The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1877-05-24

holms away, but he was promptly instructed
by telegraph not to 60 to DeKalb with body
/ of armed men. Whether the Governor has
since taken an action looking to the protec.
ton of the stricken family we are not ad.
yised. Only the widow now remains, and
perhaps she will be permitted to leave with
out the Governors intervention. iai
SPREAD OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES.
ifi --- 'ti1S ~ 81
WHAT CONTRACTION CONSISTS OF-AN I'M
.PoRTANT SUBJECT TREATED BY PROF.
TYNDALL. J., a1 ftaliia
A London newspaper of April Both says:
ssProf. Tyndall occupied the chair on Saturl
day night at the concluding lecture Of DIR.
Corfeld's course on the laws of health. The
subject OF the lecture was "Infectious Dis.
cases." In proposing a vote Of thanks Prof.
Tyndall paid high compliment to the lee.
turer for the thoroughly sound instruction
which he had so clearly conveyed. Refer
ring to the cause of diseases, he had made it
plain that the contagion consisted ct definite
particles sometimes floating In gas, or in the
air, or in the liquid which we drank, and
that, like organic seeds in the sell, they
multiplied themselves indefinitely in suitable
media, the great probability being that these
diseases producing particles were living
things. A close study Of the subject, ex-
tending now over two years, enabled him to
agree entirely with the lecturer in the paral.
lelism throughout which he had declared to
exist between the phenomena Of these dis
ease-poisons and the phenomena OF ordinary
putrefaction. Take the case Of flies com.
municating disease from one person to an
other, that was exactly parallel by phenom.
ena in putrefaction. Thus he had chopped
up beefsteak, stepped it in water, raised
the temperature little above the tempera-
ture of the blood, poured off the water, fl
tered it. and got perfectly clear liquid; but
the liquid placed in bottle and exposed to
the air began to get more and more turbid
and that turbid liquid, under the micro
scope, was soon found to be swarming with
living organisms. By heating this perfectly
clear beef tea, it would be sterilized, every
thing being killed which was capable Of pro-
dueing those little organisms which pro.
duced the turbidity, and, by keeping it per-
fectly stopped from the air and from com.
ing in contact with any floating particles,it
might be preserved for years. He bad now
some sterilized beef tea of this sort, which
had been preserved for eighteen months in
a state Of perfect transparency, but IL o fly
dipped its foot into an adjacent vessel con-
taining some OF the turbid fluid and then in.
to the transparent liquid, that contact would
be sufficient to affect the sterilized fluid
just as surgeon dipped the point of a lam
Get into vaccine lymph to vaccinate- and in
forty-eight hours the clear liquid would be
swarming with these living organisms. In
this, as in the case of contagious disease,
there was period of incubation.
In proof of what the lecturer had stated
tina. here the contagion of these commando.
BILE diseases was not gaseous or liquid, but
solid particles, he would describe an expert
ment he had made only few weeks since.
Eighteen months since he had place pre-
pared from which all floating particles Of
dust were removed, and in it he placed a
number Of vessels containing animal and
vegetable refuse, and also two or three yes :
sells containing perfectly clear beef tea and
mutton broth as transparent as water, in
which the infected articles had been, killed
by heat. Although all these vessels had
stood during that time side by side, there
had been no communication of contagion
from one to the other, the beef tea and mutt
ton broth remaining as transparent as when
put in, though the other vessels emitted the
most noisome stencil; but If a bubble was
caused in one of the putrefying masses by
blowing into it, and that rose to the surface
and burst, and the spray OF the bubble was
allowed to fall on the transparent beef tea
or mutton broth, in forty-eight hours they
became as bad as their neighbors. It was
not, therefore, sewer gas which did the mis-
chief, but the particles which were driven
up and scattered by the sewer gas. Refer
| ring to another point on which the. lecturer
had insisted, viz: that there was no power
of spontaneous generation of the germs, or
contagion Of diseases, Professor Tyndall said
that though at present great names were sp-
posed to that view, he would venture to pre-
| dict that ten years hence there would be
very few great names opposed to the lee
turer on that matter. With regard to the
power of diseased poisons to be generated in
decomposing animal matter, he would say
that for the last twenty-one years he had
been in the habit OF visiting the upper Al
pine valleys, where, among the Swiss cha
lets, there was the most abominable ,decom :
position going on from day to day, and ex-
| ceedingly bad smells, but there these conta-
| gious diseases were entirely unknown, II,
however, a person suffering from typhoid
fever were transported there, it would
/ spread like wildfre from this infected focus,
and the disease would pass through the, en-
tire population. It might be taken, there
fore, that any of these special diseases re-
CURED its special germ Or seed for its pro-
duction, just as you required a grape seed to
produce vine. He entirely agreed with
all the lecturer had stated as to these dis
eases breeding true" for they never found
the virus of smallpox producing typhoid, or
vice versa. The subject was one Of the
most important which could engage the at
tention of the scientific physician, for in the
whole range Of medical art and science there
was not subject Of equal Importance. But
in applying to daily practice this question of
infectious diseases, the scientific physician
must not stand alone-he ought to be aided
by the sympathy of an enlightened public.
Here, in England, we did not like to be
pressed into good behavior by external in.
fluence; and if anything was to come in the
way of really great sanitary improvement
it would be from the people themselves
Hence, in a people who were jealous OF Gov.
eminent interference, it was of primary i'm.
portance that they should be properly in
structed; and he did not exaggerate in tn,
slightest degree in declaring that solemn
i sound and healthy instruction had been i'm
parted to them in the lecture to which the