The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-06-15

| IN the June number OF the Metaphysical
| Magazine, we are induced to choose for
examination at some length DIR. Alex
ander Wilders revolutionary paper on
| "The Microbian Craze" DR.. Wilder
remembers that as far back as 1882,
during the cholera's first invasion of
| American soil, he read humorous dia-
logue In the Sentinel and Gazette, pub
lished at Utica, N. Y, in which the
theory was advanced that the prevalent
epidemic might possible be due to the
presence, in the atmosphere. of very
small bugs He regards it probable
| that the materialstic notion of micro
| organic sources of disease is but this
| materialistic ages reflex of its predom-
| inant religious habit of thought, just
| as in earlier ages, the spirit of SUPER
sutton, then rife, caused 1t to be gen.
| orally believed that disease was the do
| ing of evil demons, to cure which ex-
| orcism was necessary. Indeed, he cites
| considerable interesting evidence to
prove that the doctrine of micro-or-
ganisms as the cause of disease "bad
| It's inception in the teachings of the
very men who held firmly at the same
time to the belief in elementary spirits
and malign demoniac influence. They
probably did not apprehend any wide
difference between q morbific germ, or
| animalcule, and a mischievous element
| al; and, indeed, it is not easy to see
| now one belief can be more visionary
than the other'
| but IL Is with the microbian crazes
| present vogue, rather than it's history.
that DR.. Wilder's paper deals. We need
not apologize for quoting some of his
more striking assertions at consider
able length. Perhaps" says he, mo
confession of the upreliability of the
various theories and procedures of the
medical art can be more emphatic than
Is implied by the passionate enthusiasm
Tor this theory. Its apostles have
brought to its christening-font a con-
siderable number of -babies-a
Vibrio for disorders of the nostrils, a
leptothrix for the teeth, bicillus for
diphtheria, spirillum for tubercular
disease, a cryptococcus for yellow
fever, and so on. The conjecture of
their morbific influence is explained in
several ways. They are supposed to
deprive the blood of oxygen or other
important constituents, and perhaps to
excrete deleterous substances into the
body, productive of obstruction and
irritation. Their rapid production, it is
declared, intensifies the mischief.
| Worthless Sprays and Lotions.
Several procedures have been de-
vised upon this theory. Lister is the
most prominent in this direction, as
the inventor of antiseptic surgery, the
employing of sprays and lotions to pre-
vent the invisible aerial microbes from
| injecting wounds made in operations.
Others have invented germicides with
| highly-vaunted virtues, and even pro-
prietary medicines are often extolled in
this way Signor Semnola, of Naples,
| however, discourages attempts in this
| direction. He argues that, granting
disease to be caused by parasites, it
would nevertheless be impossible to in
troduce into the intestinal canal any
germicde in sufficient quantity to de-
stroy them, without also endangering
the life of the patient
Nevertheless, other ways have been
found to work off the accumulated zeal.
We have the sterilzing of milk and
even of the drinking-water; the arbitra-
ry enforcing of disinfection and sani-
tary plumbing at the, caprice of an un-
intelligent or malicious ofiicial and to
clap the climax, the inoculating with
various kinds of diseased and morbific
material, and the injecting of such ma
terial into the blood. The violence en-
ployed, the compulsion and other ar
bitrary measures to enforce vaccina-
tion, diseasing the healthy and some
times killing outright by blood-poison-
ing, painfully illustrate the subject.
Pasteur' followed up the procedure by
his inoculations for anthrax and hy-
drophobia. Koch proposed n similar
treatment for the arrest and curing of
consumption. Now, as If to reach the
highest eminence of the preposterous,
the employment of antitoXin. a filthy
and loathsome virus procured from dis
eased horses, is urged by the over-nu-
merous politco-medical authorities to
be injected into the blood as a remedy
for diphtheria and deaths have al
ready been thus inflicted"
Bacteria Not Dangerous.
l. Notwithstanding the exceeding great
ado made by believers in the microbian
theory, DR.. Wilder does not scruple
to assert that closely observed facts
have signally failed to confirm the as
sertions respecting the morbiic action
of bacteria. In the instance of the
spirillum, or comma, bacillus of chol-
era he claims that the downfall was
complete. 1.-The little trickster," says
he, 'Nyas also to be found in other
forms of disease, and was not always
present when the patient suffered from
cholera. At a later period, other inves-
tigators announced four different forms
of bacilli for cholera, each having its
advocates to insist that it was the gen.
uine Dromio. and that the others We're
spurious. Dr.. Pettenkofer, of Bavaria,
determined the matter. He swallowed
quantities of the micro-organisms, at
different intervals and in various con-
ditions of health and received no harm.
"The santarians pleaded in their turn
that the accumulations of filth and
feculent material, too often abounding
about buildings and in popular locali-
ties, afforded breedng-places for bac-
terra and so infected the atmosphere.
Yet epidemics generally have seemed
to disprove these assertions. The NOR
tality In New York is least in the dis
trict south of Fourteenth street and
east of Broadway. A similar state of
facts has been observed irf other cities.
Asiatic cholera and other epidemics
are not generally more severe in the
districts where 1t would be expected.
Whatever the effective agent may be,
the bacteria abounding in filth and fer
menting substances are evidently it's
destroyers. Experiment has demon
strated this beyond reasonable cavil.
Flugge, Karllnski, and MIGUEL conf
IDENTIFY declare that typhoid and cholera