Morning journal and courier., 1885-09-23
Germs of Disease.
U. s. Billings, M. D., in Harper's Magazine for
 September.]

lJ D. DIllIugS, M. III ddrperS maSdZluo
 September.]
 Some disease germs multiply only within the bodies of living animals, as, for instance, those which give rise to smallpox and scarlet fever. They retain their vitality for time when thrown off in excretions, but they do not increase in number until they gain access to living tissues ,and hence the diseases which they cause are propagated by centagion only. Other disease germs multiply, so far az we know, almost exclusively outside the living body, and produce their effects on man, not by growing within him, but by poisoning g him with their products, as common yeast may be said to be the cause of delirium tre- mems through the agency of the alcohol which it produces. Malaria is type of this class. A third kind multiply both within and without the living body, and some of these appear especially to multiply and flour ish in human excreta. As yet we know very little of the life history of these disease germs, or as to how they produce their eff fects; we are not even certain as to whether they are distinct separate species or whether they may not be some of the common micro organisms which by overlooking or other wise have become abnormal, microscopic monsters as it were, producing evil instead OI SoSo. " AaG WO uo huOW IS CuaG 8 very minute quantity of excreta from a case of cholera or typhoid fever may, when intro dueed into the alimentary canal of healthy person, produce in that person disease similar to the one from which the germ orig inally came; and we also have good reason to believe that if a few such germs fall into a mass of excreta, as in a cesspool, they may under certain conditions 1ltiply very rapid ly, and render the whole mass of filth infec- tlous. so that any portion of it will be capa- ble of conveying the disease. Their action is closely analogous to that of yeast, and the diseases which are supposed to be due to such action are known as the zymotic fer ment diseases. Hence comes one great dan ger of retaining or storing in the vicinity of human habitations quantities of organic matter suitable for the nourishment of such organisms, for the channels through which such collections may become dangerously in oculated are so numerous and, in the pres ent state of our knowledge, so impossible to guard against, that cases of powder or cases of dynamite would be really safer neighbors. Sewage is not only source of danger in this way, but also through the products of it's decomposition. The most important of these in this connection are the gases and efduvia envolved in putrefaction, such as hydrogen sulphide. ammonium sulphide, carbon dioxide, and certain organic vapors of very complex constitution, chiefly charac- terized by unpleasant odors. When concen- trated, as in old cesspools or vaults, these may produce suffocation and almost imms- diate death, or great prostrauion, violent vomiting and purging, convulsions, and death, in from one to two days. The circumstances are rare which produce such effects as these; usually the gases are greatly diluted before being breathed and the effects are less marked. Constant exposure to such air impairs health gradually, but distinctly, especially in infants and children, the symp- toms produced being loss of appetite ,langour, slight headache, &c.