Morning journal and courier., 1882-08-14
The Germ Theory of Disease. From Chambers Journal.

Let us briefly sum up what is at present known about the germ theory of disease. Experiments having shown that no life is known to spring from inanimate matter, we may reasonably conclude that just as wheat does not grow except from seed 50 no disease occurs without some disease germ to produce it. Then, again, we may take 1t for certain that each disease is due to the development of particular kind of germ. If we plant smallpox germs, we do not reap a crop of scarlatina or measles but just wheat springs from wheat, each disease has it's own distinctive germs. Each comes from par ent stock, and has existed somewhere pre-
 viously. It is true that complications occur, several diseases running their course at one time, or one after the other but, however uncommon, none of them are new. After
 forest is out down new variety of trees
 may spring up; but nobody supposes them
 to have grown spontaneously. The seeds
 existed there before, and their growth was
 due to the occurrence Of conditions tavora-
 ble to their development. So the disease
 germs which are always floating about may
 frequently be introduced into our bodies i;
 but it is only when they meet with suitable
 conditions that they take root and produce
 disease. Under ordinary circumstances these
 germs, though nearly always present, are comparatively few in number, and Tn an ex- tremely dry and indurated state. Thus, they
 may frequently enter bodies without
 meeting with the conditions essential to their growth for experiments have shown that 1t
 is very difficult to moisten them, and til they are moistened they do not begin to de- velop. In healthy system they remain inactive. But anything tending to weaken or impair the bodily organs furnishes favora- ble conditions, and thus epidemics almost always originate and are most fatal ln those
 quarters of our great cities where dirt, squal- or, and foul air render sound health almost an impossibility. Thus, too, armies sudden ly transferred from the regularity and con- parative comfort of barrack life to the dan
 gers, toil and exposure of the battle field and the trenches are often attacked by cpl
 demics. Having once got a beginning, cpl denies rapidly spread. The germs are then
 sent into the air in great numbers and in a moist state; and the probabilities of their entering and of their establishing themselves even in healthy bodies are vastly increased For the same reasons one disease not unfre- quently follows another. The latter is com monly said to have changed" into the for mer but probably the two are entirely dis tinct the second being simply due to the weakening of the system.
 Another widespread belief is that foul smells give rise to disease. It is not, strictly speaking, the foul gases, but the germs pre- sent in them that produce the diseases. The effiuvia, however, are themselves Injurious to health, while they are indications of 8 state of matters much more dangerous; and it is never sufficient to destroy evil odors without searching out ana removing the causes
 that produce them
 Climate and the weather have also much
 influence the vitality of these germs. Cold
 is preventive against some diseases, heat
 against others. But we have still much to
 learn regarding their behavior under varying
 conditions. Tyndall found that sunlight
 greatly retarded and sometimes entirely pre-
 vented putrefaction while dirt is always
 favorable to the growth and development of
 the germs. Sunshine and cleanliness un-
 doubtedly the best and cheapest preventiyes
 against disease