, 1876-11-26

| elect q full Board, when the reform Was raQl
cal and complete, the people of both partie:
uniting to make it effective. We trust thai
there will be vigorous and united effort te
accomplish this wholesome and greatly~need
ed reorganization and generation Of the
Board Of County Commissioners.
THE BOTANY OF BEER, WINE, AMI
DISEASE.
| Prof. TYNDh1.' contributes an article tc
the November FortnigAtly, which is repro
| duced in the Popular Science Monthly, that
| is of unusual interest even when compared
| with the other fascinating productions Of bis
pen. Alcoholic beverages and epidemics
have not hitherto been included in the fora
| Of the world, but Prot. TYSDh1 shows that
hereafter no classification Of vegetation will
be complete that does not cover beer, wine,
aud at least certain forms Of disease. More
than this, not only must the latter-day In
NEus add these new topics to his botany,
but he must show that beer and typhoid
fever, claret and the gangrene, are shocEngly
alike in kind, if not in quality or degree. The
advocate Of temperance who has argued
that alcohol is q poison, the result Of
putrefaction aud product abhorrcnt to
Nature, will find in Prof. TYNDAL1s cold
array of the scientific facts of fermentation
some new points that will compel him to re-
wise his argument. The paper is entitled
g Fermentation and its Bearings on the Phe-
nomena Of Disease" It shows that the
fermentation Of malt, the alcoholization of
the juice Of the grape, the decay Of meat, the
gangrcne in wounds, the spread Of small -pox
in the body,sand Of pestilence through
city, are alike the marvelous1y rapid
growth Of minute plants Or living
ferments. And the alarming fact is
shown, on the evidence Of expert
ments that would, we think, be incontestable
even by the <tscientifc man of the Nation,
that the chief agent in disseminating these
deadly germs of putrefaction and plague is
the air we breathe. Although brewers have
made beer for thousands of years by adding
yeast to their acort, it was not till 1885 that
the resulting fermentation was shown to be
the budding, sprouting growth of vegeta-
BILE, now called the Torula It required the
interval between 1850 and 1885 to convert
the first hint Of this truth into proof. Gen
erations of microscope-makers md genera
tons Of observers had to build upon each
others work to make it complete. In the
case Of the grape, God has provided the yeast
that the brewer mnstsupply for his malt. The
must face the fact that the |
al-wise and a1-good Ruler of the Universe |
has deposited on the outer skin Of the grape /
and its tendrils the germs Of the Toru1a |
Man has only to court the grapes in the
wlne-press to set the yeast-plant actively at
work making alcohol out Of the juice of the
grippe. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunate
y, there are many kinds Of this minute yege-
tation besides the Torula, and they do much
in the world. The green mold
that grows on an old boot or IN opened Jar
of sweetmeats is the growth Of the little
Pendulum Glaucnm, waited in the air.
Fhe growth Of the Vibrio makes milk
sour; the Becterla are theo germs Of
he Putrefaction Of meat, the gangrene
IT wounds, aud the Ike. AL these fer
nents, as well as the Torula, find congenial
oli IN beer, and are the greatest enemies of
he brewer. Worse than all, they find no.
where richer fields than in human flesh. It
5 the Bacteria that make the field Of battle
o deadly to the wounded, entering their
Wounds, sowing seeds Of death. The at
nosphere around us is charged with Bacteria.
t is pleasing to know that this enemy of ours
las deadly foe in dilute carbolic acid, as
atal to them rs they to us. Soldiers going
1fn hQf}1a 1ynr11 In hnt% l.. ]
nth carboic acid than with whisky. Prof.
eSSDA11 says that one OF the greatest slips
yer made In the art Of surgery Was the in
Of the antiseptic treatment in |
ilasgow and in Edinburg by LISTER. In
hese weeds that float in the air are the seeds |
the contagion of pestilence that strikes
own Whole populations They are the little
'aven that }eaven the whole lump with
estruction. Vaccination shows how the
nafl-pox plant spreads through the veins.
nc microscope has demonstrated that more
ian one epidemic disease manifests itself bv .
1e growth Of fungi in the blood. Every !
pldemlc disease seems to have Q distinct ,
'ed smallpox seed produces smallpox; {
'arlatlna seed, scarlatina; typhoid seed, ]
'phus; cholera seed, cholera Prot. TN s
ALL does not state that the contagious !
gent of each Of these diseases has been
royed to be the seed Of a vegetable ferment. t
ke the Tornla or the Bacteria. He reasons :
ON the similarity between their diffusion 9
I'd that of diseases which are known to he | !
'getable propagation to the strong pre- {
'mption ''that reproductive parasitic ]ife !
at the root of epidemic disease-that Z
ring ferments finding lodgment in the body I
crease there and multiply, directly running I
e tissue on which they subsist, or DESTROY s
g life indirectly by the generation OF
'asonous compounds within the body.n t
ae recital of the experiment by which a i,
'ung scientific enthusiast, KocH, an OBJ Il
ore country doctor in Germany, proved q
at spienic fever, dreadful epidemic b
'ease ravaglng men aud animals, was b
by the planting in new bodies of ! q
ing visible germs, is perhaps the most e
traord'nary contribution yet made to the b
story Of medicine. The diseases of beer. a.
ailments Of the grapevine, the plague of n
sllk~"orm, the putridity Of vinegar, the 81
cay OF meat, the dreadful mortality IN hos ct