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EPIDEMICS
EXAMINED AND EXPLAINED
OE,
LIVING GERMS
PBOVED BT ANALOGY TO BE
A SOURCE OF DISEASE.
BY
JOHN GROVE, M.R.C.S.L.
AUTHOR OF " SULPHUR AS A REMEDY IN EPIDEMIC CHOLERA.
LONDON:
JAMES RIDGWAY, PICCADILLY.
MDCCCL.
The tendencies of the mind, the turn of thought of whole ages,
have frequently depended on prevailing diseases ; for nothing
exercises a more potent influence over man, either in disposing
him to calmness and submission, or in kindling in him the
wildest passions, than the proximity of inevitable and universal
danger." — Hecker''s Epidemics of the Middle Ages.
The grand field of investigation lies immediately before us ; we
are trampling every hour upon things which to the ignorant
seem nothing but dirt, but to the curious are precious as gold."
Servell on the Cultivation of the Intellect.
1^ - wriit^r^ I
Pu.bl.c
UeaHk
/
TO
BENJAMIN GUY BABINGTON, F.R.S., M.D.,
PHYSICIAN TO GUY'S HOSPITAL,
AND
PRESIDENT OF THE EPIDEMIOLOGICAL SOCIETY,
ETC. ETC.
THESE PAGES ARE, BY HIS KIND PERMISSION,
I^iclpectfuUp IBetltcatcK,
B\ HIS OBLIGED AND FAITHFUL SERVANT,
THE AUTHOE.
PREFACE,
The following pages have been written
with a view to render some aid in establishing
a sound and firm basis for future research, on
that absorbing topic, the Causes and Nature
of Epidemic Diseases.
The amount of information already pub-
lished on Fevers, on the Exanthemata, and
on the Plague, is truly astonishing, and the
more so when it is considered, that at pre-
sent no rational account or explanation is
given of the causes of these affections.
It appears to me but reasonable to sup-
pose tliat as every thing on this earth has
been created on a wise and unerring prin-
ciple. Epidemic and Infectious Diseases
are only indicative of some serious errors in
our social arrangements and habits. The
dangers and misery brought upon us by
disease, may, as shewn by Dr. Spurzheim
and Mr. Combe, be warnings against the
infringement of the natural laws.
Indeed, what is more rational than to sup-
pose that the Seeds of Disease are coeval
with the fall of man. His first disobedience
VI
brought death : — that his subsequent errors
should hasten its approaches is not to be
marvelled at. The undetected murderer,
though he may escape the punishment
human justice would inflict upon him for
his delinquency, suffers a penalty in the tor-
tures of conscience, infinitely more horrify-
ing than the most ignominious death. The
law of nature is triumphant.
No less certain, though after a different
manner, are the consequences of minor forms
of disobedience. It is so ordained, that
certain diseases shall arise, under peculiar
conditions, which may have been brought
about by a train of causes, easily imagined,
and difficult to be explained, but all having
their origin in the vices and errors of man in
his moral and social relations.
If man neglects the cultivation of the
ground ; with rank vegetation, the germs of
fever will invisibly grow and multiply; if he
harbours that which is rotten and corrupt,
he is himself consumed by those agents de-
stined to remove the rottenness and cor-
ruption ; it is a part of the law of nature that
there should be active and energetic agents
for this purpose. The seeds of disease, like
the seeds of plants, may be shewn to havo
Vll
their indigenous localities ; like them they
may be spread and multiplied ; like them
they may lie dormant, and after awhile
spring as it were into active existence ; like
them, when the soil and other conditions
favour, they are ever ready to make their
appearance. And this is the law, the germs
of all disease exist, and have existed. De-
spise the dictates of nature, be careless of
yourself and those around you, neglect to
use the means which a noble intelligence
has placed at your command, and above all,
transgress the laws of God, then will dis-
ease pursue and attend you, as the con-
science of the murderer pursues and attends
him until he is finally cut off.
His wants and necessities, his sufferings
and privations, are the basis of the intellec-
tual progress of man. The wonders of
Omnipotence are revealed through the whirl-
wind, the storm, the pestilence, and the
famine.
