Page 125 - My FlipBook
P. 125
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ing in the air, breathing them into the Kings or taking them
in with 'our food. Wounds may be infected from infected in-
struments, from micro-organisms floating in the air and
hghting upon the wound, or in any manner whatever by which
micro-organisms ma}' 1)e conveyed to the wound. Food,
clothing, ships, rooms, beds, anything whatever, may become
infected. It means simply that there are upon it or about it
pathogenic micro-organisms, for in this we give little atten-
tion to the non-pathogenic forms, or the saprophites.
Contagion is practically the same as infection. Contagion
is the conveying of pathogenic micro-organisms to the per-
son or animal, but in the use of the word contagion we ex-
pect active results. The man is sick from having received
the contagion. There is this shade of difference in the two
words : When we use the word contagiiim—using the noun
we mean precisely the same thing as infection. A con-
taginni is the pathogenic micro-organism which produces
some particular form of disease. We speak of the contagium
of measles, of small-pox, of diphtheria, etc., and in this sense
the word means precisely the same thing as the organism
producing these diseases.
Susceptibility and Immunity.
Susceptibility to disease and immunity from disease is
a subject of the greatest interest to pathologists to-day that
we have to consider. The study of it is nowadays upon new
lines as compared with but a few years ago. It is a subject
that is developing and developing rapidly, so that w'e may
confidently predict that within the next twenty-five years
it will revolutionize medicine, and will, in all probability,
revolutionize dentistry. There are discoveries being made
along these lines that wnll in all probability put the practice
of dentistry in a new light, within a very few vears. And
while the subject is now in its infancy and is a difficult one for
you to follow and to see the relations it may have to dental
jiracticc in the near future, it is one that I would advise each
and every one of you to follow closely and to try to under-
stand its meaning, for it is not improbable that we may im-
munize against caries of the teeth within a few years, and
prevent much of caries that is now occurring in that way, in-
stead of curing it, or trying to cure it, by filling. Studies are
113
ing in the air, breathing them into the Kings or taking them
in with 'our food. Wounds may be infected from infected in-
struments, from micro-organisms floating in the air and
hghting upon the wound, or in any manner whatever by which
micro-organisms ma}' 1)e conveyed to the wound. Food,
clothing, ships, rooms, beds, anything whatever, may become
infected. It means simply that there are upon it or about it
pathogenic micro-organisms, for in this we give little atten-
tion to the non-pathogenic forms, or the saprophites.
Contagion is practically the same as infection. Contagion
is the conveying of pathogenic micro-organisms to the per-
son or animal, but in the use of the word contagion we ex-
pect active results. The man is sick from having received
the contagion. There is this shade of difference in the two
words : When we use the word contagiiim—using the noun
we mean precisely the same thing as infection. A con-
taginni is the pathogenic micro-organism which produces
some particular form of disease. We speak of the contagium
of measles, of small-pox, of diphtheria, etc., and in this sense
the word means precisely the same thing as the organism
producing these diseases.
Susceptibility and Immunity.
Susceptibility to disease and immunity from disease is
a subject of the greatest interest to pathologists to-day that
we have to consider. The study of it is nowadays upon new
lines as compared with but a few years ago. It is a subject
that is developing and developing rapidly, so that w'e may
confidently predict that within the next twenty-five years
it will revolutionize medicine, and will, in all probability,
revolutionize dentistry. There are discoveries being made
along these lines that wnll in all probability put the practice
of dentistry in a new light, within a very few vears. And
while the subject is now in its infancy and is a difficult one for
you to follow and to see the relations it may have to dental
jiracticc in the near future, it is one that I would advise each
and every one of you to follow closely and to try to under-
stand its meaning, for it is not improbable that we may im-
munize against caries of the teeth within a few years, and
prevent much of caries that is now occurring in that way, in-
stead of curing it, or trying to cure it, by filling. Studies are
113
