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This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est film* au taux de reduction indiqu* ci-dessous. 10X 14X ".BX ZtX 12X 1«X aox 26X lOX 24X 28X 32X Th« copy filmad h«r« ha* b—n r«produc«d thanks to tha ganarosity of: Hamilton Public Library L'axamplaira film* fut raproduit grAca A la ginirositt da: Hamilton Public Library Tha imagas appaaring h«ra ara tna boat quality ponslbia considarf'ig tha condition and lagilsility of tha original copy and in icaaping with tha filming contract spacificationa. Original copiaa in printad papar covara ara filmad baginning with tha front covar and anding on tha last paga with a printad or illuatratad impraa- sion, or tha bacic covar whan appropriata. All othar original copiaa ara filmad baginning on tha first paga with a printad or illuatratad impraa- slon. and anding on tha laat paga with a printad or illuatratad impraaaion. Tho laat racordad frama on aach mieroficha shall contain tha symbol -i^> (moaning "CON- TtNUED'1. or tha symbol V (moaning "END"), whichavar appiiaa. IMapa, platas, charts, ate. may ba filmad at diffarant raduction ratios. Thosa too larga to ba antiraly inciudad in ona axpoaura ara filmad baginning in tha uppar laft hand cornar. iaft to right and top to bottom, as many framas aa raquirad. Tha following diagrams illustrata tha mathod: Las imagas auivantas ont M raproduitas avac la plus grand soin. compte tanu da la condition at da la nattat* da l'axamplaira film«. at 0n conformitA avac las conditions du contrat da filmaga. Las axamplairas originaux dont la couvartura an papiar ast ImprimAa sont filmte an commanpant par la pramiar plat at an tarminant soit par la darnlAra paga qui comporta una amprainta d'impraasion ou d'iilustratlon, soit par la sacond plat, salon la cas. Tous las autras axamplairas originaux aont fiimAs an commandant par la pramiArc paga qui comporta una ampraints d'impraaaion ou d'lliustration at an tarminant par la darniAra paga qui comporta una talla amprainta. Un das symbol } suivants apparaftra sur la darniAra imaga ^a chaqua mieroficha, salon la cas: la symbols -^ signifia "A SUiVRE", la symbols V signifia "FIN". Las cartas, planchas, tablaaux, ate. pauvent Atra filmte A das taux da rMuction diff^rents. Lorsqua la document ast trop grand pour Atra raproduit an un saui clich«, il ast film* 6 partir da i'angia supAriaur gaucha, da gaucha k droite, at da haut an baa, an pranant la nombra d'imagca nAcsssaira. Las diagrammas ttuivants illustrant la mithoda. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 J. £_ »v: »■: ? » ■M' 'V/ ■^%^ ■i - , -r , ^.-i %K ■■Ut' i' 1 ^^^H|KiM ^j if ''/<* IV r*^' ^^ y^ — JW«»* ■•■MaaHHta C/t)P ^ ? ■'^•r''w .: THE GERM THEORY IN i$| ill ItttI Eitracts from a paper read before Hamilton Association wr PROF. W. A. WRIGHT ON Thursday Ev'g, April 28, 1881 HAMILTON: SPECTATOR PRINTING COMPANY. I88i 3 . -IN- 1 « NOTE.— The folloivinn; is only part of Prof. Wright's paper. i It may be aago^eBted that it will be no agreeable journey to go investiRtiting malari- ous diHorders arnon^ refuse be«tp8, noisome oellnrs and crowded alleyn ; that it will ahook our nerves to vet too familiar with these of fensive and hideous abortions of nature. As the humorist, Barham, in the Ingoldsby Legends, pictures the naturalist, " Who would pore by the hour, O'er a weed or a flower, Or the slu^K, that come crawliug out after a shower; Still pokiu-; his uose into this thiuc; or that, At a goat, or a hat, or a rat, or a cat, Or great ugly things, All feg-< and wiugs, With nasty long tails, armed with nasty long Btinps " Let us bethink ourselves, however, that these researches may save many lives, and that we cannot individually fortisee how exceedingly valuable to us in «ome crisis of our life history may be our knowledge. Furnished with the rboent investigations <>i scientiats, phyaiciana are combatting the diseases of Lumanicy niih new weapons, and with ar least fair promise of effecting in due time the repreB>ioD of the epidemic disorder**, which periodioallv decimate the populationa of the globe. As the real cause is unmasked, the practitioner nill be abtd both to pi event and to cure on a scientific as well as experi mental basis. We find Profosnor Li^^ter and bis followers buried with the " antiseptic system" of treatment, which takes as its key- note and standpoint the fuct that thegeims of lower life flnaiing in the air are the prime <3anse of