The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-11-05
The Germs OF Disease FungOus GrOwths
in the Human System.

in the Human System.
An interesting lecture was delivered
last evening before the members OF the
Academy of Natural Sciences by DR.
Horatio c. Wood, Professor of Materis
Medica in the University of Pennsyl-
vania, on the Fungous Origin of Dis
ease. The researches of which the
evenings lecture was the outcome were
made by DIR. F. &. Formal and by Prof.
Wood, under the auspices of the Ma
tional Board of Health, and referred
more especially to the plant which pro-
duces diphtheria and is known under
the name of micrococci.
The lecturer related the work done
by himself and colleague in the summer
of 1880 in experimenting upon animals
by the introduction of diphtheritic
membrane. Most ofthem, it was found,
had died from consumption, though a
false membrane had been produced
similar to that seen in diphtheria in the
child. A severe epidemic of diphtheria
having occurred in Ludington, Michi-
gan, in 1880, DIR. Formal visited that
town to make studies of the cases and
to collect matter. Up to this time
nothing remarkable had been found in
the blood of Philadelphia patients, but
in the membrane there has since been
discovered microscopic plant known
as micrococci, and the blood of the
Ludington patients was always full of
it, choking up the internal organs of
the children who died, and especially in
the spleen and kidneys. incubation of
animals with the matter brought from
Ludington always formed false mem
brane at the point of incubation, which
was, with the blood, found to be full of
micrococci after death, and the symp-
toms in life resembled those of diphtheria
in man. The conclusion was then reached
that diphtheria has been produced in
animals. In the membrane the micro
cocci exist in several forms, sometimes
scattered or in masses of few or in
pods known as microeocci balls, and in
masses of gelatinous material full of lit
tie plants. They are generally first
found in the white corpuscle, and can be
seen, though very minute, in lively ac-
tion, dancing about as if eating it up.
The corpuscle was seen to alter, grow
ing watery, and the little plants finally
filled it up until the corpuscle burst,
and its interior came out as an irregu-
lar translucent mass, which formed the
micrococci ball seen in the patients
throat. Modern physiology teaching
that the blood is largely formed in the
bone-marrow and in the spleen, these
organs we're found largely crowded
with the little plants, and their cultiva-
ton outside of the body was tried with
he. l. 10
Philadelphia matter was feeble of
growth. ceasing to increase on the
fourth generation, while that of Lud-
ington seemed to develop as rapidly at
the tenth generation as at the first
Plants entirely like the micrococci of
diphtheria in a general appearance ex-
ist on the surface of furried tongue,
but these showed in experiments in the
culture apparatus very little power of
growth. The next series of experiments
were made to determine whether the
micrococci of diphtheria is the cause of
the disease. 1t was known that an in
fusion of diphtheritic membrane
filtered lost its virulence in direct pro-
portion to the thoroughness of the
filtration. The liquor filtered through
clay lost all its solid particles and was
no longer poisonous, and this proved
that the contagious matter of diphtheria
is a solid particle. The result of the
experiments served to show that the
micrococci were the cause of the dis
ease either directly or indirectly. Diph-
theritic micrococci, artificially grown
by the experimenters in it's several gen
erations, produced undoubted diphthe-
ria in animals and death. The matter,
brought from Ludington, exposed to
the air for several weeks, lost its viru-
lence, and failed to produce the disease.
Prof Wood and DIR. Formal both
concluded from the experiments that
these micrococci, which exactly re-
sembled the micrococci of diphtheria
and lost their virulence and power OF
growth thus became converted, in other
words, to the little plants of the furred
tongue, and were of the opinion that
the plants are identical in their specific
nature with a sore throat in a child
under the stimulus of the emulation,
the torpid microcOcci, always present
in the mouth begin to grow and to be
converted into the active stage. Their
growth further influence the mucous
membrane of the throat and this in
creased inflammation feeds it still more
$50 the starved micrococci said the
Professor " became converted into the
bloated b0ndholder and case of self
created diphtheria results. The active
little plants find a suitable resting place
in the throat of the delicate child, begin
to grow and soon develope the disease.
The scattered mild cases originate in
the individual and comprise the ordi-
nary cases seen in Philadelphia. When
catarrh comes in the spring, when the
air is full of active micrococci, a malig-
nant epidemic results" Prof. Wood
spoke of the parsimony of the United
States Government, which will spend
thousands of dollars in political inves-
tigation and will deny one cent to such
important medical inquiries. -Philadel-
phia Press.
The Paris Electrical Exhibition.