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LITTLE MASTERPIECES OF SCIENCE

[Illustration: Louis Pasteur.]




  Little Masterpieces of Science
  Edited by George Iles

  HEALTH AND HEALING

  _By_

  Sir James Paget, M.D.      Patrick Geddes and
  Sir J. R. Bennett, M.D.    J. Arthur Thomson
  T. M. Prudden, M.D.        B. W. Richardson, M.D.
  G. M. Sternberg, M.D.      Buel P. Colton
  Robson Roose, M.D.         J. S. Billings, M.D.

  NEW YORK
  DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
  1902

  Copyright, 1902, by Doubleday, Page & Co.
  Copyright, 1894, by Harper & Brothers
  Copyright, 1901, by Popular Science Monthly
  Copyright, 1900, by D. C. Heath & Co.
  Copyright, 1901, by Evening Post Publishing Co.
  Copyright, 1901, by G. P. Putnam's Sons




PREFACE


When we remember that sound health is the foundation of every other
good, of all work fruitful and enjoyed, we see that in this field
new knowledge and new skill have won their most telling victories.
Pain, long deemed as inevitable as winter's cold, has vanished at the
chemist's bidding: the study of minutest life is resulting in measures
which promise to rid the world of consumption itself. Dr. Billings's
masterly review of medical progress during the nineteenth century,
following upon chapters from other medical writers of the first
rank, strikes Prevention as its dominant note. To-day the aim of the
great physicians is not simply to restore health when lost, but the
maintenance of health while still unimpaired.

Worthy of remark is the co-operation in this good task which the
physician receives at the hands of the inventor and the man of
business. To-day the railroad, quick and cheap, disperses crowded
cities into country fields: even the poorest of the poor may take a
summer outing on mountain <DW72>s, on the shores of lake or sea. As
easily may the invalid escape the rigors of a Northern winter as he
journeys to the Gulf of Mexico. For those who stay at home the railroad
is just as faithfully at work. It exchanges the oranges of Florida for
the ice of Maine, and brings figs and peaches from California to New
England and New York. These, together with the cold storage warehouse
and the cannery, have given the orchard and the kitchen garden all
seasons for their own. Nor must we forget the mills that offer a dozen
palatable cereals for the breakfast table, most of the drudgery of
preparation shifted from the kitchen to the factory. Because food is
thus various and wholesome as never before, the health and strength
of the people steadily gains, while medicine falls into less and less
request; for what is medicine three times in ten but a corrective for a
poor or ill-balanced diet?

But if the best health possible is to be enjoyed by everybody, the
co-operation with the physician must include everybody. Already a
considerable and increasing number of men and women understand this.
If they have any reason to suspect organic weakness of any kind, they
have recourse to the physician's advice, to the end that a suitable
regimen, or a less exacting mode of livelihood, may forefend all
threatened harm. A few pages of this volume set forth the due care
of the eyes: the work from which those pages is taken gives hints of
equal value regarding the care of the ears, the lungs and other bodily
organs, so much more easily kept sound than restored to soundness after
the assail of disease.

GEORGE ILES.




CONTENTS


  PAGET, SIR JAMES, M.D.

  ESCAPE FROM PAIN. THE HISTORY OF A DISCOVERY

    About 1800 Humphry Davy experimented with nitrous oxide gas
    and suggested its use in surgery. Horace Wells, a dentist
    of Hartford, Conn., uses the gas for the painless extraction
    of teeth. Sulphuric ether also observed to produce insensibility
    to pain. Dr. Crauford Long, of Jefferson, Ga., uses it in
    1842 for the excision of a tumour. Wm. T. G. Morton, Boston,
    employs ether in dentistry, and Dr. Warren in surgery. Dr.
    Simpson, Edinburgh, introduces chloroform to prevent the
    pains of childbirth. Anæsthesia not only abolishes pain,
    it broadens the scope of surgery and makes operations safe
    which formerly were most perilous.                                   3


  BENNETT, SIR J. R., M.D.

