BY A. EDELFALT.
The newness of the Pasteur doctrines and treatment is, indeed, one of the most striking things about the Institute. One rubs his eyes to remember that, thirteen years ago, very few people admitted the rôle of bacteria in the world, and that those who did admit their existence were very much at sea about what to do with them.
The doctrine of microbe, the theory that ferments and virus are living beings, that a vaccine is an attenuated virus, that medicine is based on the artificial attenuation of virus—all this is now so widely received, is so thoroughly a part of popular belief, that one is bewildered in remembering that twelve years ago the general theory of disease was that it is “in us, from us, by us.” Especially is all this astonishing, standing in the Pasteur Institute, the crystallization of the microbe doctrine.
“Yes,” continued Doctor Roux, “we have conquered hydrophobia; nothing is more certain.”
“And you hope to conquer other diseases in the same way?”
The doctor made a fine nervous gesture. “In science one does not hope; one proves. In every thirty thousand experiments one succeeds. We study diseases here. Each physician has his special line of investigation. We hope for nothing. We simply report what we find.”
“But you yourself, Doctor Roux, have certainly hopes that diphtheria is almost conquered?”
The doctor pursed up his mouth.
“The investigations in diphtheria are in just this condition. We have proved at the Pasteur Institute” (Doctor Roux is modest and says ‘we,’ which means himself and his assistant, M. Versin) “that diphtheria is a toxic disease; that is, that it results from a poison. The microbe of diphtheria 335 does not penetrate throughout the system as in the case of most other microbic diseases. It exists only in the mucus found on the pharynx. This microbe does not cause death, but it secretes a poison which penetrates throughout the body and kills. This being proved, of course the next step is to find what will destroy the poison.