much cuffering and frequt^nt d>ath after surgical operations and hence they keep a spray of carbolic acid pluying upon the wound, and they can now undertake cases which would have been perilous before. PBOOr OF OERM ORIOIN A well established principle in reference to infectious diseases, is that their poisons can reproduce themselves, and to an unlimited e of it. It was once thought the plague came from the imperfect burial of human corpses ; but the battlt fields of Inkerman, strewed with corpses, whoce Bteooh drove the armies away, produced no pestilence. ONE ATTACK A PBEVENTIVE. A third peculiarity of these types is, that a single attack of the disease successfully sur- mounted bestows immunity from it for a part or for the whole of life. Here the analogy of fermentation aids uu. If yeast be placed in a sacohaiine solution, fermentation takes place, and when complete, cannot be revived by more yeHst. In the course of development of a contagious disease, there is a destruction or change of certain constituents of the body, 19U hi '•.4 ii^ifiSiaute %" THE GERM THEORY. ■i 4 which being onoe used up cannot form its food again. NO OTHEB CAUSE ADEQUATE. A fourth proof may be derived from the difficulty of finding any other cause that would explain the phenomena. Poisons like belladonna would be just as dpstruotive, but they would b<3 entirely destitute of the prop- «rty of contagiousness. No stretch of the imagination would make us believe that bella- donna could be floating in the air. INCCBATION. There are three periods in most of these diseases : incubation, from reception of the poison to first cymptoms ; growing state, from first symptoms to its full manifestations ; lastly, the stages of its final course ; all these changes doubtless having something to do with the phases of evolution of the morbid agent. For example, the length of incubation is the same, whether a man use much or little virus, whether he introduce it at one or ten points. The exactness of the period then does not result from the simple multiplying of the organisms, but from the time they need to mature. HU8UATIC AND CONTAOIOOS DISEASES. As to the use of the terms miasmatic and contagioub, the former refers to agents originating in the outside world ; the latter, when they come from the diseased patient. A third class includes those which come only indirectly from affected parties. Inter mittent malarial diseases go with the first, measles, scarlet fever, small pox, typhus fever, diphtheria, etc., are directly contagious Cholera, typhoid fever, dysentery and prob- ably yellow fever are indirect. Nearness in case of cholera and typhoid fever has been proved in many cases to be innocuous. But if the organisms passing frcm these patients secure a second development by long standmg or by mixing with decjmpoeing organic suli- stances in refuse heaps, sewers, etc., then the poison is rapidly diffusible. CHOOSE THEIR ZONE AS PLANTS DO. As plants and animals have their natural centres, so many of these diseases have their «peoial homes ; India of cholera ; the Gulf of Mexico of the yellow fever ; the dblta of the Nile of the plague ; the prairies of the ague. The freaks of development in natural historv show a striking analogy to the breaking out of epidemics. We may find a usually in- offensive insect give rise on a sudden to great destruction, or a commonly harmless fuuKUs destroy all at once a crop of roots or a harvest of seed. The r-ver. In cholera the globular form is abundantly found, but mingled so plentifully with other organisms that certainty has not yet been attained. TYPHUS FEVER. The proof of a fungoas germ in typhus 19U '*:u t I THE GEHM THEORY. fevf r and yellow ferer i» aa alrong aa in the other zymotioB, bat tbe dpeoiea of baoterinm baa not been identified. The tenacity of tbe poiaon in typbaa fever, in conaeqaence of which even artielea of dreaa may aerve to tranaport ana extend the diaeaae is a oharao terietio only to be explained by tbe preaence of a subtle agent capable of living even in a tborongbly dried state, and there is no other than the germ idea which in any degree satis- flea the eonditions. TTPHOID raVBB. It is evident that lyphuid fever does not re- sult from tbe simple decompositiun of either animal or vegetable subptances. Tbe list of diseases arising from the same cause would be so long as to render tbe theory unanswer- able ; there would be too many results from the same agent. It follows