Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1873-10-23

that the New Orleans quarantine, which
Interrupts trade, ia Of no avail. Why
quarantine ships whom swarms Of tho
dreaded infusoria are constantly being
blown from Havana by every south
wind2 Let me take leaf from my own
personal experience. In the summer OF
1868 was Second Lieutenant Of the Q.
s. steamer Gaines, lying of Mobile
Point At daylight one morning. while
il was my watch, a blockade runner
called the Alabama came in. j boarded
her to examine her papers For some
reason the captain treated nae cavs-
lierly. aud l returned to my own
vessel at once-probably did not
remain more than two or three
minutes. The commander Of the Gaines
was not satisfied, however, aud sent the
boat back, but in charge Of Midshipman
L. II. Edwards. He knew the Captain
OF the Alabama personally, and remain.
ed sometime in his room before he re.
turned. Within ten days the young
gentleman named was attacked by fever,
and within a week after that died with
black vomit, and the case was declared
yellow fever by the best doctors in
Mobile. No other case developed that
season. Did that cause come from
Havana in the Alabama, or in the airH
and why did yellow fever not break cut
in Mobile2 The young gentleman as
sursdly got his death aboard the Ala
bama, but the germs would not repro
duce themselves ia Mobile that year
And | would ask il any yellow fever epi-
demic has ever yet occurred which can
not be traced back to yellow fever
patient, or merchandise from port
where the fever was raging at the time
of the packing or shipping of the goods ?
In nine cases in ten we can find the yell
low fever subject, and have only to rely
on merchandise for the remaining one.
The doctors class a certain line Of dis
eases zymotic, amongst which we find yell
low fever. Zymotic means ferment;
hence purposely adopted the germ of a
yeast plant to convey from the yellow
fever centers to this country and to show
that the theory Of plant germ was not
tenable.
/ entrench myself behind the great
name of Tyndall, and quote from him
as follows:
It was some time ago the correct be-
lief that epidemic diseases generally
we're propagated by.a kind of malaria,
which. consisted in organic matter In a
state of motor decay; that when such
matter was taken into the body through
the lungs, skin or stomach, it had the
mower Of spreading then the destroying
process which had attacked itself Such
a power was visibly exerted in the case
of yeast. A little leaven was seen to
leaven the whole lump; mere speck of
matter 10 this supposed state Of decom-
position being apparently competent to
propagate indefinitely its own decay.
why should not bit Of rotten malaria
work in a similar manner within the
human frame? In 1886 very wonder
full reply was given to this question. In
that year Cagniard de la Tour
discovered the yeaStPtanL living
organism, which, when placed in a
proper medium, feeds, grows and repro
duces itself, aud in this way caurses on
the process we name fermentation = .
Pasteur proved that the so-called fer
ments" are not such; that the true fer
ments are organized beings, which find
in the reputed ferments this necessary
food.
Side by side with these researches
and discoveries, and fortified by them
and Others has run the germ theory of
epidemic disease. The notion was ex-
pressed by Kircher and favored by Lin
nous, that epidemic diseases are due to
germs, which float in the atmosphere,
enter the body, and produce disturbance
within the body of parasitic life. While it
was still struggling against great odds,
this theory found an expounder and de-
fender of this institution Royal Institu-
ton, London). At time when most OF
the medical brethren considered it a
wild dream, Sir Henry Holland con-
tended that some form of the germ the.
ory was probably true. The strength OF
this theory is in the perfect parallellsm OF
the phenomena OF contagious diseases
with those of life. As planted acorn
gives birth to an oak competent to pro-
duce a whole crop of acorns, each gifted
with the power of reproducing its own
parent tree; and thus from single seed
ling a whole forest may spring; so, it is
contended, these epidemic diseases liter
ally plant their seeds, grow, and shake
abroad new germs, which meeting in the
human body their proper food and tenn,
perature, finally take possession of the
whole population. There is nothing to
nv knowledge in pure chemistry which
resembles the power of self-multlplicA-
ton possessed by the matter which pre-
duce epidemic disease. II you SOW wheat
you do not get barley; if you SOW small
nox YOU do not get scarlet fever Lii you
SOW cnOlera you ~ hOb sOV Ci.S" - -
Int smallpox indefinitely multiplied, and
nothing else. The matter OF each con-
tagious disease reproduces itself as rig
idly as if it were las Miss Nightingale
puts it, dog or cat.
/ trust the reader will not
only pardon, but thank me for
quoting still further from the
great Englisman, and l quote now upon
the question of germs passing from point
to point over an expanse of salt water:
Pasteur dwells upon the ease with
which an island like Corsica might be
absolutely isolated from the silk-worm
endemic. Ana, with regard to. other
epidemics, Mr.. Simon describes the ex-
traordinary exemption of the Sicily
~ WlW