Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1900-05-23
BILL ARP and THE GERMS.
He Differs With the Doctors About
BaCtili.
BUT is OPEN TO CONVICTION.
Test Being Made by Doctors to Prove
That Mosquitoes Produce Malaria
Other rIatiers.

but II seems to me that the modern
doctors attach too much Importance
to germ theory. They are trying to
cure all sorts Of diseases by extermi-
mating germs, microbes, bacteria and
other Invisible infusoria- Maybe they
were not intended to be exterminated
but are part of the economy of ma
ture. There are bolts in horses
stomach and wolves in a cows back
and fleas on a dog for some useful
purpose and 1t may be that these in
visible germs are necessary part of
our organism. We eat them in food
and drink them in water and breathe
them in the air, but still ! reckon
there are poisonous, infectious kind
that do produce disease and pestilence
! was ruminating about this from hav-
ing read in n London paper an account
OF the experiment now being made by
the British Medical Society to dis
cover the true cause of malaria in the
Pontine marshes that for centuries
has proved slow and certain death to
the poor peasantry who work there
and have to work there to making a
living. These Campagnean marshes
lie adjacent to Rome and cover a ter
ritory twenty-five miles long and ten
miles wide and are wonderfully pro-
ductive, giving three crops year, but
the malaria soon pales and sickens the
strongest men, and they have to stop
their work and go TO the hills to die.
To discover and remove the cause has
been the problem of the ages. Three
hundred years before Christ these
marches were solid land and the APP
plan way was built upon it. Slowly
and surely the water encroached upon
the land and submerged it. destroy
ing the Appian way, the aqueducts
and arches. Julius Caesar and Au-
gustus Caesar spent immense sums to
drain them, but without avail They
We're finally given up to the labor of
the slaves, and Pliny tells of one man,
Cecilius Claudius, who owned 4,116 of
them, all males who worked there
and were not allowed to marry. Their
cruel fate was to work out a brief life
and die. About 125 years ago Pope
Plus VI made another effort to drain
the marshes but failed, and since then
all efforts and all hope has been aban-
doned.
But now new theory comes up be
fore the scientific school of medicine
and has agitated the medical savants
all over the world. 1t is claimed that
malarial climate does not produce
mosquitoes but that mosquitoes pro-
duce malaria. and il is their bites or
stinss and suction of the blood of the
peasantry and thereby inoculating
them with poison and producing ma
lari0 that eventually wastes the life
away. This theory has found many
strong advocates In London and Paris
and Berlin. and now they are prepar-
ing to prove it. The English govern
ment is having a wire gauze house
built, and il is to be placed IN the mid
die of the Pontine marshes, and two
English physicians have volunteered
TO live In 1t for year or more and
test the effect of the climate secure
from the mosquito. Just think of
that! Living in wire gauze house
right in the midst of the most noxious
miasmatic climate in the world, and
all for. the sake of science and humani-
ty. If they prove their theory then
they Will cease TO use quinine for the
malaria but build wire houses and
wear wire cowls or hoods over their
heads and faces and fence out the
mosquitoes and turn their next atten-
tlon to eXterminating them They say
it is big thing, financially, for there
are two million acres In those mar
shes and will be worth if they sue
ceed thousand dollars an acre. and
that makes two thousand million dol
lars for Rome and the pope.
But still l am dubious. / don't be-
lieve the mosquito introduces malaria
into the human system His pro-
boscis draws out blood but puts pre-
cious little in. The germ theory has
become scientific fad and has not
yet been proven The doctors all
went mad about Pasteur and his in
oculating virus. but that has subsidized
and we never hear of IT. now. Folks
are too ready to believe any new
thing. Appendicitis raised a mighty
rumpus for whlIe and every sick man
| imagined he had it, and il must he
cut off, but the disease is now doubted
| and the use OF the knife almost aban-
| doned. Just so folks take up with
new doctrines OF politics and religion.
| DR.. Vance. Of Nashville. SAID not long
| ago that If q shrewd smart man with
| lively tongue was to declare that it
was necessary for salvation that a
man should jump on the roof of a
| house onto the pavement, he would
find followers who would be jumping
| all over the country breaking their
arms and legs and neoks on this new
| road to heaven. What upon earth
these Mormon elders and proseIyters
expect to accomplish is a mystery to
me, and am amazed that any per
son with common sense can be fooled
by them. They ought to be scourged
| I'd out OF this country
Speaking of germs, a philosophic
friend writes that the doctors have