tbat tbe decom- posing substances must be mixed with tbe germs of tbe specific poison in each case. The simple appropriation nf putrid substances may cause a diseased condition, but has never been the cause of typhoid fever as snob. There are multitudes of unbealtby localities, where tbe inhabitants constantly inhale im- pure ait, and yet there is no disease of this type. The most uncleanly cities are some- times exempt, and tbe purest attacked, and yet if a single case occurs in these poorly hept localities it would sweep through them with the greatest virulence. We need not dwell npon tb^ fungoid origin of this fever and diphtheria, for the experience of every physician and the columns of almost every newspaper furmsh examples of the direct tracing of the affection to the predieposing cause in defective sewerage or neglected refuse. ' FBINCB OF WALES. The mansions of the great are not exempt from tbe penalty inflicted upon the breaking of Nature's laws. The sickness of the Prince of Wales, which caused so profound a sensa- tion at (be time, was attributed j some to defective sanitary arrangements in Oarisbrook Castle, where be visited, and by otbers to tbe condition of Marlborough House itself, in London. One thing is undoubtedly true, that an amount of £4,0(X) was expended in remodeling tbe cellars and sewerage of the palace. CITIES WITH WATEBWOBK8. A source of congratulation to the city of Hamilton is, tbat communities which are not dependent upon welh for their supply of water, have bisen proved to be comparatively free from epidemic disease. In London tbe cholera of 1866 was very severe only in the east end, which was at tbat time supplied by the £aBt London water company from Old- ford. The reservoir was on the river Lee. which is little better than an open sewer receptacle. The consequence was that the mi>rtality was eleven times greater than in the west end. DIPBTHBBU. In tbe special case of diphtheria the quea- tion arises, does tbe germ remain fixed upon the mucous membrane, with which it first comes in contact, or is there a general effect npon the body and tben the local result t This qoestitm is a pertinent one, for in the disease of glanders an instance has oocnrred in which a horse was inoonlated with tb» nasal mucus by hypodermic injection, and still tbe symptoms came out as us al in the nose. Oertel, who has investigated diphtheria^ has satisfied himself tbat it begins at the spot first reached by the germ, and afterwards proceedd to the whole system. In the very beginning of the disease these organisms are already present in delicate, ring-sbaped,^ grayish white spots in tbe throat. These spots consist solely of epithelial layers, which have been penetrated and pushed out by bacterial growths. lu numerous oases he produced direct inoculation of rabbits by an application of dipbtLeritio matter in the throat. Tbe globular bacteria have been found by him in great abundance in tbe false membrane formed, the blood and the tissues ; and in this case as many as a dozen other mio:o8copistB confirm bis views. Tbe mass of bacteria in the body forms an exact ori- terion of the severity of the disease. SHALL POX. Ferdinand Cobn found in the fresh lymph taken from vaccine and small pox pustules the globular bacteria, and when be watched them for some time they became segmented and formed e>mall chains and masses. He considers these organisms to be probably the vehicles of contagion, certainly not mere chance products. Zulzer lays particular stress upon tbe presence of these bodies in the walls of tbe blood vessels, and thinks they are the active causes of tbe spots in tbe purple varioloid. Lebert believes that the dangerous effect on animals of the bite of tbe Tsetse flv in Africa, so often mentioned by Livingstone, is due to a real inoculation by the insect after having just preyed upon car- rion. BCABLBT FETEB. Messrs. Coze and Feltz inoculated 66 rab- bits with a small quantity of scarlet fever blood ; 62 died, and an examination of their blood revealed an unnatural condition of the corpuscles, and also numbers of rod like bacteria. Riess examined the blood drawn from the arm of a patient and found abund- ance of the same. Here also there is corrob- orative testimony. The volatility of the contagion of scarkt fever is less than tbat of measles, and hence not so rapid a diffusion, but it clings more tenaciously than tha other to dothinc r' TTf^T^T— ^^ i^^v^ rl -.fi r<-*i n It -y,v<~