St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1893-05-06
DISEASE GERMS.
A Highly Interesting and Instructive
Lecture.

Lecture.
At the Cooper Medical College, SAL
Francisco, DR.. W. F. Cheney delivered ;
very interesting and instructive lecture
recently, on The Germs Found in thu
Air" The lecturer said: "To prove tn,
presence in the air of living forms thi
simple test will suffice: Take little
glassful OF bouillon broth, filtered to re
move all bits of beef fiber Such 1
liqaid is clear as crystal and shows under
the microscope not sign of life, nt
matter how closely examined. Let this
stand for few days in warm place
and then examine it again. The fluid is
no longer clear, but trrbid, and droE
placed beneath the microscope will be
found crowded with living things that
jostle one another and hasten TO and frc
across the scene like busy human beings
in city street. We scott, perchance,
at miracles. Yet here is surely one.
What magic art has wrought this change!
Whence have come these innumerablc
specks Of life? This was an unsolved
problem long after the microscope had
revealed their existence. Men could not
doubt their eyes-the living things were
present in the fluid beyond question, but
what had been their origin2
1t was discovered that the generation
of these swarms can be prevented in a
very simple way. That if the bouillon is
kept for some time at boiling tempera-
ture and then sealed at once so as to pre-
vent the access of air, it will remain
clear for days, for weeks, for indefinite
periods, and show no trace of living
forms on miscroscopical examination.
The sole difference in the treatment Of the
fluid in the two cases has been the ex-
clusion of air. And SO men came to look
in the air for the source of the changes so
long misunderstood. Then slowly, step
by step, came the knowledge that in
the atmosphere everywhere floats seeds or
germs of life, constantly on the alert for
a congcnial spot where they may alight
and make their home. With this discov-
cry the old doctrine of spontaneous gen
Grafton had at last to be discarded. 1t
was not given up without struggle and
many wordy battle, but to-day there
are few indeed who believe in it.
Not content with finding that the air
contains such germs, science has devised
ways for estimating their number; has
made out their structure; has learned
how they reproduce their kind, and has
become familiar with the habits of indi-
vidual varieties. An ingenious French
scientist, after painstaking experiments,
has calculated that in the ordinary at
mosphere of Il large city there are 1900
germs to every cubic yard; in the air of
a room or house in winter, kept closed to
exclude the cold, he estimates that there
are $4,000 germs to every cubic yard,
and in the wards OF long used hospital
he found $4,000 germs in the same air
space. That institution, however, did
not have a system of ventilation such as
will be a feature OF the hospital soon to
form part of Cooper Medical College.
The same French scientist found that
in summer, whether in city or country,
the air contains three Or four times more
germs than in winter; that the air at
elevations is always less densely popu-
lated by them than that near the surface
of the earth, and that the air on sea or
on mountain heights is almost entirely
free from them. 1t is generally to be
regretted that this scientist did not ex-
tend his Investigations to the atmosphere
of one of our Mission street horse-cars,
habitually crowded with passengers and
with every door and window tightly
closed. The man who does examine one
Of these for germs will, no doubt, find
"there's millions in it !"
These jewellers of the air vary greatly
in size. Some appear under the micro
scope as minute, rounded dots. These
have been named cocci, from the Greek
word meaning berry or pill. Others
look like short rods, and hence get the
name bacteria, from the Greek word
meaning rod. Still Others of a similar
shape, but a little longer, are called
baciN5, from the Latin word meaning
staff. And, lastly, there are forms called
spiriNi, because they look like. long,
twisted spirals. Though science gives
these distinctive names to different forms,
yet popular use designates all germs as
bacteria, regardless of their shape, In
size, though all are visible to the naked
eye, there is nevertheless great variation
among them. Some of the c0cct are but
10000 of an inch in diameter, so
that 10000 of them together in heap
would occupy only one cubic inch of
space. Some of the spirilli, ON the other
hand, attain q length of 1900 of an
inch, but with germs as with men, the
stature of the individual bears no relation
to its influences Or to its possibilities.
In structure all these living germs are
but simple vegetable cells. Imagine a
minute speck Of matter of jelly-like con-
sistency, the surface little more firm
and dense than the center. Such is the
living cell, the last step in the subdivis-
ion of all living structures. The ana
tomist, with his knife, can dissect the
animal body and reveal the different It's
sues of what it is composed-the mus
Giles, the bones, the arteries and nerves
and the connecting strands that bind the
parts together. But with his microscope
lie goes ON far beyond that point and
learns that each muscle, bone and nerve
is itself made up of multitudcs of indi-
vidual cells. differing vastly in shape and
size according to the tissue in which they
are found, but all essentially the same in
structure. So the botanist can take
apart the plant and show its various It's
sues, but each of those tissues,
beneath the microscope, becomes at
last a mass of tiny cells. Be-
You'd this point, either in animal
Or vegetable tissue, no eye has ever seen,
and these cells become, therefore, the
points of beginning for all living things.
From such an assumed origin comes
every plant, every animal and every hui
nan creature, by multiplication and diff
by growth and develop |
nant The difference hetMeen q hac-