The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-10-25
The Germ Theory Condemned.


pathic Medical Association at Louisville,
KY, week or 50 ago. Dr. William II.
Hocombe. one IF the leading physicians Of
New Orleans, read an interesting paper on
yellow fever in which he comtatted the
germ theory of the fever, cond m ed tine
shotgun quarantine, expressed the belief
that the fever is not contagiou, and cannot
be carried in the clothing or other articles
| and de Jared that if it were not for the fear
which seizes upon communities when the
presence # the fever is admitted epidemicS
Of the disease would be few and compare
lively Insignificant.
| VI course DR.. Holcombe agrees with those
woo doubt that yellow fever is imported
| He leans to the belief thai it is of local
origin in this country as it is in the West
Indies, but that it takes "a longer time here
for the causes to accumulate with sufficient
| intensity TO explode and produce an cpl
demic' He, therefore, is a believer in rigid
sanitary rather than rigid quarantine regu-
lations.
Speaking of the germ theory, he says:
This theory, so simple, so plausible, &C
counting so well for all the phenomena, has
captured alike the professional mind and
the popular imagination. All parties have
jumped to the conclusion that germs are
! the causes of yellow fever; that of course it
| is contagious, as the germs can be carried
| In trunks and packages in wooden dresses,
in matted hair or folded newspapers There
| fore quarantine is the only way to keep off
yellow fever, and if that fails on the sea
board, how easy it is to stamp it out with
antiseptics. But, that failing also,
the whole country is convulsed with
fear, and every country town and cross
road springs its shotgun upon the
miserable refugees VINO are flying, like the
wicked, when no man puriueth The
tendency Of this germ theory is to make all
diseases contagious, to reduce the mdterid
nledicd to germicides, ard the practice of
medicine to germ hunting and germ killing,
to inStigate the fears and TO multiply quar-
antines and precautions until every mans
hand is raised against his fell
low, and society is in chaos.
| protest against this folly. Germi-
cides affords no rrotec ion against yellow
fever, and have no efficacy VIVA tever in tho
cure of the disease. Until the contagionist
produces his yellow fever germ, CONVEYS it
to some unaffected locality and inoculates
| some pers N with it who contracts yellow
| fever from the operation land these condi-
| lions are imperative for a truly scientific
experiment., | shall decline to believe that
yellow fever can be con veyed from one per-
| son to another by the bite Of mosquito or
by let,er in a mail bag"
DR.. Holcombe thinks that the germ theory
has done an incalc liable amount of harm
by producing a condition Of the public
mind that helps to spread the fever Were
it exists, and to make the type Of it
more malignant On this point he
makes the following observations:
''The germ theory of yellow fever
has intensified the public fear of the disease.
IL these terrible germs are not met and
stamped out az the seaports, how can we
save ourselves! says the public They are
living things, and can come on the trains or
even on the winds, and we cannot help
breathing them and drinking them, and in
cooperating the invisible poison into our
blood. There is no hope for us but in fligh.
or in absolute isolation. This state of mind
is calculated to convert mild fever into a
malignant fever, a non-cOntagious disease
into contagious disease, not by endowing
1t at once with any physical property Of
contagion, but by the tralisference of terri
fed thought from one mind to another
tending to reproduce similar conditions of
body"
The doctor calls attention to the fact that
the creoles and colored people now have
the yellow fever, although before the germ
theory was accepted it was very unusual
for creole to be attacked by it, and
case of the disease among colored people
was almost unknown. He thinks the reas on
they are now subject to it is that they be-
come alarmed and panic stricken when the
presence of the scourge is announced, and
hence are in a condition to invite atacks of
any kind of disease. Ii it were not for the
belief in the germ theory, he does not be-
lieve that this alarm would exist
The doctor complains that tho believers
in the germ theory ignore a great many facts
which contradict that theory. He seetns t.
forget that he also ignores a great many
fact in his paper which support that theory
and the infectious character of yellow
fever.