Part 16

The poisoning of the body by the excreted toxin of the multiplying cells, which is simply plant food, occurs because it is removed only in part by the digestive organs, the circulation that conveys it to the other eliminating organs being efficient for that purpose. Could all of this toxin be removed as fast as it is excreted, and not enter the circulation, there would be no fever.

The termination of this process must be either the death of the colony from exhaustion of the food supply in the glands, or the exhaustion of the patient by the excess of toxins that accumulate in the body. As the activity of the bacillus depends upon the food supplied, the severity and length of the fever varies in different individuals. Some are immune, because the glands that furnish the food of the typhoid bacillus are in a state of high health; others have a brief and mild attack, because the food supply is scant owing to a slight impairment of the integrity of the glands; but with a considerable number in every epidemic the food is ample to sustain the creation of an immense colony of bacilli which destroys the victim by an overdose of poison.

The final disposition of the typhoid bacilli, after a course of fever, was believed to be by their elimination from the body through the various organs devoted to the discharge of waste products; but recent investigations have proved that the typhoid bacillus may remain in the body for long periods without apparently affecting the health of the person, but when communicated to another, it will cause an attack of fever of the most virulent type. In one instance an outbreak of typhoid fever was traced to a woman who had fever upward of fifty years ago. It was found that the excretions of her body contained immense quantities of living typhoid bacilli. She was a cook by trade, and it was found on tracing her history that wherever she had worked there had been epidemics of typhoid.

A still more remarkable feature of the life history of the typhoid bacillus has recently been made public. A typhoid epidemic was traced to a nurse who had attended cases of typhoid fever, but had never suffered from an attack of that disease, and yet was discharging large quantities of the bacilli. These cases can be explained only on the theory that these microörganisms find some place, possibly, as has been suggested, in the gall bladder, where they find food sufficient to keep them in an active state of multiplication, but where the conditions prevent the absorption of the toxins they excrete.

How far these curious incidents in the life of the typhoid bacilli are common to other bacilli is not known; but if it is true of other infectious diseases, the fact will explain the origin of those obscure and mysterious cases that occur without any known exposure to the infection.

In concluding this inquiry as to the nature of infection and its effects on the body, the following statement of a biologist as to the bacterium seems justified: “When it enters a living body, it aims directly at the destruction of the latter. It multiplies rapidly, tends to scatter its broods throughout the tissues, and all the while gives off the most powerful poisons. This agent is wickedly implacable, neither giving nor asking quarter. The battle that it wages with the body can terminate only by the destruction of one of the combatants.”

Viewed in the light of the past history of infectious diseases, this is not an overdrawn picture. If we estimate the deaths from smallpox in ancient times, from cholera in modern times, and from tuberculosis (consumption) throughout all time, the destruction of human life by bacteria cannot be overstated. The bacterium has been a wickedly implacable foe to the human race in the past. Invisible, intangible, everywhere present, it has proved omnipotent in its destructive attacks upon communities.

But our century opens with a far brighter outlook for the race. Elementary forces which, through ignorance of their true functions in the economy and conservation of nature, were permitted in the past to expend their energy in the destruction of life, have been revealed by science to be man’s most helpful agents in the promotion of comfort, health, and longevity. Electricity was for ages only a thunderbolt, an object of terror, and an agent of destruction, visiting the human residence only to kill its owner and burn the structure.

To-day the same natural force is man’s most obedient and humble servant, quietly visiting his home to furnish him heat and light, annihilating time in the transactions of business, and transporting him from place to place as on the lightning’s wings.

So the bacterium, once the terror of mankind as the invisible and apparently unknowable cause of devastating pestilences, proves to be the useful purveyor of the by-products of man’s digestion of waste matter which is thereby converted into food for plants. It visits man in the pursuit of its humble calling to obtain his contribution to the sum total of plant food. It searches every tissue, every organ, every recess, however obscure, but so stealthily that its coming and going and its immediate presence are not known if absolute cleanliness of the body exists. It is only when dying tissues or organs, or accumulations of dead matter, are found that its presence becomes known. Even then it would prove harmless and its presence would be unrecognized if its excretions of plant food (toxins) were not necessarily absorbed and did not enter the circulation, thus poisoning the body it is relieving of dead matter.

Briefly, what are man’s defenses against bacteria? Chiefly two, viz., first, killing it by depriving it of food; and, second, killing it directly by what are known as germicides. The first method is effected by cleanliness of the person. It may be affirmed that cleanliness, without and within, absolutely protects every man, woman, and child from the most common disease-producing bacteria.

It is not sufficient to keep the skin clean by daily baths, while the mouth, nose, throat, and other internal surfaces and organs are covered or filled with effete matter. We must be every whit clean if we would escape the results of the scavenging processes of bacteria of some variety or species.

