The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1881-12-03

PATHOLOGY OF CHICKEN CHOLERA.-The dis
coveries which have been made by the use of the
microscope are of the greatest utility Their start
ling nature gives boundless scope to speculation
as to future observations. Microscopists have
reached foremost place among scientific inves-
tigators, and their contributions to the knowl-
edge of diseases both in the animal and vegeta-
BILE economies, have been exceptionally valuable
From notice of an address lately delivered in
Dublin by DR.. Cameron (which we find in the
Gardeners CRronicle) concerning some of the more
recent conclusions regarding minute organisms, it
is remarked that many of the processes of life and
disease are directly connected with the presence of
"germs very minute living bodies of different
sizes and shapes, assuming now one form, now
another, according to circumstances. Researches
into the nature and action of these germs have
been numerous of late, and of Importance in their
practical results almost beyond calculation. The
incubation Of a healthy animal with certain
germs has been proved to occasion certain dis
eases; the injection Of substances known to kill
germs has been proved to cure them; and, more
singular than ALL the activity of the germ can be
so reduced by appropriate measures that it ceases
to be dangerous. More than that, these IL tten-
uated germs introduced into the body render it
henceforth proof against attacks Of similar nature
1t is in this way that vaccination properly carried
out all but annihilates smallpox; it is in this
way that we may look with some confidence for
the virtual extinction Of diphtheria, ague, hydro
phobia. yellow fever, and a number of very fatal
diseases. These are not mere assumptions or
dreams: they are capable Of proof; they have al
ready, to some extent, been verified, and already
they have proved of great practical value.
DIR. Cameron remarks: at is only recently that
these organisms themselves have been identified ;
and it is only within period to be recl1oned by
months, rather than by years, that their habits
have been so exposed to us that it is already in
our power, in many cases, to isolate them from
the living body, and cultivate them in artificial
soils-to multiply, destroy, modify, weaken, or
intensity them at pleasure.
awe know that the air is full of floating, living
particles, ready to spring into activity whenever
they may light upon congepial soil We know
that in such numbers do they, in many cases.
exist, that, present but the proper soil, and the
appropriate germ inevitably finds its way to it.
We know, on the other hand, that, but filter the
air. purify it from such germs, and without their
Intervention, no form of life can arise 1t has
with certain specific diseases, especially with what
are known as zymotic diseases. 1t has long been
considered probable that the symptoms which
constitute each particular malady in that class
were due TO the invasion Of the system by some
microscopic organism, which, multiplying itself
within the living body, gave rise to the phenom-
ena and constitutional disturbance which physi-
clans describe as the disease. 1t has now been
proved that this is so in number ofdiseases where
such an origin was never suspected.
an 1876, DR.. Koch, a German physician, sue
ceeded in isolating the little rod-like organism
or bacterium which gave rise to the splenic fever
Of sheep and cattle and in cultivating it outside
the animal body, and proved that this organism
was really the cause of this or that malady. Dr.
Koch's discovery was rapidly followed up by that
of Dr. Klein, who showed, by methods similar to
those adopted by Koch, that the disease known
as pig-typhoid or pig-plague was also the result
of microscopic organism which he succeeded in