Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 262, 19 August 1891 — DEATH'S DOMAINS. [ARTICLE]

DEATH'S DOMAINS.

(OŌSTINBEp,) y Such were ihe discovery of ihe means of xnakii>g fire hv our remote ancsesters; the msthod of sraelting iron. the power of steam, e]ectricity f the teiescope followed by the raicroFcope both opening up new worlds, The introduction of fcientificreasoning has lifted usfrom fqualid misery and gross ignGrance and superstition to our present eom- . parative enlightened condition. Medicine i$ about the lastdep »rt- j ment to heeome scientific. The | causes and courses of diseases are | so obscure and man has until re- j cent times been blind and eyeless! as far as the microscopic world is j I eoneemeol, and consequent3y the! | healing art h&s been associated*with [sorcery, witehcraft, and ' connections fatal to any scientific progress. Diseases have always jbeen attributted to supernaturai agenpies, and the treatment has aecordingly heen by saerifices. spells. incantations. Men have attempted i to propitiate god of wood and s*tone, gods in forms of animals and the | natural forces, and gods purely in- ; visible and imaginary. These doc- | trines still fiourish as witness the j faith cures and miracle cures of |recent Hawaiians are no | more given to sorcery than are the self-styled Christian of the world. Groping blindly doctors have stumbled on many important discoveries. The discovery vaxination by Janner is an example. If this discovery had been a raticnal one, that is made by reasoning from cause to etfects it would have reVolutionized the healing art and enabled man to combat all diseases as well a§ smallpox. VQie cause and the method of the action of the vaxine virus waa not suspected at the time of the discovery and is n>w just beginning to be under* stood. . But now we see the dawn of the sc!ence of diseases—baoteriology. Pasteur, Koph and others have laid a broad and solid fonndation fbr the future -work. It is now establisned that diseases are the result of the growth of minute parasitieal eells. : These microscopie plants or animals, as the case rnay be, find iheir way mto the fiesh of there victim and there they grow producing lecally sores, tumors. turbutcles and so on, and poisoning the] general system with their secretions and so producing fevers and other eonstitutional symptoms.

Three of the worst maladies that afHict the hnman race have been deprived of their horror by methods founded on this recently acquired Knōwledge of the nature of disease; to wit, smallpox, rabies and anthrax; and recently )upus, ā disease as disfiguringand loathsome as leprosy, and probably consumption that carries off a majority of aU the people of the worid, have yielded to Dr. Koch's treatment. With eo ni«fch acoomplished and the way wide | open and sign posts evorywhere pointing out of reseurch, it seems that succeBs is sure to »ttend a scientitic and persistent searchi for a remedy for thc dreadful swurge that afflicts our« pwple. To be Continued. —+.« — That tho election of the Prince Consort to an honorary membership in a Company was too mueh for him, | and as a result he has heen laid up sick of bed ever siuce.