Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, Issue 45 — page 95: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION tually reach the hundred-year mark, In our time the discoveries of two men, Dr. A. J. Ewins and Dr. Alexander Fleming, have been instrumental in forcing up the average age to which we may expect to live. We have to thank Dr. A. J. Ewins for the discovery of M & B 693, which has been so tremendously effective in lowering the fatality figures for pneumonia. Such is the power of the drug that the temperature of the patient is lowered and his crisis passed in a matter of hours. Whilst it would be untrue to say that the drug has com- pletely conquered this scourge, people certainly have a much better chance of recovery from pneumonia these days. M & B 693 is one of the sulphanilamide group—a family of drugs that are already proving themselves invaluable in tackling other health problems of the human race. In the last war a great ~number of wounded service- men were protected from the advent of deadly gangrene by prompt use of a sulphanila- mide. Surely it is not too much to expect that the suc- sessors of M & B 693 will put medical science in complete 94 control of pneumonia, dysen- tery, typhoid and gangrene, etc., within the next fifty years. We have to thank Dr. - Fleming for the discovery of penicillin, which, in its way, is even more miraculous than M & B 693. Scientists are hoping that, thanks to this drug, there will yet come a day when the germs of an- thrax, tetanus and diphtheria will no longer have the power to kill a human being. Possibly the most dreaded disease of the civilized world today, next to cancer, is tuberculosis. Successfully to combat this disease there will have to be not only an in- crease in medical knowledge, but also in social reform. We already know that the most important factors in producing a tubercular condition are inadequate nutrition and bad housing accommodation. Early knowledge of the disease is a necessity in the fight against T.B. Fortunately, mass radiography is becoming increasingly popular and, therefore, providing doctors with an advantageous start in combating the condition as well as preventing the infected ones from spreading the disease around. Experi- ments are already being made conmcloooks.com