“The first experiment was made upon a lad by the name of Phipps, in whose arm a little vaccine virus; was inserted which taken from the hand of the young woman who had been accidentally infected by a cow. Not withstanding the resemblance which this pustule, thus excited on the boys arm, bore to a variolous inoculation, I could scarcely persuade myself the patient was secure from the smallpox. However, on his being inoculated some months afterwards, it proved that he was secure.” This was the origin of smallpox control the scientific prophylaxis through vaccination.
Aspirin and the Coal-Tar Dyes- In 1856, an 18-year-old bus boy, William Perkins worked in the laboratory of Faraday. The chemistry teacher had set for him a task no less difficult than the making of synthetic quinine (finally accomplished in 1944 as a wartime expediency). Perkins obtained only a thick, black, tar- like substance by oxidizing aniline with chromic acid. In disgust he washed the dirty test tube and a purple solution resulted the first aniline dye. From this accidental discovery over 30,000 different dyes have resulted. Bayer then started with the same raw material and produced aspirin.
Preventive Vaccination- This therapeutic measure was enhanced through through the accidental observations of Louis Pasteur in 1880 who, together with his co-workers, Roux and Chamberland, was experimenting with cultures of chicken cholera. During his experiments some culture were allowed to get old. Pasteur knew that these were old cultures but was determined to find the effects of their injection into the chickens. The chickens became drowsy but did not die and were well the following morning.
After a two weeks vacation, Pasteur returned to his experiments. The only chickens that had survived previous injections were the two that had been given the old cultures. It was decided to reinject them, together with other chicks, this time with new and virulent culture. The only chicks to survive again were the two which were previously injected with old cultures.
Making this chance observation, Pasteur said, “This is my most remarkable discovery, a vaccine more scientific than the one for smallpox where no one has seen the germ; we will apply this to anthrax and we will save lives” and he did.
The development of collateral circulation John Hunter, who was forever experimenting, tied the external carotid artery on one side of a deer, observed the antler on that side become cold to touch, and a week later, much to his surprise, found it warm again and the antler actually growing. After sacrificing the buck he found the ligature in place and also noted that small branches of the ligated vessel above and below the ligature were enlarged and that the ligated segment was being circumvented through the newly opened channels, restoring the normal blood supply to the antler.
Several months later he was called upon to treat a patient with a popliteal aneurysm a condition which was usually treated by amputation above the site of the aneurysm. He recalled the experience he had had with the buck ligated the artery above the aneurysm in the lower part of the canal which now bears his name, and in six weeks the patient was discharged as well.
Claude Bernard, who lived from 1813 to 1878, was one of the worlds greatest physiologists, and was an experiment who coupled imagination with ability. Three discoveries which are examples of his recognizing the importance of accidental phenomena were the discovery of the glycogenic function of the liver, the finding of the true nature of the action of the pancreatic juice, and the discovery of the function of the vasomotor nerves;.
Pancreatic Function-(Bernard, Claude 1813-1878) I quote from Goldstein in the Annals of Medical History- “Practically all present knowledge of absorption of food materials was determined by the light of Bernards discoveries relating to intestinal digestion. It was the picture of fat emulsion that first brought his attention to pancreatic secretion.
He was investigating comparative digestion in herbivorous and carnivorous animals and noted that fat introduced into the stomach of a rabbit did not become milky and chyle-like until it reached a point much lower in the intestine than was observed when a similar procedure was instituted in a dog, where the entrance of the pancreatic duct is common with the bile duct. He further noticed that fat emulsification always occurs below the entrance of the pancreatic duct and never above it, excluding the action of the bile. He immediately investigated the nature of this phenomenon, which culminated in the discovery of the digestive nature of the pancreatic juice.”.
Vasomotor Nerves- (Bernard, Claude- 1813-1878) This discovery established the reflex control of circulation and was of immense value in clearing up heretofore obscure physiologic and pathologic phenomena which had been thought vital processes, and not explainable on a physio-chemical basis. This discovery was an unlooked-for observation. He was studying the effect of sectioning certain nerves on the nutrition and heat production, in the tissues they supply.
He thought that the nerves were the factors controlling heat production and was greatly surprised to find that section of the cervical nerves in the neck of a rabbit caused a marked increase in heat production, instead of the expected fall. He also noted the accompanying vascular congestion, but did not correlate the two, since he believed firmly that nervous influences were sufficient to account for the thermal change. It remained for Brown-Sequard to identify the increased heat as due to paralysis of the blood vessel wall, resulting in vascular dilation and congestion.
Glycogenic Function- (Bernard, Claude 1813-1878) Bernard was concerned with diabetes, and, in feeding animals on a rich diet of sugar, discovered an abundant presence of sugar in the hepatic vein, but none in the portal vein. The liver then evidently manufactured sugar out of certain substances brought to it by the blood in the portal vein. He later showed that sugar had a precursor in the liver which he called glycogen (sugar former), which produced sugar after the action of certain enzymes. The present-day studies of nutrition and dietetics are indebted to the fundamental works of Bernard in establishing the fate and mechanism of utilization of carbo-hydrates.
The Operation for Hypertrophic Pyloric Stenosis -Although the original operative treatment of congenital hypertrophic pyloric stenosis consisted of gastro-jejunostomy, the Fredet-Weber operation which consisted of a longitudinal incision of the hypertrophic musculature and its transverse closure was the great advance in the treatment of this condition. On August 23, 1911, Conrad Ramstead, when operating upon an infant with hypertrophic pyloric stenosis in which he attempted a classical Fredet-Weber operation, had difficulty in closing the longitudinal incision by transverse suture. The exposed mucosa was covered with the tag of omentum.
His account of this was as follows: “When I was first confronted with an operation for pyloric stenosis, I decided to perform the partial pyloro-plasty according to Weber. During the operation I noticed, after section of the firmly contracted, almost bloodless and hypertrophied muscular ring, that the would edges gaped markedly. I had the impression that the stenosis was already overcome.
Nevertheless, I sutured the incision transversely in order to complete the Weber pyloroplasty. The tension of the wound edges was, however, very great and the sutures cut through so that the union of the wound edges in the opposite direction was incomplete. I therefore covered the sutured area with a tag of omentum for protection.” In this way he proved that transverse closure of the incision was unnecessary and probably harmful since it contributed to further obstruction through infolding of the mucosa.
Ethylene as an Anesthetic Agent- The use of ethylene as an anesthetic agent was largely the result of an accidental observation. It was not until 1918 when Arno B. Luckhardt and R.C. Thompson began working with ethylene as an anesthetic agent. Their original observations were made upon animals. Their work was stimulated by the observations of William Crocker and Lee Irving Knight, who, in 1908, had studied the effects of ethylene on carnations. They showed that carnations brought into the city frequently wilted very early.
They found that the illuminating gas which contained about 4 percent of ethylene was the guilty offender. In order to determine what effect this poison had on animal life, they undertook their investigation. Ethylene gas was administered to an animal; the animal presumably died. On removing the gas however, it was found that the animal was simply asleep and that ethylene was an efficient anesthetic agent.
Diabetes and its relation to Pancreatic disease- The discovery of diabetes and its relationship to pancreatic disease was accidental. Von Mering and Minkowski, in the latter part of the last century, were studying the role of the pancreas in digestion. Pancreatectomy was done in a number of dogs. Following this procedure a chance observation was made by a laboratory assistant that swarms of flies were attracted to the urine of these animals. Upon examination of the urine it was found to contain a great quantity of sugar. Thus, relationship between the pancreas and the production of glycosuria was established.
