History of medical practice in Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

350 History of Medical Practice in IllinoisYabe, a surgeon in the Japanese navy. That Gradle himself worked withbacteria is evident from the statements about gelatin and about the tuberclebacillus."A drawback to the gelatine soil is its low melting point, viz: 28 ° C. Inmy own experience most of the grades to be had in commerce here becamefluid at even a lower temperature in spite of accurate neutralization of anytrace of acidity present. In order to obviate this difficulty Koch has latelyused solidified blood serum."Apart from the fundamental scientific importance of Koch's work, ithas almost at once led to immediate practical results. Koch's own statement,that the bacilli are often present in the sputum of consumptives,has been confirmed by a host of other observers sothat the microscopicexamination of the sputum possesses now a decided diagnostic value. It isnecessary hence to become acquainted with the mode of demonstrating thebacilli."He himself found the bacilli in sputum from thirty-five consecutive patientswith pulmonary tuberculosis. The practical value of Koch's discoveryis pointed out also in an article on the microscopic examinationof the sputum in consumption. My friend Dr. C. W. Earle, referring to hisown efforts to stain tubercle bacilli in 1885, wrote: "For days and weeksI stained and stained (sputum from tuberculous patients) but could neverfind a tubercle bacillus. Finally I mentioned my trouble to Dr. Fenger. Hesaid 'Go see Gradle.' One day I called on him in his office with a specimen.He stained it and showed me myriads of tubercle bacilli. I never had anytrouble after that." Gradle saw early and clearly the tragic consequencesof the emptying of sewage into Lake Michigan, the source of the watersupply to Chicago. In 1886, at a meeting of the Chicago Medical Society,he recommended boiling or thorough filtrationof the water supply, especiallvbecause there were then over 5,000 cases of typhoid fever annuallyin the city and the discharges would contain typhoid bacilli.Mention must now be made of a book on the formation of poisons bymicro-organisms, published in 1884 by G. V. Black, "the father of moderndentistrv." The book contains seven lectures which he had delivered beforestudents and practitioners at the Chicago College of Dental Surgery.The first three lectures (part 1) deal with the historical aspects of the evolutionof the germ theory, and the last four lectures (part 2), with the relationsof micro-organisms to the production of disease. In an appendixBlack reviewed the bearing of dental caries on the germ theory, dwellinglargely on the work then being done in Berlin by the American dentistW. D. Miller. In this book Black revealed himself as a studious scholar,close observer and philosopher, deeply concerned with basic problems. Inhis interesting speculations he sometimes anticipated important develop-