Morning journal and courier., 1881-10-15
The Diphtheria Plant.
Prof. Wood Explains How the Disease is
 PrOpagated.

Prof. Wood Explains How the Disease is
 Propagated.
 From the Philadelphia Times.l
 Some light was thrown on the origin of diphtheria last night in lecture before the Academy of Natural Sciences by Professor Horatio c. Wood, who gave the result of re- searches in connection with Dr. Henry F. Formad, involving the important discovery that this fatal and insidious disease is propa- gated by microscopic plant or fungi, exist ing in all human beings, especially in the mouth and throat, but lacking the power of reproduction until given increased vitality by those disordered conditions of the mucous membrane which attend sore throat when caused by cold The investigations were of Health. and extended, not only to the phenomena attending the ordinary endemic diphtheria existing in Philadelphia, but to the more violent form occurring from time to time in different places. Dr. Formsd wis., tied an infected town on Lake Michigan, where one-third of all the children in 8 marshy district died of the epidemic, and brought with him specimens of the diph- theric virus, several of the false membranes which are invariably formed in the throats of afflicted persons. and portions of their yiscera. In all blood, said the Professor, there are two kinds of corpuscles, the red or color giving, and the white By careful study and experiments, both in human beings and the lower animals, it was found that this ininl- tesimal plant fastens upon the white cor puscles and multiplles it's cells, altering the1r character until, with the interior destroyed, they burst, and the plants, set loose in an lr- regular mass, separate and go off individual ly to continue the destructive work on other corpuscles. Thus increased, they poison the blood choke the vessels, and are found in myriad numbers in the spleen and bone mar row, where the blood is manufactured. Prof. Woods investigations show that the false membrane, supposed to invariably indicate the presence of diphtheria, may be caused by ammonia, Spanish fly, or any other irritating influence in the throat, so that it's presence is not infallible as indicating the existence of this disease. But in any case the false membrane is built up by this parasitical plant, which grows and multiplies upon it's inhamed surroundings, whatever may be it's cause. It is when the plants grow strong enough to extend to the blood, either poisoning it themselves or carrying the poison with them, that diphtheria sets in. The little plant is exactly the same as found put plants such as are found upon healthy tongue in sterilized matter they failed to grow. On the contrary, plants from the throat or blood of 8 person affected with diphtheria multiplied rapidly. The practical result of the investigation pointed out was the possibility that dlPntnerla,H e4!stinS tne- ories hold good, may be prevented by artifici- al vaccination In the case of splenic fever caught from animals, which has been proven to originate in a somewhat similar plant, Pasteur has found that the plant, when ex- posed a sufficient time to the air, by the &C., ton of oxygen loses it's poisonous character, and when then introduced into the system makes the animal sick but is no longer fatal. The deduction is that this diphtheric plant, scientifically known as ''micrococi," may in time be cultivated so that when inoculated with it the system will be no longer subject to the disease in its fatal form. Concluding the lecture, Prof. Wood was appiauded when he said that these discoveries could never have been made but for the aid of vivisec- ton, against which there is foolish preiu- dice in the minds of many.