Asepsis

If all the works carried out by the great French researcher Pasteur were divided into three groups they would form three great discoveries.

The first one might be formulated thus: “Fermentation (or: any fermentation) is produced by the development of a particular microbe”.

The second one might be given this formula: “Each infectious disease is produced by the development of a particular microbe within the human body”.

The third one might be as follows: “The microbe of an infectious disease, under certain conditions, is attenuated in its pathogenic activity; from a microbe it becomes a vaccine”.

In 1878 while delivering his lecture on the theory of microbes at the Academy of Sciences in Paris Pasteur said that if he were a surgeon, who knew of the dangers produced by microbes existing on the surface of every object, particularly in hospitals, not only should he use clean instruments, but after washing his hands with the greatest care, he would employ only those bandages and charpie which had been heated to a temperature of 130° or 150°C.

If he employed the water he would heat it to a temperature of 110° or 120°C, since observation had shown the clearest water to contain still greater number of microbes.

Had those principles of asepsis, on which Pateur insisted, not been strictly followed in medicine thousands and thousands of human lives would have lost because of sepsis.

III. Самостоятельная работа (Home Assignments)

1. Запомните произношение следующих слов. Найдите их перевод в правой колонке:

diphtheria – заражение крови

prostration – прострация, изнеможение

tonsil – бред, бредовое состояние

larynx – распадаться

toxemia – дифтерит

delirium – миндалевидная железа

disintegrate – гортань

2. Выучите следующие слова:

backache (n) – боль в спине

smear (n) – мазок

culture (n) – посев; выращивание бактерий

extreme (a) – крайний; чрезвычайный

convalescence (n) – выздоровление

fatal (a) – летальный, смертельный

outcome (n) – исход

3. 1) Прочтите текст “Diphtheria”. 2) Найдите и переведите предложения содержащие: (а) сослагательное наклонение; (б) сложное дополнение; (в) сложное подлежащее; (г) самостоятельный причастный оборот. 3) Выпишите английские эквиваленты следующих словосочетаний:

1. температура была непостоянной 4. мазок был взят на посев

2. пульс был неправильный 5. налеты на миндалинах

3. незначительно увеличенное количество 6. очищение горла

4) Перескажите текст от лица врача:

Diphtheria

The patient was a seven-year-old girl. Her fever was irregular and considerably elevated. The general symptoms, such as headache were not severe, but her pulse was weak and irregular. The urinalysis revealed protein to be present in a slightly increased amount.

The patient’s throat being examined, the physician noticed it be coated with a membrane. To make an adequate diagnosis the smear was taken for culture which revealed diphtheria bacilli. If diphtheria bacilli had not been revealed in the smear the doctor might have doubted the diagnosis.

The disease having progressed, prostration became marked. The membranes which had been seen at first on the tonsils were spreading to the pharynx and larynx.

The patient received an adequate treatment with diphtheria antitoxin which contributed to the clearing up of the throat. Had the antitoxin treatment not been employed so soon toxemia would have been intense and delirium and prostration extreme or heart failure, respiratory paralysis or bronco-pneumonia might have developed.

After four or five days the membrane which had been extending over the tonsils, pharynx, and larynx began to loosen (зд. разрыхляться) and disintegrate. In 10 days convalescence was noted to have advanced favourably and the danger of a fatal outcome was considered to have been completely eliminated.

4. Выберите предложения в сослагательном наклонении:

1) The bacteriologist was sure that the blood smear would reveal cocci.

2) If it were a severe form of diphtheria it would be characterized by general prostration, cardiac depression and even anaemia.

3) The physician did not doubt that the smear culture would reveal diphtheria bacilli.

4) Had the temperature been accompanied by vomiting, headache and chills the diagnosis of diphtheria would have been possible.

5) Subcutaneous injections of antibiotics should be given regularly lest the disease progressed.

5. Переведите, употребив сослагательное наклонение (письменно):

1) На вашем месте я назначил бы больному повторный анализ.

2) Врач настаивал, чтобы больной наблюдался по поводу отдаленных результатов в течение года.

3) У больного были такие желтые склеры, как будто бы он болел желтухой.

6. Пользуясь ключевыми словами, напишите историю болезни:

1) to be admitted to the hospital 6) laboratory findings

2) to complain of 7) antitoxin treatment

3) on physical examination 8) the course of the disease

4) symptoms 9) convalescence

5) to reveal

IV. Class Assignments

1. Translate the following word combinations:

1) летальный исход 5) бредовое состояние

2) мазок крови 6) чрезвычайное утомление

3) обложенный язык 7) выздоровление было гладким

4) тяжелое отравление крови (без осложнений)

2. Choose a noun that can be used as an attribute of each of the nouns given below:

blood, diphtheria, lymph node, barium, emergency, tissue, incubation

antitoxin, biopsy, meal, surgery, degeneration, period, smear

3. Choose the verbs to be used with the nouns:

to complain of, to support, to prescribe, to sterilize, to eliminate, to remove

a strict diet, chills, the danger, the theory, a benign tumour, surgical instruments

4. Translate the following sentences:

1) If chemotherapy had not been discontinued last week lever damage would have become too severe.

2) Profuse external bleeding had to be controlled in time lest the patient would die.

3) The physician insisted that the patient should follow a strict diet.

4) This idea is likely to be supported by everybody.

5) It is important that all surgical instruments be sterilized adequately.

5. Translate the following sentences paying attention to the words given in bold type:

1) Looking back at the great discoveries of science many of them seem so simple.

2) Having been sterilized for only a few minutes the instruments were not considered to be harmless.

3) A little barium meal was given to the patient when the filling defect was being revealed.

4) Does the atmospheric air contain little or much moisture at the seaside?

5) Few effects of gastric ulcer are marked in patients during remissions, but inadequate diet is responsible for their recurrence.

6. 1) Translate the extract using a dictionary. 2) Entitle it. 3) What did Dr. Martin undertake to save the girl’s life?

Extract from “Arrow smith” by Sinclair Lewis.

(Adapted)

Mary was a child of seven or eight. Doctor Martin found her lops and fingers blue, and her face pale. From time to time she made an effort to breathe deeply and coughed up much saliva with grayish specks.

It was, he considered, quinsy or diphtheria. Probably diphtheria. No time now for bacteriological examinations and many other clinical tests. The doctor was watching the girl nervously trying her pulse again and again.

Doctor Martin decided to get diphtheria antitoxin from the nearby town and asked the child’s father to ring up the chemist’s there.

Martin was waiting nervously looking at the child. Her hoarse breathing became terrible. Should he operate: cut into the larynx so that she might breathe? He had to do something. “Get a few hot towels and keep them around her neck”, Martin said to the child’s mother. At that moment the child’s father appeared telling him that there was nobody at the chemist’s. “Then listen. I am afraid this may be serious. I must get some antitoxin. I am going to drive to town myself. You continue these hot applications. And the room must be moister. So keep a little boiling water here. No use of medicine now. I’ll be back soon”.