The Rugby gazette and east Tennessee news. (Rugby, Morgan Co., Tenn.) 1884-188?, 1886-03-27
The OREGON AND THE GERM
THEORY.

| "' '"' Plhnoleis, anu olncI ia
teliIyent landlubbers who by the cour-
teSy otthe newspapers have been en-
Tightening them upon the causes of the
recent disaster and showing how easily
the leak might have been stopped and
the ship brought safely into port. The
various thesrle. advanced are exception
any Ingenious, but no4e Of them appear
To lls to be altogether satisfactory. The
schooner story Is, of course, abslrd A
schooner, as very well informed lands
man knows, is large vessel commonly
encountered by mariners and other. at
the Oar and not lnfrequently met i'll
.mllocean, or, as the correct nautical
phrase is, "half seas over" 1t is al 30
true that in such case. the schooner
goes down almost instantly. In no case
yet recorded, however, has any fatal
damage beon done by a single schooner
to the larger craft. a rapid and contin-
uous succession of schooners, each
Striking in the same place, {. e., nearly
amdshIps, might, it is true, cause dis
astsr; but the officers of the Oregon re-
port only one vessel Of that descrip-
ton, and it is manifestly illogical to at
tribute the enormous damage to so
trivial and insufficient cause,
The dynamite theory is also untea-
able. Some plausiblity was at first
given to 1t by the we'll known propen-
sites Of U'Dounovan Rosa in connec-
ton with the suspicious coseness be-
tween the date of the occurrence and
that of St. Patrick's Day. A slight de-
feet in the mechanism Of an Internal
machine or an error IL setting the dial
might easily have precipitated matters
and touched off Oh the l4th tirework
that was intended to celebrate the | It'll.
But even ii the testimony Of the fire
man who examined the edges Of the
fracture and found them inclined in
ward be not sufficient dispro,t, We have
the denial Of O'Donnovan Rossa him
self. His assurance settles the question
beyond doubt or cayil. 1t was certainly
not dynamite at all.
The earthquake theory is still more
vulnerable and preposlerous. We can
imagine no seismic disturbance suffi-
GENTLY small to have undertaken this
particular job without accomplishing
enough more to make itself unmistak
ably lnanifeat and place its claim b..
you'd dispute. If any set-respecting
earthquake should have taken it into
its head to 90 in pursuit of Orcsons
it would mfalIjbIy have ba:,ed the
State, not the steamer Nor cm any
thing favorable he said for any other of
the numerous theories yet offered by
the able and intelligent community of
landlubbers. The Orego@ was not sunk
by touching the wreck of the Uyt'oa
castle, nor by gas explosion in her
coal bunkars, nor by sunken torpedocs,
nor by shots from tina dynamite gun,
nor by any outward, inward, aud unto.
ward act Of violence whatever, It's mis-
hap was purely and entirely duo to the
ravages Of hitherto unknown microbc
the B0royOa steameriaaa, or steamer
bacillus.
: 1t isa well known fact that tie CT
binary wooden ship has long been the
prey Of bacilli, respectively known tt
science as the Teredo naualas and tn,
Limuoria tereJranS. These destructiv,
parasites gradually consume the tim
bers and eventually cause the destruc
t ton of the vessel 1t has also been esta
: blished by the savants Of tho Koch anc
C Pastenr school that the germ principle
: is little short of universal in its appl
t cation, and that whenever new varie
: ty Of plant or animal is produced there
=, invariably appears a mcrobe to pre-.
e upon and destroy it. The evolution O
: the iron steamship out of the old wood
ell craft has hitherto been regarded a
step toward safety and immunit
y from the ravages of bacilli, but the e,
9 pcriencc of the Oregon blasts this hop
:. lor ever. Of the habits of the B0r0zo
G Stedmeridna nothing is yet known, lu'
4 Judging from its operation in the Or
t. goN case, it seems to belong rather
So the class of the toudroyant oreight-hol
eS cholera family than to that of the lii
n gering or consumptive germ, Its pre-
Il nee was not suspected until the pc
ri lions attacked had given way with
audiences resembling that whit
MIGHT have haen cauSa1 Inv a powerf,