New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-01-17

Tins Of typhoid fever, scarlatina, tuoei'u -.
diphtheria. CHAMBERS and tetanus are may ". ~,
more numerous in Europe and America .n"N
victims of diseases brought from the iahs"e'
the Garages or the Isthmus, and IL muS' o'
membered that all these disorders .hoso W.
familiar with not less than those '"aO ~,
from abroad and seem so much "oie
and mysterious, are produced In lueh.io"'S W.
same way-by the introduction into the system"
generally through the mouth, OF specihc' w
ganic, infective poison. L..
While there il nothing new in the sugeestion
that soied paper money is great source "
danger to health, the fact that we h"'o So
long dlsregarded it is no reason why we S"ouN
continue to do SO. The origin OF disease sein''
il still subject of little else than speculation
but good deal has been ascertalned aS ~
the means by which they are borne about ana
deposited in soils suitable for their growth ana
reproduction. That they are present IN 'i!e d.,
mosphere of a sick-room, carried on particles vi
dust and with them attached to the WILLS VI
the ROOM TO carpets to the clothing OF passefs-ih
and passers-out, and, indeed. to every absorbent
surface: that they are thereafter dispatched on
fatal errands by the housemaids broom anu
dusting-cloth: that they and their ehcrus'eo
spores, or seed, are capable of lying IN "ha'
may be termed dormant condition, cerf2ihly lor
months, on any surface that catchcs al" ut
tains them, unaffected by excuses OF tempera-
ture; that released by brush or current oi
air. and dropped in substance that aHorus
them noursbmcnt, they multiply with incaicula-
BILE rapidity-these facts that have been
thoroughly demonstrated No care can DE 700
great, therefore, which dminishcs their chance
Of doing harm.
So much has been accomplished by progressive
- oh mp
Koch, Klcbs, Pasteur and Davaine, in the last
twenty years. and since the means were dis
covered of transplanting these germs and oil
raising them in pure cultures, that the hope
NAV fairly be entertained Of the discovery in the
| early future of medicines which will surely stay
their ravagcs and perhaps render the centres in
| which they are apt to effect Judgment so I'M
| suited to their development as to make the
| danger Of the disease when it has broken out
and Of Its spread thereafter exceedingly slight.
| Something, indeed, has been done with effective
| results and much with results suggestivey hope
| full psychologists, if they do not yet know
| how TO produce the curative or protective in
| fuence, know, at least, the cells or centres IN
tho human body which each kind Of germinal
poison attacks, and they understand what the
condition /. that they must seek to bring about
| in those cells In order TO give them the desired
|
early experiments and spcculatons inclined them
| TO believe as TO how protective powers were
conferred, and they realize that specific powers
| are necessary 10 meet each specific poisonous or
ganism. They have made good beginning, and
it is impossible 10 believe that the great secret
will be long withheld from minds so acute and
| eyes obscrvant In more than genera
ton they have succeeded in producing these
| lower forms OF life in pure cultures where they
| could ID Analysed and classified, where the
| habits aud needs Of each could be authortativey
| known, where their relations TO human life
could be carefully studied, where the innocent
could bc distinguished from the hurtful
tho life-giving from the Understanding They
are at the very threshold OF discoveries the
fortunate results OF which 20 the human race
are Unreasonable, and accepting even the sum
| Of their present knowledge. it is possible by
that prudence and care OF which the measure pro
posed By Mr.. Cultivate in Congress is an ex
ample TO diminish greatly the number of chances
that threaten human life