The White Blood Cells as a Wrecking Crew—How Alcohol Makes It Easy for Disease to Attack Us—The Real Meaning of a Fever—The Medicine of Cheerfulness
By DAVID PAULSON, M. D.
Medical Superintendent Hinsdale Sanitarium, Hinsdale, Illinois
METCHNIKOFF, the remarkable investigator at the head of the Pasteur Institute, has given us an entirely new vision of the healing possibilities of the blood. We now have the most amazing confirmation of the Scripture declaration that "the blood is the life."
THE WRECKING CREW
The red blood cells concern themselves in carrying oxygen from the lungs to the tissues; but the white blood cells, which exist in much smaller number,—only one to four or five hundred of the red,—have a vastly different and much more romantic mission to perform. They are the builders and repairers of the body. When some part is injured, they are the "wrecking crew" that immediately apply themselves to replace and rebuild the destroyed tissue.
But they are not only hewers of wood and carriers of water. They are also the standing army of the interior; for when disease germs invade some part of the body, these white blood cells at once undertake the work of defense, freely sacrificing themselves, if necessary, to accomplish this.
ROLLS UP GERMS AND DIGESTS THEM
If the web of a frog's foot is scratched with a needle, so that some germs are introduced, and if it is then placed under the microscope, in a few moments the white blood cells can be seen passing through the blood-vessel wall, very much as one might pass a handkerchief through a keyhole. They have neither eyes nor feet nor hands. They merely resemble a little lump of jelly. Yet, guided by some mysterious influence, they work their way over to the microbes, fold themselves around them as a housewife works raisins into dough, and then actually digest these germs.
TOO DRUNK TO SMELL
A well-known pathologist in Rush Medical College, Chicago, inoculated two rabbits with pneumonia germs. To one of the rabbits was then given alcohol, which formerly was the orthodox treatment for pneumonia. This rabbit died. The other one, which had not received alcohol, recovered.
A drop of its blood put under the microscope revealed the fact that the white blood cells had eaten up the pneumonia germs. An examination of the blood from the rabbit that died showed that the white blood cells had scarcely destroyed any pneumonia germs.
Evidently the alcohol that made the rabbit drunk, also made these white blood cells so drunk they could not smell the germs. No doubt many pneumonia patients have been hurried to their graves by the mistaken notion that alcohol in some way would save their lives, instead of actually cooperating with the germs to destroy them.
Do not overlook this practical point,—that the same alcohol that tends to kill a pneumonia patient, will, when used in health, pave the way for pneumonia by crippling the bodily defenses against disease. That is why surgeons dread to perform surgical operations on alcoholics. They know they can not depend upon the active cooperation of the white blood cells to repair the damage their knife does, and to dispose of any germs that may be accidentally introduced during the operation.
HOW NATURE COOPERATES IN DIPHTHERIA
Diphtheria germs do not venture into the blood stream, to be captured by the blood cells. They establish their headquarters in the throat, and begin to manufacture a poison, one part of which will ruin twenty million parts of human flesh—many times more dangerous than rat poison. It is this toxin, after it has been absorbed into the blood, that overwhelms the heart and ends the life of the patient. The body endeavors to make an antitoxin to neutralize this. If it succeeds in doing this promptly enough and in sufficient quantities the patient survives.
Some years ago Von Behring, a noted German investigator, discovered that the horse does not contract diphtheria, because it already has antitoxin on hand in its blood. So he perfected a method of securing this horse serum containing the antitoxin, and injecting it into the diphtheritic child to supplement its own efforts in this direction.
AS SENSIBLE AS TO DRINK MILK
Unquestionably this remarkable discovery has saved tens of thousands of children. And to go to the horse for antitoxin when the child is short on its own account, is just as rational as to go to the cow for milk when the natural supply is not sufficient.
Of course, if the cow has tuberculosis, then it becomes a serious matter for the child; and if the horse from which the serum is procured happened to have glanders, it would be even more serious. But the principle itself is unquestionably sound.
