The New York herald., 1871-09-01
The Germ Theory Of Epidem,cs.

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recently become of the gravest moment. In
this dnnus mira6ilis the violence of natures
throes seems about to be aggravated by the
dread forms Of disease and pestilence, with
their ghastly horrors. It is maxim that to be
forewarned is to be forearmed; and it is high
time that the attention and analysis of the
most scientific minds and most skilful expert
menters should be concentrated upon the
theory OF which we are to speak.
II one-half that has been advanced by the
most untlring and most sagacious microscopists
in behalf of the germ theory of contagious
disease be true, or If the splendid results es-
tablshed in France by Pastcur, in Scotland
by Lister and in England by Tyndall are
worthy OF belief, the doctrine of the propaga~
ton of epidemics, not by spontaneous genera
ton, but by the diffusion of living infusoria
through air and water, is of untold conse-
quence. 1t has been customary to charge all
epidemics to uncleanliness, and to assert that
thorough disinfection in densely populated
cities was panacea or preventive of epi-
demic. 1t is not so. The most salubripus
mountain homes of the Swiss have, not infre-
quently, been invaded by ''the pestileuce that
walketh in noonday;" while, on the contrary,
fetid Thames and a low death rate fire.
quently concur in London, and in the not
unhealthy city of Cologne, as Coleridge once
humorously said, can be counted several hun
dred distinct odors, none of which resemble
the celebrated water it exports.
Contrary to the explanation of filth and pu-
tri6ed matter, or of spontaneous generation
in such putrid masses, or of malaria, the
germ theory, by fixing upon poisonous animal
cul@ Capable of rapid reproduction, in count
less myriads and over large geographical
areas) as the medium of disease, it at once
reconciles and harmonizes facts seemingly
most irreconcilable, and points with unerring
finger to the source Of danger. The atmos-
phere, it is we'll known, is loaded with organic
dust, which, with it's crawling, burrowing,
preying life, is fltrated in the lungs at every
Inhalation. However ordinary daylight may
permit it to disguise itself, the philosopher has
only to pass sufficiently powerful beam of
artificial light upon it to reveal the dust sus-
pended there, almost as a semi-solid, and upon
each particle Of this dust, as upon miniature
globe, is there discovered dense population
of inlusorial parasites. The evidence of their
existence is beyond scruple of doubt.
In 1868 NJ. Pasteur, the eminent micro
scopist of the French Academy of Sciences, at
the urgent request Of Dumas, brought this
whole subject under his powerful microscope,
and the yet more powerful gaze Of his own
acute mind. Pas.cur's researches began with
the diseased silkworms Of France, upon whose
tiny labors the prosperity Of an empire
depended. He soon found the germs, or
plague corpuscles, often so minute in
the fertile egg of the silkworm as to escape
detection and battle the microscope, while yet
that instrument clearly revealed the fact that
these corpuscles enlarge with the growth Of
the worm. In 1866, therefore, having ex-
amihed number of the moths, which produce
the eggs, he wrote out prediction of what
would occur in 1867, and placed his prophecy
as sealed letter with public officials, by
whom, in due time, it was opened and read
and most beautifully verified Under his
powerful lenses the great microscopst washed
the claws of diseased worms, and found the
plague corpuscles in the water. Wherever
diseased worm touched a healthy one with his
claws incubation ensued. After conta gious
repast the number Of worms containing the
parasite gradually augmented until it finally
became cent per cent. This experimenter con-
tends that with the greatest ease, an island
like Corsica might be absolutely isolated from
the silkworm epidemic; and his reasoning is
applicable to human epidemics, for
it is well-known fact that the English dis
trict of the ScilIy Isles, from 1851 to 1860, was
absolutely exempt from epidemic.
To the argument for the germ theory of cpl
demic, so ably, yet so artlessly, and with such
q genuine love of truth, presented in 1867 by
Pasteur, are to be added the splendid re-
searches of Professor Lister, of Edin-
burg, in his antiseptic system of
surgery. In his operations Professor Lister
said last January, in the British Medical Jour
nal, that his greatest pains were taken that
every tissue laid bare by the knife should be
defended from germs ana care taken that II
they fall upon the wound they shall be killed
as they fall. With this in view he showed,
upon his exposed surfaces. the spray of diluted
carbolic acid, which is peculiarly deadly to
the germs, and he surrounds the wound with
bandages. If, instead of using car
bolic acid spray, he could surround the
wound with properly filtered and germless
air, the result, he contends, would be the
same. For surgery is acquainted with class
of wounds in which the blood is freely mixed
with air that has passed through the lungs;
and 1t is most striking fact that such air has
no tendency to produce putrefaction, having
been filtered in the lungs. II is well known to
surgeons that the Lister process has, even in
Tho uarda where death had heeD ramnapt /