Cheyenne transporter. [volume] (Darlington, Indian Terr.) 1879-1886, 1882-10-13
The Germ Theory efDisease.
Chambers journal.

Olb hhONh tbC EtlIh tltOIN VI
disease. Experiments having shown
that no life is known to spring from in
animate matter, we may reasonably
conclude that just us wheat does not
grow except from seed, SO nc disease
ccurs without some disease germ to
produce it. Then, again, we may take
it for certain that each disease is due to
the development of a particular kind of
germ. If we plant smallpox germs,
we do not reap n crop of scarlatina or
measles; but just as wheat springs
from wheat, each disease has its own
distinctive germs. Each ONE from a
parent stock, and has existed some
where previously. 1t is true that COM
plications occur, several diseases run
ming their course at one time, or one
after the other; but, however uncom-
mon, one of them are new. After a
forest is cut down n new variety of
trees may spring up; but nobody sup
poses them to have grown sponta-
neously. The seeds existed there be-
fore, and their growth was due to the
occurrence of conditions favorable to
their development. So the disease
germs which are always floating about
may frequently be introduced into our
bodies; but it is only when they meet
with suitable conditions that they take
root and produce disease. Under ordi-
nary circumstances, these germs
though nearly always present, are
comparatively few in number, and IN
an extremely dry and indurated state.
Thus, they may frequently enter our
bodies without meeting with the condi-
tons essential to their growth; for eX-
periments have shown that it is very
difficult to mOisten them, and till they
are moistened they do not begin to de-
velOp. In Il healthy system they re-
main inactive. But anything tending
to weaken or impair the bodily organs
furnishes favorable conditions, and
thus epidemics almost always originate
and are most fatal in those quarters O
our great cities where dirt, squalor anC
foul air render sound health almost AZ
impOssibility. Thus, too, armies sud
denly transferred from the rcgularlt,
and comparative comfort of barrack lf'
to the dangers, toll and exposure of HI
battlefield and the trenches are Otter
attacked by cpidcmics. Having one
got a beginning, cpidcmics rapid
spread. The germs are then sent int
, the air in great numbers, and in
moist state; and the probabilities o
/, their entering and of their cstablishin,
themselves even in healthy bodies az
vastly increased. For the same reason
one disease not un|frequently follow
| another. The latter is commonly sal
! to have |''changedn into the former
but probably the two are entirely dis
g tinct, the second being simply due
2 weakening of the system.
e Another widespread belief is that fOr
smells give rise to disease. 1t is no
4 strictly speaking, the foul gases, bl
= the germs present in them, that pre-
duce the diseases. The eitiuyia, how
Y ever. are themselves injurious TO hcaltl
while they are indications of a state
matters much more dangerous; and
{ is never sufficient to destroy evil OdOl
without searching out and remoyin
the causes that produce them.
Climate and the weather have ais
much influence on the vitality of the.
IS germs. Cold is a preventive again
l. some diseases, heat against other
But we have still muchto learn regar,
ing their behavior under varying co,
n ditions. Tyndall found that sunligI
IS greatly retarded and sometimes entir
It ~ prevented putrcfaction; while dirt
r always favorable to the growth and d
e %velopment ofthe germs. Sunshine ~
t, cleanliness are undoubtedly the be
and cheapest preyenuyes against ii
" ease.
d The San Francisco Cable Street-C
n is dnfnndnmt In Snit for s..