Nature does something more than to neutralize the poison that is absorbed. It does its best to prevent the absorption of the poison. For this reason it manufactures a patch in the throat. But unfortunately nature seems to overlook the fact that there is only a small space in the throat, and frequently keeps on making the patch thicker and thicker, and thus may gradually choke the child.
NEEDS HEAVEN'S RESOURCES
Then the doctor must interfere and remove a part of the patch. In other words, God has put more intelligence into the well-trained doctor's brain than into the mucous membrane of the child's throat, just as He has given the driver more brains than He has given the horse. Yet the driver needs the horse to pull his load. Likewise the doctor could do nothing in the sick-room, without the healing power of nature.
On the other hand, he must be prepared not simply to cooperate with nature, but sometimes to spur it up, at other times to restrain it. And right here is where he needs not only all the human wisdom that he can command, but frequently divine wisdom as well. And blessed is that physician who at such an emergency knows that he has not only the resources on earth at his command, but the resources of heaven as well.
THE REAL MEANING OF FEVER
When the system becomes overwhelmed with poisons, whether introduced from without or manufactured by the germs within, nature generally produces a rise of temperature.
In former times the doctor felt that it was his duty to crush the temperature at any cost. The scientific physician of to-day knows that for every degree of temperature, the body has multiplied to a tremendous extent its capacity to destroy poison. This is nature's method of house cleaning. And yet, like the patch in the throat, the process is not altogether devoid of danger. The hotter the blood, the greater the ability to destroy poison; but the liver, the kidneys, and other internal organs can not safely endure for any length of time this greatly overheated blood. Nature, in her anxiety to destroy the poisons, seems to overlook this fact. So again we have need of the skilled physician and the trained nurse, with their human intelligence.
But the important thing is not to give some death-dealing drug to smother the fever process, but rather to cool the patient sufficiently and yet permit the fever process to go on until it has accomplished its purpose.
ONLY TWO PER CENT OF DEATHS
Formerly ten to twenty per cent of typhoid fever cases were fatal. A generation ago Dr. Brand secured permission to introduce the use of cold baths for typhoid fever in the German army. After he had treated eight thousand cases with only two per cent of deaths, the whole medical world was convinced of the great advantage of baths in the treatment of fevers.
If we desired to burn up a lot of rubbish in an old stove that could stand only a certain amount of heat, we might stir up the fire, and yet at the same time apply cool applications to the stove. That is precisely what we now do to the fever patient; and as a consequence, hundreds of lives are saved that in former times would have been sacrificed to the prevailing ignorance of nature's program.399
SHALL WE COOPERATE OR HINDER?
Earth and sea were ransacked to find a sure cure for tuberculosis. But it still continued to claim its full toll of victims until some one conceived the idea of keeping the tubercular patient outdoors day and night, feeding him wholesome, nourishing food, and giving due attention to his bowels. And this came very near being a sure cure in all early stages.
But it was not the fresh air in the lungs that healed the patient. It was the fresh air in the blood, reviving its healing possibilities. Any one can comprehend that the kind of blood that can repair a diseased lung can just as readily repair a diseased stomach, liver, or nerves. So we have come to understand that fresh air is one of our most important adjuncts in the mighty struggle against disease.
A reasonable amount of pleasant outdoor exercise contains health and life-giving possibilities. The man who lives in a poorly ventilated house or office day after day is permitting his bodily defenses to crumble to pieces.
THE CHEERFUL SPIRIT
Thirty centuries ago the wise man said, "A cheerful heart is a good medicine." Prov. 17:22, A. R. V. We now know that depression, sorrow, jealousy, and hatred tend to hinder white blood cells from doing their work. They also block digestion. So if we want to cooperate intelligently with the healing influences God has put within the human body, we should pray that some of the joy of the Lord may be put into our lives; for it is those who wait on the Lord who shall renew their strength. Isa. 40:31.
