The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-11-24

. Ientat.on Oh any kind.
IL VS. OgJeC. ed 20 these experiment.
hal The air having been subjected IL
. aa-n temperature had perhaps under
oIe some chemical change which pre-
enJed II from inauguratinS processes
i fermentation. This objection Was
met by Schroeder and Won busch n
ga. They proved that boiled liquids
emaIn sterile when covered with !
Dose plug OF cotton which admits air
serves as filter for micro-organ-
isms
\ few years later Pasteur demon
strated that boiled liquids in a iasb
with long, drawn-out neck turned
downwards, will not ferment because
the force Of gravity prevents the micro
org nisns floating in the air from as
cending the long. narrow neck and ,all-
ing into the liquid. But these expert
ments did not settle the question ol
spontaneous generation, because DOL
ing the liquid did not prevent the &c.
veiopment Of bacteria in every i'll
stance.
The work of demonstrating tina,
there is no spontaneous generation. he
gun by Spallanzani, was finished b,
Pasteur in 1860, who proved that the
temperature of boiling water does not
destroy all living organisms, but that
BY raising the temperature to 233 de-
grees +. no further growth Is observed
III any case. These experiments oil
Pasteur removed the last ground on
which rested the theory Of spontaneous
generation so that now we believe that
all living beings owe their existence to
rrogenitors Of the same species.
Many improvements We're made in
the methods Of research about the
middle OF this century. The most i'm
portant are the cotton air filter OF
Schroeder and Van busch in 1854: the
sterilization of culture fluids by Pas
teur and Koch; the use of aniline dyes
as staining agents, which enable us to
distinguish different species of bacte-
ria having the same form, size. and ap-
pearance when not stained These
dyes were introduced by Weigert in
1877, and have proved extremely val
liable to distinguish the bacilli Of CON
sumption and leprosy from many 9TH
ers, which, without the stain. resemble
them very closely.
The Introduction Of soiid culture me-
Ola by Koch in 1881 has been of inn
nense value for obtaining pure cul-
lures. In the solid culture media the
colonies are fixed and can be observed
II their growth as to shape, color, time
OF appearance after planting, etc..
which could not be done when grown
IN bouillOn or any other liquid medium.
Many errors Of the earlier investigators
were caused by the imperfection of the
methods employed, but with the adj
vent of solid culture media bacteriolo-
gy was placed upon a scientific basis.
These improvements in the methods of
research led to a series Of brilliant dis
Coyerles, the Importance Of which can
hardly be overestimated.
The germ theory of certain diseases
received complete confirmation Da-
Valne In 1868 succeeded in reproducing
anthrax in animals by inoculating
them with blood taken from animals
which had died of that disease Pas
teur and Koch proved the correctness
Of DOuvaine's experiments by repro
duclng anthrax in animals by inOcu-
latlons with pure cultures of the an
thlaX bacllli. Pasteur made extensive
studies Of an infectious disease OF silk
worms which threatened to destroy the
silk Industry Of France, and found that
the cause or the disease is a micrO-O or
gdnlsm. He reproduced the disease by
InOculating the silkWorms with cul-
lures Of the germs. The disease is
called pebrine.
In 1873 Obermeier discovered a mi
mute micro-organism in the blood of
patents affected with relapsing fever,
which proved to be the cause Of that
disease. In 1879 Hansen reported the
discovery Of the bacillus OF leprosy,
which is now considered to be the
cause Of the disease. In 1880 Eberth
and Koch reported the discovery of the
typhoid bacillus, the cause of typhoid
fever. The same year Koch published
the discovery of the germs of fowl
cholera and the attenuation of it's vi
rus, so that by inoculating fowls with
the attenuated germs he produced i'm
munity in them, similar TO immunity
possessed against smallpox by those
inOculated with vaccine virus
In 1882 Koch published one of the
most important discoveries in bacteri-
olosy, namely, the bacillus of con-
which he named the bacillus
Of tuberculosis. This bacillus is the
cause OF about One-seyenth Of all the
OSdlDS Vi the WOr1u, So LndL the NOR
tally caused by cholera, bubonic
plague or any other pest is insignificant
when compal ed with the rayages of
this invisible enemy.
In 1882 Pasteur demonstrated that
rabies could be cured by using pre-
ventive NEGOTIATIONS with attenuated
virus. Now the mortality from that
dreadful disease is about two-tenths of
l per cent, against Is per cent before
the great discovery Of the great Pas
teur. In the same year (1SS2) LOeffler
and SchuetZ discovered the bacillus of
CHAMBERS, a not uncommon disease of
horses, sometimes attacking human be-
iGgs. In 1884 three important discov-
cries We're made, viz: The cholera ba-
cillus, by Koch; the bacillus of diph-
iberia, by Loeffler; and the bacillus of
tetanus, or lockjaW, by Nicolaier La
yeran found the plasmodium malariae,
he cause Of malarial fevers. Recently
Yersin and Kitasato found the coco ba-
cillus of black plague, and Sanarelli
'Ound the bacillus icteroides, the cause
Of yellow fever.
Numerous other discoveries in bacte-
r-oro b1icbcd d,1riup ha eff