  JENNER AND PASTEUR

    Jenner's indebtedness to John Hunter. Jenner's early observations
    in natural history. He hears a countrywoman say, "I can't
    take small-pox for I have had cow-pox." This sets him thinking.
    He finds that of various forms of cow-pox but one gives
    protection against small-pox. In 1796 successfully vaccinates
    a patient. Holds that small-pox and cow-pox are modifications
    of the same disease and that if the system be impregnated
    with the milder disease, immunity from the severer is conferred.
    Immense saving of life by vaccination.

    Pasteur, a chemist, studies fermentation, which is due to
    the rapid multiplication of organisms. Similar organisms he
    detects as the cause of the silkworm disease and of anthrax
    in cattle. He adopts the method of Jenner, prepares an
    attenuated virus and protects cattle from anthrax.                  25


  GEDDES, PATRICK, AND J. ARTHUR THOMSON

  PASTEUR AND HIS WORK

    Distinguishes minute facets, not before observed, in certain
    chemical compounds. Proves that the fermentation of tartrate
    of lime is due to a minute organism and that a similar
    agency underlies many other kinds of fermentation. Protects
    wine from fermentation by heating it for a minute to 50° C.
    Disproves the theory of spontaneous generation. Discovers
    an antitoxin for hydrophobia.                                       51


  PRUDDEN, T. M., M.D.

  TUBERCULOSIS AND ITS PREVENTION

    In Nature an extremely important part is played by minute
    organisms. Some of them take up their abode in the human
    body and there set up diseases of which consumption is the
    chief. The tubercle bacillus is the sole cause of consumption:
    its entrance may be prevented, mainly by destroying the
    spittle of patients. Susceptibility to consumption may be
    inherited: the disease itself is not. Any cause which lowers
    vitality increases susceptibility. Dust is a source of danger
    both out-of-doors and in. Dust in houses should be removed,
    not simply stirred up. Encouragement for sufferers in early
    stages of disease.                                                  63


  STERNBERG, G. M., M.D.

  MALARIA AND MOSQUITOES

    Malaria, long believed to be due to bad air, is really
    chargeable to a mosquito discovered by Dr. Laveran, 1880,
    and first detected in America by Dr. Sternberg, 1886.
    Healthy individuals inoculated with blood containing the
    parasite develop malarial fever. The mosquito theory of
    infection was advanced by Dr. A. F. A. King, Washington,
    1883. Dr. Manson and Dr. Ross confirmed the theory by
    observation and experiment. Five individuals exposed to the
    July air of the Roman Campagna escape malaria by using
    screens on doors and windows and nets over their beds.              89


  ROOSE, ROBSON, M.D.

  THE ART OF PROLONGING LIFE

    What is the natural term of life? One hundred years the
    extreme limit. Longevity runs in families. Clergymen are
    long-lived. Abstemiousness, sound digestion, capacity for
    sleep usually found in the long-lived. Work is healthy,
    especially intellectual work. Reasonable hobbies are good.
    Beyond middle life exercise should be judicious. Diet should
    be digestible and moderate. Clothing should be sensible
    and cleanliness habitual.                                          107


  RICHARDSON, B. W., M.D.

  NATURAL LIFE AND DEATH

    Man should be as unconscious of death as of birth. To this
    end let him observe the rules of Health.

  RULES OF HEALTH

    The health of the unborn should be ensured. Many diseases
    usual in children may be avoided by isolation and disinfection.
    An equable temperature should be maintained. Regular and
    various mental labour is a benefit. Physical exercise
    should be moderate. The passions should obey the reason.
    Alcohol and tobacco are harmful. Opium, and other narcotics
    should be shunned. Not too much meat. Water the natural
    beverage. Air should be pure and not damp. Rest and recreation
    gainful. Idleness injurious. Sleep should be adequate.             137


  COLTON, BUEL P.

  CARE OF THE EYES

    Light should fall from behind and above: it should be equal
    for both eyes. An Argand lamp is best. Reading out-of-doors
    is harmful. The range of the eye should not be too short.
    Frequent rests do good. Light should be strong enough. The
    easiest reading should be saved for the evening. Reading
    during convalescence is hurtful. How to remove foreign
    substances from the eye. Cleanliness essential.                    155


  BILLINGS, J. S., M.D.

