Helpful Little Bodies

Kuchment, Anna

doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-0251-0_1

Helpful Little Bodies

Anna Kuchment²

Chapter
First Online: 01 January 2011

1225 Accesses

Abstract

As dusk settled across Los Angeles one November evening in 1931, an American screen idol lay near death at Hollywood Hospital. Tom Mix, the first great Western film star, famous for his gravity-defying riding stunts and diamond-studded spurs, had battled armed train robbers, charging Indians and wild broncos. Now, a sudden and severe stomach infection brought on by a ruptured appendix was proving to be a far more daunting foe.

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Notes

1.
Paul E. Mix, The Life and Legend of Tom Mix (New York: A. S. Barnes and Company, 1972), 101–103.
2.
“Tom Mix in Desperate Life Fight,” Los Angeles Times, 25 Nov. 1931, sec. 2, p.1.
3.
“Cowboy Film Idol Out of Shadow,” Los Angeles Times, 3 Dec. 1931, sec. 2, p. 1.
4.
Robert S. Birchard, Tom Mix and the Movies (Burbank: Riverwood Press, 1993), 232.
5.
Modern Medicine: Its Theory and Practice, Sir William Osler, ed. Vol. III: Diseases of Metabolism – Diseases of the Digestive System, pg. 928 Lea & Febiger, Philadelphia and New York, 1926.
6.
percent figure from Osler’s. 70 percent from M. Kirschner, “Die Behandlund der akuten eitrigen freien Bauchfellentzundung. Langenb Arch Chir 142 (1926): 253–267, cited in Thomas Genuit, M.D., “Peritonitis and Abdominal Sepsis,” eMedicine.com (2002).
7.
Author interview with Sidney Raffel, August 2003.
8.
A Text-Book of Medicine, Russell L. Cecil, ed. 1930, W. B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia and London, pgs. 38, 267, and 299.
9.
Cecil, 272.
10.
Osler’s pg. 741.
11.
B. Sokoloff, The Miracle Drugs (Chicago: Ziff-Davis, 1949), 253, quoted in Karen Ho, “Bacteriophage Therapy for Bacterial Infections: Rekindling a Memory From the Pre-Antibiotics Era,” Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 44, no. 1 (2001): 1.
12.
William C. Summers, Felix d’Herelle and the Origins of Molecular Biology (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), 192, no. 2.
13.
G.A. Skinner. 1937. Nature’s G-Men. Hygeia 15 (March): 243, cited in Karen Ho.
14.
Edith L. Weart, “A New Foe of Germs,” North American Review, July 1929, 33.
15.
“Journal aids study of bacteria-gobbling phage,” Newsweek, Dec. 15, 1934, 23, cited in Ho, Karen, 6.
16.
Margaret E. Straub and Martha Applebaum, B.A., “Studies on Commercial Bacteriophage Products,” Journal of the American Medical Association 100, no. 2 (1933): 110.
17.
Author interview with Sidney Raffel, Aug. 2003.
18.
R. Nichol Smith, “Advanced Treatment in Postoperative Ileus,” American Journal of Surgery 19, no. 2 (1933) 273.
19.
Ibid., 272.
20.
“Tom Mix Fights Against Death,” Los Angeles Times, 26 Nov. 1931.
21.
“Tom Mix Rallying Slowly,” New York Times, 28 Nov. 1931. (Accessed electronically).
22.
Summers, vii.
23.
Felix d’Herelle, Les peregrinations [sic] du’n microbiologiste, quoted in Summers, Felix d’Herelle, 5.
24.
Paul de Kruif, Microbe Hunters, pg. 178, Harcourt, San Diego, New York, London 1996. Originally published in 1926.
25.
d’Herelle, Felix. “Perigrinations d’un Microbiologiste,” unpublished manuscript at the Archives of the Pasteur Institute, Paris. p. 256.
26.
Summers.
27.
Summers, “Felix d’Herelle.” 47.
28.
Felix d’Herelle, Perigrinations, 279, Archives de Inst. Past.
29.
Felix d’Herelle. “Sur un microbe invisible antagoniste des bacilles dysenteriques,” Comptes rendus Acad. Sci. Paris 165 (1917): 373, cited and translated in Summers, 185.
30.
Summers, pg. 60–61.
31.
Bordet, Jules, and Ciuca, Mihai. 1920. “Exsudats leucocytaires et autolyse microbienne transmissible.” Comptes rendus Soc. Boil. Paris 83: 1293–1295, as cited and analyzed in Summers, pgs. 65–66.
32.
Bordet, Jules, and Cuica, Mihai. 1920. “Le bacteriophage de d’Herelle, sa production et son interpretation.” Comptes rendus Soc. Boil. Paris 83: 1296–1298, as cited and analyzed in Summers, pgs. 65–66.
33.
Summers, pg. 65.
34.
Jules Bordet and Mihai Ciuca. 1921. “Remarques sur l’historique de recherches concernant la lyse microbienne transmissible.” Comptes rendus Soc. Boil. Paris 84: 745–747.
35.
Summers, Felix d’Herelle, 70.
36.
Twort, Frederick W. 1915. “An investigation on the nature of ultramicroscopic viruses.” Lancet 2: 1241–1243, cited in Summers, p. 71.
37.
“Modern Medicine: Its Theory and Practice,” Sir William Osler, ed. (Lea & Febiger, New York: 1925), 687.
