Vol. 60, 1909 - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

208 THE CHARLOTTE MEDICAL JOURNAL.
pressure in the suprapubic region, accord- and animals is now universally admitted,
iiig as the placenta is in the lower uterine but it is not sufficiently perceived that the
segment or in the vagina, be employed, doctrine of evolution is applicable to many
This method goes on the theory that other sciences than biology. Recent rethe
placenta is separated after the pain, searches have indicated that in matter itthat
hand pressure will not separate it self there has been an evolution of elements,
safely at the time, and that the safe time with the ultimate survival of those which
to use hand grasping is after the placenta could endure the conditions of their envilias
separated. ronment.
Tge time for the third stage varies from n is, however, in the realm of pathology
20 minutes to an hour, and the practi- that the importance of evolution is of the
tioner who gives the proper time and fol- greatest interest to us. In the never-ending
lows this plan with the necessary patience struggle between an animal and the para-
Nature demands, will have the reward she gitic micio-organisms invading it, forms
always gives to those who understand and are slowly evolved which have greater and
obey her. greater power of resistance to the microbic
»» - .- , .. "
J „ .i.„i„„„ attacks, and thus in time a racial immunity
Darwin, Evolution and Pstbology. . ' , t. j t^i
of greater or less power is reached. This
The recent celebrations at Cambridge of jg well exhibited, for example, in the case
the centenary of the birth of Charles Dar- of measles. Through centuries measles has
win and of the fiftieth anniversary of the existed as an epidemic disease in this counpublication
of the "Origin of Species" were try, and by a selective removal of those in
remarkable not only for the wide area from whom the disease was of special severity a
which those taking part in the celebration race has arisen in whom measles is cornwere
drawn, but also, and even more, for paratively mild, though even at present
the unanimity with which the importance some 13,000 die yearly from the disease in
of Darwin's teaching was appreciated. England and V^ales. That this diminu-
The meeting at Cambridge emphasized the tion of the severity of measles is in no way
fact that the few who seem to claim that the result of a weakening of the virus is
Darwinism has been superseded are either conclusively shown by the result of the inthemselves
misunderstood or are not fully troduction of the disease to a race to which
acquainted with what Darwin really taught, the disease is ne^, when an appallingmor-
Those who know his teaching best are best lality rate will occur, as was terribly exemable
to appreciate how widely his ideas plified in the Fiji Islands some thirty-five
have penetrated into every science and how years ago.
adaptable in many directions those ideas
during the proceedings in honor of Darwere
and are so that it is extremely diffl-
^j,, ^^ Cambridge, Professor Metchnikoff
cult to say of any work done since his era
referred to the evolution of resistant strains
that it is directly antagonistic to his theo-
^f bacteria. In the lower organisms which
^'^^•,
.
, , , _ . , . possess to a high degree the power of rapid
The central and general idea of evolution
multiplication we are able to see ourselves
is very old, but until Darwin arose no simjj^^
evolutionary process at work. To the
pie or reasonable explanation had been
bacterium which passes through hundreds
given of the method by which this evoluof
generations in a day, that day is as a
tion might be brought about. Many had thousand years to higher organisms, and a
recognized the apparently progressive
bacterium'may undergo changes in a few
change in organic forms, so that there was ^ours by which its qualities are absolutely
an almost continuous slope from the lowest
^jodified. Its virulence as an agent of dislorms
to the highest but it was hardly de-
^^g^ ^^^, be enormously increased or profinitely
recognized that all these organisms
foundly 'diminished. The attenuation of a
might be part of a true genealogical tree,
virus, while passing through the body of a
Darwin was perfectly original in pointing
resistant host, is probably only another exout
that while change m organic forms de-
^j„ j^ ^f rapid evolutionary changes in mipended
on the variations and peculiarities
croorganisms.
present in every organism, the persistence . • ^ ,
i i j.jr ^ •
i
of these changes was dependent
^uch widely diilenng topics as racial
upyn their
powerof
addiction to alcohol and structural modifi-
agreement with the conditions in
cation in parasites
which
can be discussed from
the organisms were placed. The
question
^^^''
whether
Darwinian side but we have said
the variations are great
and immediate or slow and little is on an- f."°""b
to show that by a correct apprecia-
tion of evolution
other plane; the main
and he doctrine of the
doctrine depends on
^''''''''^^
the survival of those forms which are best
°^ '^^ ^"^^^ ^^'^ "^^'^''^^^ "^^" '^
adapted to the circumstances in which they enabled to penetrate more deeply into the
find themselves. The evolution of plants mechanism of morbic processes, and to un-