That condition can be secured and maintained in an organism that itself is constantly decaying in all of its tissues and organs only by strict compliance with the natural laws governing the operations of the body as an independent organism in which all of its forces tend to promote its health and conservation. Every tissue and every organ has its special means of renewal of its tissue by the removal of dead particles through the outlets and the reception of fresh material through the inlets of the body. Waste and supply are exactly balanced, as in the most precise and delicate machine. If the outlets become clogged, so that all the waste cannot escape at that proper time, dead matter, the food of bacteria, begins to accumulate, and disease must result.

In the same manner, if the food is in excess of the demands, or of a quality not suited to the needs of the tissue or organ, waste begins to accumulate, bacteria swarm in the decomposing mass, and emit their toxins, which, absorbed into the circulation, cause a variety of physical disturbances according to the species of bacteria present, and the particular tissues the toxins affect, as the nervous system, stomach, heart, kidneys, etc.

That even the most feeble minded may be able to regulate their habits so as to secure an adequate supply of food both in quality and quantity, and the prompt removal of waste matter, so as to secure that degree of cleanliness of internal organs essential to escape from bacterial attacks, the mechanism of the body is endowed with instincts that make it automatic in its action. Such are appetite and taste for food and drinks; the desire for exercise, rest, and sleep; the impulse of the organs in an active state, etc. It is only when these natural monitors are interfered with that the mechanism begins to fail in its elimination of waste, and bacteria find the conditions favorable for their functional activity.

The second defensive measure is the destruction of the bacteria by means of agents that will destroy the microörganism before or after its entrance into the body, but without injuring the healthy tissues. There is a great variety of these agents of more or less power, and they are used in the form of gases, liquids, and powders, according to conditions existing in individual cases. In general, it may be advised that, as bacteria are everywhere, germicides ought to be used far more extensively than they are for the purposes of securing not only the direct destruction of bacteria, but of removing or neutralizing dead matter, the food of bacteria. So minute are bacteria, and so adherent are they to material things, that mere bathing with water does not remove them, medicate it as we may with fancy soaps. There should be used in addition a more penetrating and destructive agent, which would not only destroy all forms of bacteria, but at the same time secure absolute cleanliness.

It would be impossible even to summarize, except in a volume, the vast number of so-called germicides that have been brought to the attention of the public for use; but in the practice of surgery the chief reliance is placed upon those agents which simply oxidize organic matter, and thus destroy the germ without injuring living tissue, as do all forms of caustic preparations. The saving of life by these new measures far exceeds that effected by simply removing the material that contains the germ, without destroying the germ itself.

It is impossible to estimate the resources of science in its efforts to discover the ultimate conditions that govern the origin and spread of all the pestilential diseases; but its revelations during the last quarter of a century are a prophecy and a promise that the whole brood of domestic contagious and infectious diseases will disappear during the present century from the homes of English-speaking people; largely because the lessons of cleanliness are being learned, not only the lessons of cleanliness of the home, but also personal cleanliness--a form of cleanliness that is more than washing with soap and water,--that kind of cleanliness which kills germs, removes the substances in which they live, and disinfects and makes aseptic and healthy the surrounding tissues.

VIII

A CLOSING WORD

“Cleanliness is indeed next to Godliness,” is an oft-quoted saying of John Wesley. Bacon stated the maxim thus: “Cleanness of body was ever deemed to proceed from a due reverence to God.” The Hebrew Fathers, from whom this sanitary principle was derived, resolved the doctrines of religion into “Carefulness; Carefulness into Vigorousness; Vigorousness into Guiltlessness; Guiltlessness into Abstemiousness; Abstemiousness into Cleanliness; Cleanliness into Godliness.”

This religious creed was doubtless based on the Mosaic sanitary code, and was the preventive measure against pestilences which the great Jewish law-giver approved. How generally and how long the “Chosen People” adopted and practised this method of protection against epidemic diseases does not appear, but it is quite certain that in later days it had been discarded.

The Hebrew Fathers could have had no conception of the invisible agencies in filth that made uncleanness such a powerful factor in the propogation of epidemic pestilences and domestic contagious and infectious diseases. It was reserved for the scientists of the recent past to discover the exact nature of the infective germs of communicable diseases, their origin, their development, their modes of infection; in other words, their life history.

This discovery revealed the fact that filth in every form, whether in the rubbish-heap, the toilet, the garbage, the dust of the floor, or even in the folds of the hands and feet, the secretions of the skin and glands, is a culture bed for germ-producing diseases. The secret of the great power of cleanness as the true remedial measure for the prevention of pestilences is now apparent and every citizen must recognize that the obligation of applying that remedy rests with himself.

The Great Awakening, in the middle of the last century, of the people of England, and subsequently, of this country, to the intimate relations of filth, in all forms in and around their dwellings, to the prevalence and fatality of cholera, typhus fever, and other communicable diseases, has restored cleanliness to its ancient imperial position as chief of the virtues, and the most reliable private and public means of conserving health.

This awakening, due both in England and America to trivial incidents, forms one of the most interesting chapters in human history. Already the outcome has been an enormous reduction of the mortality of English-speaking peoples, an immense increase in the length of life, and an advance in the arts of living, which insures a higher civilization by securing to every citizen a sound mind in a sound body.

Transcriber’s Notes

Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.