The Daily News. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29. THE CONQUEST OF DISEASE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 221, 29 December 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29. THE CONQUEST OF DISEASE.

One of the most fascinating articles we have read for some time is an article in the October number' of the Edinburgh Review on "The War Against Disease." The goal of civilisation, says the reviewer, is the establishment of the supremacy of man over the whole of the antagonistic forces of nature. We long ago, gained absolute security from the attacks of wild animals, but only recently have w© discovered that far more devastating than -wolves or lions are the bacilli of the various diseases which are qnly visible under the microscope, but which threaten our lives 'and our health in a manner no less-real than -that of savage beasts. The campaign against the bacilli is our last, and one of our most terrible, conflicts -with untamed nature. The fight which i& being waged against the cause of nine-tenths of human misery is the most important in ■ the annals of mankind. tt was not until 1659 that these micro-organisms were discovered, but the casual relationship of bacteria to disease was not finally demonstrated until the latter half of last century. In 1849 the bacillus of anthrax was discovered, but it was not until fourteen years later that it was demonstrated that the bacillus was the cause of anthrax. The discovery of numerous specific microbes soon followed. The microbe of leprosy was discovered in 1879, of typhoid fever in 1680, of tuberculosis in 1882, of cholera, diphtheria, and tetanus in 1884, of influenza in 1892, of bubonic plague in 1894, of dysentery in 1000, and of syphilis in ! Woo. Itf is now admitted that the problem of preventing infectious disease must find its solution in the study of these microscopic parasites. In old times down to our own the doctor never cured disease, but only watched' its development and suggested means for avoiding the aggravation of its -ravages. Now all is changed, and by study of the defensive forces which protect the organism against the microbes of disease, health will in time be as-1 sured. The reviewer then proceeds to i describe with admirable lucidity the great i discovery of Metchnikoff as to the part played by the red corpuscles or phago-i cytes, which patrol .the body for the i purpose of devouring the invading microorganism. Natural immunity is achieved by a process of intra-cellular digestion., There are two different types of immun- 1 ity: one in which the invading organisms themselves are demolished, the other in which the toxins -which they produce are rendered incapable of injuring the tis-■: sues. We regret that it is impossible to do more than merely call attention to this fascinating exposition of the doctrine and the application of the principle of scientific immunisation, which is based on two fundamental principles: (1) The attenuation of viruses; (2)> the vaccinating property of the attenuated micro-' organisms. Of course, the reviewer does not refer to the protest that has been made against the use of the sera, but is evidently a firm believer in the efficacy of the sera used for the prevention of diptheria and tetanus. The second portion of his article is less open to' hostile criticism from the anti-vivisectionists' camp. The plan of campaign therein described is not based upon the more or less cruel utilisation of living animals for the purpose of procuring anti-toxins, but upon the absolute extermination of whole families of living beings. Those marked out for doom are a certain species of mosquito, the tsetse-fly and the familiar house-fly. The reviewer maintains that the greatest triumphs in the war against disease have been obtained by this ruthless war of extermination. Malaria itself can now be kept wholly under control by this means, and yellow fever and- sleeping sickness can be practically abolished. The theory that disease might be carried- by biting inse'cts was first enunciated in 1803 by Dr. Beauperthuy, who was born in Guadeloupe. But it was not until much later that Sir Patrick Manson discovered that the disease was conveyed by mosquitoes. It was thought that the mosquito carried the poison as the house-fly carries the bacilli of disease; but Sir Patrick Manson discovered, in studying elephantiasis, that the mosquito first of all digests the deadly, parasite before it is ready to inoculate beings with the disease. The mosquito acts as an "intermediate host,-' and J3 necessary for certain stages of the development of the filaria. Ross, in 1897, traced the development of the parasite in the body of the mosquito. He showed that the spores sucked by the insect with the blood of an infected individual make their way, in the course of development, to the salivary gland of the mosquito and pass with its poisonous saliva directly into the blood of any man it may then bite. The odd thing is that it is only one group of mosquitoes—the ' anophelinae—that can act as intermediate host for the parasite. They breed in small pools of water and margins of streams and lakes, Thorough draining and scavenging has done much to get rid of these, but in cisterns and suoh places where it is impracticable to drain away the water, a little kerosene oil poured in spreads over the surface of the liquid and kills the larvae by preventing them from coming up to breathe. Further, it has been discovered that certain fish feed upon the larvae of this mosquito. Barbadoes does not suffer from malaria because of the multitude of "small fish called "millions," whose duty it appears to be to keep an expanse of water from being used; as a breeding-ground by the anophelines. By extirpating these noxious insects the number of cases of ma-

laria in Egypt wa,s brought down from two hundred and fourteen in 1003 to ninety casea in 1904. And since 1905 there has not been a single case. It has been found that the parasite of yellow fever is carried by one, and only one, species of mosquito—the Stegomya fascia ta—and its has been noticed that where a custom prevailed of keeping goldfish in the drinking-water barrel yellow fever was absent. Sleeping sickness, the dealiest of all tropical diseases, which wiped out two thousand of the inhabitants of the Uganda Protectorate and depopulated large districts in the Congo, is transmitted, not by the mosquito, but by the tsetse-fly, whose breeding places appear to be confined to the ground-bush within thirty yards of river banks. The burning of such bush, accompanied by personal prophylactic measures- against the fly, will render sleeping sickness a memory of the past. The reviewer concludes his interesting and suggestive sketch of the latest triumph of civilisation by declaring war to the death against the common house-fly. This familiar pest does not eat the microbes, but simply carries them on its person and deposits them on butter or milk or other articles of food, from which they are transferred to tiie human body. Typhoid, cholera, tuberculosis, and summer diarrhoea are among tihe diseases which the house-fly helps to disseminate. The breeding places of the house-fly are well known, and its extinction is a matter' than can be effected by the universal co-operation of the people of the country. The house-fly has persecuted mankind for many ages, but the hour of vengeance and retribution has arrived. In view of the extraordinary success in the prevention of tropical diseases, there can no longer be any question that our English infectious diseases ■will in time also be stamped out. Civilised humanity is nearly, ready to take the greatest step ever yet taken for its emancipation from the wayward authority of nature.