Litchfield enquirer., 1870-09-01

had been incomplete, and the whole of the fermentable substance not destroyed then the patient was still liable to second attack, for he retained in his blood what might at any time be set off into new actlv- l ity, if again encountered by the germs of the disease, and thus second attack might l occur. The theory explains good many l facts, but it demands too great concession at the outset. Few will be disposed to ad- init the presence in the blood of nearly twenty distinct and separate substances, which exist only to serve as indus for the specific ferment, and to be source ot injury to the individual. The name zy- motic Qeaven) still continues to be applied to this group of complaints.
 Another striking feature in the natural history of these disorders is, that they are not known to arise spontaneously their origin being always due to certain local causes. There is no properly authenticated case on record of person having suffered from an acute specific disease, without per sonal contact with their sources, or with another person suffering from the same complaint. Recent discoveries seem to suggest that this courageous matter IS a vegetable growth-a fungus Some ob- servers, especially in Germany, aver that l they have been enabled to detect under the microscope the little plant which is the cause of cholera; others assert, that certain fungi found in mouldy straw will produce measles in less than forty eight hours after innocu]ation. Sir Henry Holland has thrown out the idea that these diseases are produced by clouds of animalcules pass ing over country; and he considers that the way in which an epidemic fever ad- vances, supports this view. The zymotic theory has just been stated fermentation.
 These opinions are introduced only to show how little is really known about the nature or composition of what is believed to be the contagious material;- its form, whether animal or vegetable, whether 8 ferment, or simply some organic chemical combination, nothing is known. With re- gard to the mode in which this so-called contagious material is conveyed to individ- uals: it is a common idea that it is carried through the air, or even that it is pro- duced anew where there are bad smells, defective drainage, and in low, damp sit nations. The notion that the air carries the courageous matter is singularly devoid of any support from the manner in which these complaints usually spread. When, for example, disease passes from one place to another, it moves along the line of traffic, not in the direction of the wind, but along the course taken by travellers; when a disease leaves a continent for an island, it makes it's first appearance in 8 seaport. In fact, the so-called contagious material seems capable of being carried but 8 very short distance, by the movement of the air; one of the best means of disinfection is to send free current of air through the room or space, fresh air seeming to have the power of destroying or weakening, perhaps by dilution, the contagious material. There is no doubt that defective drainage, and croWding of 1eannle together. predis. pose to the reception of these spec1nc com. causes of many and serious illnesses, but bad sanitary arrangements in house or town do not usually generate these epidemic disorders. they being generally introduced from without, and then, under these bad sanitary conditions, they spread with frightful rapidity, and cause immense nor tality. An instance in proof of this may be found in the hygienic condition of Eng land before the time when the cholera first visited that country. Then the sanitary condition was bad probably as could be, yet the cholera did not exist until it was carried over from the continent of Europe, when it spread rapidly and declimated the country.
 What, then, is the way in which the con- tagious matter is conveyed? Chiefly by in. dividual and personal contact, and by emanations from the sick man.
 In smallpox and measles, the specific process is the rash on the skin; in scarlatina, the rash on the skin, and the sore throat conjoined; while in diptheria it is the sore throat alone, which is the specific process. The specific process itself is strictly local, never affecting all the tissues of the body generally, but limiting itself to one set o1 tissues, or those analogous to it. Thus in smallpox, the local specific process is linn. ited to the skin alone, except when it at tacks, in grave cases, the mucous mem. brame, similar in structure to the skin, oi the windpipe and air-tubes of the lungs. In dptheria, the mucous membranes alone are involved, while in typhoid fever it is the adenoid tissue, which the spleen and some other organs largely contain, that is affected. Fever is constant accompani. ment of the local specific process; and by fever we simply mean that the temperature of the body, as measured by the thermom- eter, is greater than in health. The nat ural temperature of the body is 98o Fah., but in fever it rises above this. The tenn. perature of the body in health is main } tained by constant oxidation or burning of the tissues by the oxygen of the air, brought by the blood from the lungs. In fever, this process of combustion goes on more rapidly, and the tissues are burnt away at higher rate, and thus an elevation of temperature is produced. A great in- crease in the products of combustion, which are eliminated from the system, takes place during the fever, or at it's termination This process of increased combustion read lily explaines the rapid cancellation which occurs in levers. The great debility of the patient depends npon the exhaustion pro- duced by high temperature. According to Joule's law, every degree of increased tenn l perature represents a certain amount of mechanical exertion. The Rev. Professor Haughton says: ''The work due to animal heat would lift the body through vertical height of eight miles per day; and it thus appears that an additional amount of work, equivalent to the body lifted through one mile per day, is spent in maintaining it's temperature at fever heat. If you could place your fever patient at the bottom of a mine, twice the depth of the deepest mine in the duchy of Cornwall, and compel the wretched sufferer to climb it's ladders in