being a medical scientist, perhaps I did not sufficiently appreciate the doctor's evident enthusiasm. Whilst in the bacteriological laboratory 1 had the opportunity of observing the distinctive formation of the choleraic microbe. A pigeon inoculated with the living microbe of cholera had died a tew hours previous to our visit. The dead pigeon was now opened, and from the heart an extremely small quantity of blood was extracted by means of a small glass tube. This was placed on a small piece of glass and passed lightly through a spirit flame by which the microbes were killed without being destroyed, being preserved by a chemical solution passed over the glass plate. The Jatter, about cwo-thiids of an inch square, "was then placed beneath a veiy powerful microscope, when every blood atom and cholera microbe were seen distinct and separated. 'The cedillas or commas are the cholera," laughingly observed the doctor, as a leady aud comprehensive explanation to a journalist. Such, in fact, was the case. The blood atom? were of a

long cocoon shape, whilst the cholera germs had the formation of a comma. After the completion of some further experimental operations, he goes to Paris and London, probably about the end of October or early in November, when, in conjunction with M. Pasteur, convincing prooife will be ot the splendid success attained by the laborious researches of Dr. Gamaleia.