The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-09-15
BACILLI FOR MURDER.
Evidence That They Are sold to Put
People Out of the WAY.
From the Pittsburg Dispat,

! Last december man died III a city not
far from New York. under circumstances
that make one wish that Conan Doyle
| had not killed Sherlock Holmes.
The man was a carpenter, laboring IT,
! dustriously to support a wife. when he
was taken Ill with what was soon seen
to be some rather unusual form of septic
/ poisoning. Growing rapidly worse, he
died on the fifth day of his illness and
was shortly buried under a certificate of
death by septicaemia.
The day before he died however, an
eruption appeared on the side of the
neck, difused red blush, such as might
be produced by a smart blow with the
open hand. the peculiar color and the
| general aspect Of the case caused the doc
tor to examine the patient more carefully
and it was found that a like blush. but
less deep in color, extended along the
| sides of the thighs.
Realizing the possibilities he removed
small portion of the blood and took it
to mycOlogist for examination. After
about ten days the answer came that be-
| yond all question the case was one of
| rouget, occurring in the human subject.
lie Rouget. in English. THE red null
let" is a form of septic poisoning that is
quite common among the pigpens in
| France, and is almost, or quite. unknown
| in this country outside of the laborato-
ries, and all the attempts to identify it
with any of the local barnyard plaques
have been unsuccessful.
This disease is a strictly contagious
plague and there was no end of wonder
among the few who understood the mat
ter as to the way in which the man con-
tracted the disease.
Just while the interested ones were
asking themselves a series of conundrums
that they knew they could never guess,
they were informed that the dead mans
life had been insured for the sum of S25,-
600.
1t was learned the beneficiary was the
daughter of his wife, by a former hus-
band, and that the daughter had married
nearly three years before, that the policy
was a wedding present, and that the hus-
band of the daughter had paid all the
premiums except the first. Here was the
material for a first rate romance if there
| had been anyone to write it, and the sus-
picion of a tragedy which neither of the
| physicians found at all to his taste.
Obviously, the first thing to do was to
! verify the diagnosis. This was DONE and
the identity of the disease established be-
| yond a question; the disease was fatal
| to rabbits and to mice and pigs, while
| guinea pigs resisted it completely.
The lawyers and detectives then took
| up the chase and found that three or four
days before the man was taken i'll the
daughter of his wife had sent to him a
salad of boiled rabbit and cabbages.
| From somewhere they ascertained that
d
rabbit that she had purchased at the
market, and, contrary to her usual Gus
tom, brought it home, instead of causing
the delivery. Having made the salad. she
stated, she took the whole of 1t to her
mother.
Here appeared the only hint of a clew;
the rabbit that she purchased was GER
tainly cotton tail" while the servant
asserted that the one that she cooked
was small gray mule ear" Naturally
the detectives thought that this would
lead to something, but whatever the flu
ture may have in store it has lead to
nothing yet.
Every method was used to find if any Of
the large laboratories had lost any ma
terial, but 1t was found i'm possible to
find anything of the sort, or even one that
at the time was studying this disease.
To hunt the city for a man who was ex-
| perimenting on the matter in question
would be to hunt for a needle in a hay-
NOW; still, plants do not grow without
seed, and, although the legal proof is not
| forthcoming, the moral demonstration is
complete
AS an instance of cold-blooded and sue
| cessful crime, this stands unique the
| Holmes-Mudgett murders are the work
of a simple blunderer by comparison.
| The next case of this sort to attract
| the attention of the interested was of
| ''acute phlebitis." This disease is also
| one of the strictly contagious class and
no case has occurred in the civilized world
in the last ten vars that is not distinctly
traceable to Vhother of the same kind;
| consequently. when two cases occurred one
after the other In the same city. three
| months apart, without any connection
| so far as human skill could trace. with
any other either in the city where they
| happened or in any other, there were
plenty of cause for any inquiry that scien-
! tific curiosity should suggest
This disease is produced by the growth
| in the body of a 'micrococcus" eng
small round thing, whose relation form
| growth and habits, are as well known
as those of the potato, and there is "a
small probability Of the coccus growing in
any but its accustomed way, as there IL
that the said potato will suddenly take
to growing as a tree. Under these cir
cumstances there was only one course
possible to start a hunt for the source
of the contagion and find out who had
committed the crime of treating a case
Of this disease clandestinely and had LET
1t escape from his keeping, for this was
the prima facie case.
There are two ways in which this nau,
form of crime can be met, at least there
are two that are obvious Ono
is to register every culture oven
owner in the city and then
publish every one that is not so register
ed,'if he is discovered, and make il a mis-
| demeanor to have an oven that is not reg
istered.
Owing to the fact that Eimen and
Amend. in New York city, sell much
more than half Of all the supplies in the
United States. it would be easy 10 oh
tain the sales to private parties if it were
required by law.
To stop the transfer of the culture he
tween those that are interested in such
things would not in any way aid. because
the more men that are able to make the
cultures the more there will be on the
lookout for this sort Of crime
The other and better way is to treat
every case that is proved to be one OF
the so-called sporadic cases. of conta-
gious disease as a murder. and investi-
gate it as such. The fact is wen known
that these cases can all be proved to be
murders. or result OF the contempt
law.