Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-10-14
YELLOW NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..

properly used, to destroy the germs of pes
thence in hospitals, on board ships reekiLg
with contagion, and elsewhere, that it may
be wise to study the application of pre-
ventives to yellow fever. The acting SCENTS
that produce this often fatal disease are
either disorgsnized substances floating in
the atmosphere, and taken With it into the
system by respiration, or dissolved in water
and taken in drink, and perhaps in, food
cooked in bad water, or received through
the pores of the skin; or, what is more like
ly, the primary morbific particles are or
ganic matter endowed with life, which may
be destroyed by beat and many chemicals.
Distinction means, in our view of the
subject, the extinction of vitality in para
sites. An ointment made of birthstone or
murcury kills the itch insect on children,
and that of the ID insect on sheep,
and thereby cures thess common diseases.
Copperas water, bluestone water and COM
mon salt brine kill the smut germs on seed
wheat, ana by so doing prevent their growth
the serious injury of the next crop. Grapes
grown under glass are of-en attacked by
fungi called blight and mildeE; and the
fumes of burning sulphur kill the germs of
these parasites with little or no injury to the
grapes. In many ways horticultural science
and veterinary practice have thrown light
on human diseases, whether contagious,
sporadic, or epidemic. Cattle-plague has
been very serious IN England, and many
valuable experiments have been tried in
the treatment of affected animals. Their
lives have been sacrificed for the benefit of
science as human life never can be. Mslig-
nant musrain in cattle has many symp
toms in common with yellow-feVer, but it
is not necessary to name them to indicate
the value of disinfectants.
We learn from good authority that
crucial experiment of immense valee, sup
Piled by accident, but none the less satis-
factory and decisive, was tried by Mr..
Brooke on grand scale on farm, the
very hot-b9d of cattle-plague. The cattle
were divided into two lots, As in disinfec.ed
houses, % in undisinfected open sheds.
The disease was Communicated TO each lot
by direct inoculation of the virus. LOnly
those actually inoculated of the dlsinfected
animals fall prey; while of those not pro-
tected by disinfection, the whole are quickly
destroyed. "To make indubi able proof
doubiy eertsiD, and fix the eye Of credit on
the true cause of such results, a few weeks
later, the remainder Of those 45 disiDfected
animals, being unwisely turned out to grass,
aud removed from the protecting influence
of carbolic acid, the plague attacked and
killed the whole of them within few days. 4
We have found recently in our COW pas
lures ripe puf-balls and other fungi, which
on being pressed by ones foot send out
cloud of spores over the surrounding grass.
If these spores we're poisonous, like those
that cause the Texas cattle plague, they
would certainly produce cattle disease in
Tennessee. But they are not poisonous;
yet they show how poisonous fungi may
kill cattle eating contaminated grass, hay or
fodder without consuming any visible mush- |
rooms. AS in human cholera, and hog |
cholera, it is unseen, microscopic germs,
which are vigorous parasites, that multiply |
in millions in the bodies of man and beast,
that do the harm. In Liverpool, garments
and bedding affected by plague germs from
sick persons in hospitals, are wholly dis
infected by beat, in heated oven or room.
No organic life can endure high and drying
heat with impunity. No one would expect
a baked potato to grow; and the fact that
heat is the best known disinfectant goes far
to sustain the opinion that vitality in some
form is the parent of many Of our worst
and wide spreading diseases. AS freezing
kills our melon vines, sweet potato vines,
tobacco plants and many others, it appears
to be no less fatal to the parasites that pro-
duce yellow fever. Both cold and heat
teach important lessons in reference to the
vitality of this Southern scourge. Yellow
fever is the offspring of parasitic life as
much as Spanish moss in cypress swamp.
II the plague came from any gas, Or miner
81 dissolved in water, or Volatllised, like
and arsenic, its life and force would
not be so subject to mere atmospheric tenn
persture. The controlling power of disin-
Fectants lies not in the domain of chemistry |
alone, but in uital susceptibility.
Let this fact be generally known and the
sure preventives of such msladies as yellow
ever, typhus fever, cholera, and scarlet
ever will have wide and generally sue.
;sssful range in the civilized world. 1t is a
furious fact that the fungi in our old pas
ures that form fairy rings and spread from