  PROGRESS OF MEDICINE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

    More medical progress in the nineteenth century than in the
    two thousand years preceding. The surgeon does more and
    better work than ever: he can locate a tumour of the brain.
    Deformities ameliorated. Perils of maternity reduced. Blindness
    in many cases prevented. Human life lengthening. The prevention
    of disease has made great strides. Pure water-supply, proper
    drainage and sewerage. Diphtheria, typhoid and consumption
    are largely preventable. Scientific nursing introduced.
    Improvements in hospital construction and management.              161




HEALTH AND HEALING




ESCAPE FROM PAIN: THE HISTORY OF A DISCOVERY

SIR JAMES PAGET, M.D.

  [Sir James Paget was one of the most eminent English surgeons
  of the last century: his writings on surgical themes are of
  the first authority. The essay, the chief portions of which
  follow, appeared in the _Nineteenth Century Magazine_,
  December, 1879. The editor's permission to reprint is
  thankfully acknowledged. The essay is contained in "Selected
  Essays and Addresses," by Sir James Paget, published by
  Longmans, Green & Co., 1902. The same firm publishes "Memoirs
  and Letters of Sir James Paget," edited by Stephen Paget, one
  of his sons.]


The history of the discovery of methods for the prevention of pain in
surgical operations deserves to be considered by all who study either
the means by which knowledge is advanced or the lives of those by whom
beneficial discoveries are made. And this history may best be traced in
the events which led to and followed the use of nitrous oxide gas, of
sulphuric ether, and of chloroform as anæsthetics--that is, as means by
which complete insensibility may be safely produced and so long
maintained that a surgical operation, of whatever severity and however
prolonged, may be absolutely painless.

In 1798, Mr. Humphry Davy, an apprentice to Mr. Borlase, a surgeon at
Bodmin, had so distinguished himself by zeal and power in the study of
chemistry and natural philosophy, that he was invited by Dr. Beddoes, of
Bristol, to become the "superintendent of the Pneumatic Institution
which had been established at Clifton for the purpose of trying the
medicinal effects of different gases." He obtained release from his
apprenticeship, accepted the appointment, and devoted himself to the
study of gases, not only in their medicinal effects, but much more in
all their chemical and physical relations. After two years' work he
published his _Researches, Chemical and Philosophical, chiefly
concerning Nitrous Oxide_, an essay proving a truly marvelous ingenuity,
patience, and courage in experiments, and such a power of observing and
of thinking as has rarely if ever been surpassed by any scientific man
of Davy's age; for he was then only twenty-two.

In his inhalations of the nitrous oxide gas he observed all the
phenomena of mental excitement, of exalted imagination, enthusiasm,
merriment, restlessness, from which it gained its popular name of
"laughing gas"; and he saw people made, at least for some short time and
in some measure, insensible by it. So, among other suggestions or
guesses about probable medicinal uses of inhalation of gases, he wrote,
near the end of his essay: "As nitrous oxide in its extensive operation
appears capable of destroying physical pain, it may probably be used
with advantage during surgical operations in which no great effusion of
blood takes place."

It seems strange that no one caught at a suggestion such as this. True,
the evidence on which it was founded was very slight; it was with a rare
scientific power that Davy had thought out so far beyond his facts; but
he had thought clearly, and as clearly told his belief. Yet no one
earnestly regarded it. The nitrous oxide might have been of as little
general interest as the carbonic or any other, had it not been for the
strange and various excitements produced by its inhalation. These made
it a favourite subject with chemical lecturers, and year after year, in
nearly every chemical theatre, it was fun to inhale it after the lecture
on the gaseous compounds of nitrogen; and among those who inhaled it
there must have been many who, in their intoxication, received sharp and
heavy blows, but, at the time, felt no pain. And this went on for more
than forty years, exciting nothing worthy to be called thought or
observation, till, in December, 1844, Mr. Colton,