38.
Felix d’Herelle, Perigrinations, 404, cited in Summers, Felix d’Herelle, 114.
39.
Felix d’Herelle, Perigrinations, 405, cited in Summers, Felix d’Herelle, 114.
40.
Felix d’Herelle, Perigrinations, 409, cited in Summers, Felix d’Herelle, 115.
41.
Felix d’Herelle. 1926. “The bacteriophage and its behavior.” Baltimore, Williams and Wilkins. 567–576.
42.
Summers, 126.
43.
A. Morrison to C. E. Heathcote-Smith, 4 December 1923, pp 118-119, L/E/7 #1425, File 7616, India Office Records, The British Museum, London, cited in Summers, Felix d’Herelle, pg. 126.
44.
C. A. Gill to L. Rogers, 18 August 1927, Item 58, Box C10, Leonard Rogers Correspondence, Wellcome Institute, London, cited in Summers, Felix d’Herelle, 133.
45.
Summers, Felix d’Herelle, 129.
46.
Morison, Treatment and prevention of cholera, 28; Morison, Bacteriophage in cholera, 563–570; d’Herelle, Perigrinations d’Un Microbiologist, 652, cited in Summers, 137.
47.
Ibid., 137.
48.
E. W. Schultz, “The Bacteriophage: It’s Prophylactic and Therapeutic Value,” California and Western Medicine, Oct. 1927, vol. 27, no. 4. pg. 484.
49.
E. W. Schultz. 1932. “Bacteriophage As a Therapeutic Agent in Genito-Urinary Infections,” California and Western Medicine, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Jan.), pg. 34.
50.
N. W. Larkum, “Bacteriophage in Clinical Medicine,” The Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine, vol. 17, no. 7, April 1932, p. 675.
51.
Margaret E. Straub and Martha Applebaum, “Studies on Commercial Bacteriophage Products,” JAMA, Jan. 14, 1933, vol. 100, no. 2, pg. 110.
52.
Frederick Fitzherbert Boyce, Ralph Lampert and Elizabeth McFetridge, “Bacteriophagy in the Treatment of Superficial and Deep Tissues,” New Orleans Med. And S. J. 86: 158–165, Sept. 1933.
53.
N. W. Larkum, “Bacteriophage Treatment of Taphylococcus Infections,” Journal of Infectious Disease, vol. 45, p. 34, 1929.
54.
E. D. Crutchfield and B. F. Stout, “Treatment of Staphylococcic Infections of the skin by the bacteriophage, Archives of Dermatology and Syphilology, vol. TK, p. 1012–21.
55.
Thurman B. Rice, “The Use of Bacteriophage Filtrates in the Treatment of suppurative Conditions,” American Journal of Med. Sci., vol. 179, pg. 346, 1930.
56.
MacNeal, W. J. and Frisbee, Frances C.: Bacteriophage as a Therapeutic Agent in Staphylococcus Bacteremia, Journal of the American Medical Association 99: 1150–1155 (Oct. 1) 1932.
57.
The Literary Digest, Dec. 22, 1923. Vol. 79, pg. 24.
58.
Felix d’Herelle, Perigrinations d’Un Microbiologist,” 277, Archives de l”Institut Pasteur.
59.
“Tiny and Deadly Bacillus has Enemies Still Smaller,” New York Times, Sept. 27, 1925, p. 14.
60.
“’Bugs Devour Deadly Disease Germs,’” Newsweek, June 10, 1993, p. 24.
61.
Summers, William C. “On the Origins of the Science in Arrowsmeth” pg. 316. July, 1991, The Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Inc. Vol. 46.
62.
Letter from d’Herelle to George H. Smith, dated 11 March 1925 from Alexandria, Egypt. Cited in Summers, Arrowsmith. Pg. 332.
63.
Summers, pg. 317.
64.
Paul de Kruif, “Our Medicine Men,” pg. 953–954. The Century, vol. 104, 1922.
65.
Paul de Kruif, “Saver of Mothers,” Ladies’ Home Journal, vol. 49, March 1932, pgs. 6, 7, 124, 125.
66.
De Kruif, Paul. “Microbe Hunters,” Harcourt, Inc. San Diego, New York, London. 1926. pg. 9.
67.
M. S. Marshall, “Observations of D’Herelle’s bacteriophage,” J. Infect. Dis., 1925, 37, 126–60, cited in Summers “On the Origins of the Science in Arrowsmith.”
68.
Summers, Arrowsmith, pg. 319.
69.
Summers, William C. “On the Origins of the Science in Arrowsmith”, 317.
70.
Summers, Arrowsmith, 318.
71.
Lewis, Sinclair, Arrowsmith, Penguin Putnam, Inc. New York, 1998, pg. 312.
72.
Lewis, Arrowsmith, 320.
73.
Lewis, Arrowsmith, 328.
74.
Lewis, Arrowsmith, pg. 348.
75.
De Kruif, Paul, Our Medicine Men, The Century Co. New York, 1922. pg. 96.
76.
Lewis, pg. 382.
77.
“D’Herelle to Join Yale Medical School,” New York Times, June 15, 1928, p. 32.
78.
Summers, 174.
79.
Diary of Marie d’Herelle, March 4, 1933. Archives, Institut Pasteur.
80.
Author interview with Sidney Raffel. 2001.
81.
Ibid.
82.
Summers, 159.

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Kuchment, A. (2012). Helpful Little Bodies. In: The Forgotten Cure. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0251-0_1

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0251-0_1
Published: 03 October 2011
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