The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-05-20

ern doctors attach too much import
ance to germ theory. They are
trying to cure all sorts of diseases by
discriminating germs, microbes,
bacteria and other invisible infusoria.
Maybe they We're not intended to be
eXterminated. but are a part of the
economy of nature. There are bolts
in a horses stomach and wolves in
cows back and fleas on dog for
some useful purpose, and it may be
that these invisible germs are a ne
cessary part of our organism. We
eat them in food and drink them in
water and breathe them in the air,
but still l reckon there are poison
Gus, infectious kind that do produce
disease and pestilence. | was rumi-
mating about this from having read
in London paper an account of
the experiment now being made by
the British Medical Society to discOv-
err the true cause of malaria in the
Pontine marches that for centuries
has proved a slow and certain death
to the poor peasantry who work there
and have to work there to make
living. These Campagnan marshes
lie adjacent to Rome and cover 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 slckens
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 marshes were solid land
and the Appian way was built upon
it, Slowly and surely the water en-
croached upon the land and submerg-
ed it. destroying the Appian way. the
aqueducts and arches. Julius Caesar
and Augustus Caesar spent immense
sums to drain them. but without
avail. They were 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 al
lowed 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 have been
abandoned
But now a new theory comes up
before the scientific sclool of medl-
tlnc ana mas dSltdteU IUc Iltu1Ctii
wants all over the world. 1t is claim
ed that a malarial climate does not
produce mosquitoes but the mosque
toes produce malaria. and it is their
bites or stings and suction of the
blood of the peasantry and thereby
inoculating them with poison and pro-
ducing malaria that eventually wastes
the life away This theory has found
many strong advocates in London and
Paris and Berlin. and now they are
preparing to prove it. The English
government is having a wire gauZe
house built. and it is to be placed in
the middle of the Pontine marshes,
and two English physicians have vol
unteered to live in it for year or
more and test the effect of the climate
secure from the mosquito. just think
of that. Living in a wire gauze house
right in the midst of the most noXious
miasmatic climate in the world. and
all for the sake of science and hui
manity. 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
attention to discriminating them.
They say it is big thing. financially.
for there are two million acres
i'm those marshes and will be worth
ii they succeed a thousand dollars
an acre, and that makes two thousand
million dollars for Rome and the
Pope.
But still / am dubious. | don't be-
lieve the mosquito introduces malaria
into the human system. His probes
els draws out blood but puts precious
little in. The germ theory has be-
come scientific fad and has not yet
been proven. The doctors all went
mad about Pasteur and his inoculat-
ing 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 a while and every sick man i'm
agined he had it. and it must be 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 a shrewd. smart man with
lively tongue was to declare that
it was necessary for salvation that
man should jump off the roof OF
house onto the pavement he would
find followers who would be jumping
all over the country breaking their
arms and legs and necks on this new
road to heaven. What upon earth
these Mormon elders and proselyters
expect to accomplish is a mystery to
me. and Il am amazed that any person
with common sense can be fooled by
them. They ought to be scourged out
of this country. They break up tire
peace of some families and give moth
ing in exchange but spurious. con-
temptible religion that is an insult to
our Maker and the Christian religion.
They are religious tramps and i re-
ioice when / hear of the people driv-
ing them out of the settlement with
whips and stones and thresh poles.
I've been knowing and watching these
Mormons for fifty years and never
knew any good of them. | don't care
ANYTHING about their faith or the
book of Mormon that that old fraud,
Joe Smith. pretended he found under
a stone. but | want them to keep out
of this country and let our ignorant
and credulous folks alone.
Speaking of germs, a philoSpOhic