The constructive and perceptive faculties
of man have been developed by the neces-
sity of protecting himself from injury by
winds and rains ; his intellectual faculties
have been cultivated, by the sufferings of
disease having led him to the study of
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vin
organization and life, to discover the cause,
— and to chemistry, and other sciences for
the cure of his ailments.
Famine and distress have aroused his
emotions, and softened down his asperities,
so that what appears at first to be the inflic-
tion of a Curse without Pity, is in reality a
Judgment with Mercy.
It occurred to me, that on the formation
of the Epidemiological Society, the first
question for consideration should be. What
is the nature of those agents, which induce
Epidemic Diseases? are they composed of
animate or inanimate matter ? In other
words, do the manifestations of these dis-
eases exhibit the operations of living or of
chemical forces.
Having, in my study, dwelt on the sub^
ject with an earnest desire to find the truth,
I put the suggestion, with my ideas, before
the public to reject or receive them. If they
be rejected, I can but think a full discussion
of the enquiry will lead to the most impor-
tant results. If they be received with favour,
I doubt not others, with more ability, will
take up the strain and resolve the discords
into harmony*
%/
J. G.
Wandsworth^ September, 1850,
CONTENTS,
PAGB
iNTRODrCTION^ . . . ... . .1
CHAPTER I.
TS IT PROBABLE THAT EPIDEMIC, ENDEMIC, AND IN-
FECTIOUS DISEASES, DEPEND UPON VITAL GEEMS
FOll TUEIB MANIFESTATIONS ? . . . .11
CHAPTEE II.
THE NUMBER AND YALUE OP FACTS TO SUPPORT
THE PROPOSITION.
Section I.— On Reproduction 22
Section II. — Historical Notice of Epidemic Diseases . 34
Section HI. — The Dispersion of Plants and Diseases . . 64
Section IV. — The Relation between Epidemic and Endemic
Diseases , : 96
CHAPTER III.
THE REASONABLENESS OP THE APPLICATION OF
THE FACTS TO THE INFERENCE.
Section I. — The Chemical Theory of Epidemics untenable . 108
Section II. — The Animalcular Theory of Epidemics un-
tenable 128
Section III.— Sketch of the Physiology and Pathology of
Plants and Animals 138
CHAPTER lY.
RESULTS IN PROOF OF THE TENABLENESS OF THE
PROPOSITION.
Section I. — Observations on some of the Laws of Epidemic
Diseases 155
Section II. — What is the nature of those Poisons which most
resemble the Morbid Poisons in their effects on the body ? 166
Section HI.— What results do we obtain from the effects of
remedial agents, in proof of the hypothesis ? . . . 176
Conclusion 189
INTRODUCTION.
It is one thing; for a man to convince
himself, but a very different thing to be able
to convince others.
I am not now speaking of a conviction
arising from the impression made by a few
startling facts, nor of one forced on the
mind by early prejudices, or by the dogmas
of the schools, but of a conviction arising from
careful enquiry.
In the course of that enquiry, the col-
lector of facts, sees their relations to the
idea in his mind, in a multiplicity of ways,
from their remaining, each, as one succeeds
the other, an appreciable time on the sen-
sorium, and undergoing a certain process of
comparison and relation, with all other facts
and ideas which have been previously stored
up. As the materials for an edifice which
have been shaped and prepared in accord-
ance with the completion of the design, so
do the facts and ideas which are accumulated
B
in the mind, become shaped and prepared
for the elimination of a truth. The ultimate
design of the architect can no more be con-
ceived bv the examination of the framework
of a window, or the capital of a column, than
the whole truth of a proposition by the ex-
amination of separate facts ; the whole must
be conceived and all the relations of all the
parts thoroughly understood, before the ar-
chitect can be comprehended or the harmony
of his design appreciated.
The process of thought in the minds of
the architect, and in the framer of a proposi-
tion, is never exactly the same as in those
who contemplate and examine their com-
pleted works. Much maybe done, however,
by both to aid others in comprehending them.
The more accurately they keep in view the
course their minds have taken, the more
readily will their descriptions be understood.
To simplify the elements of our knowledge
is to give others a ready access to our
thoughts.
To arrange the course of our ideas in har-
mony with the elements^ of our knowledge
should be the end of all writing, as it is the
only means of multiplying knowledge.
It is not the mere accumulation of facts
which constitutes science, any more than a
collection of building materials constitutes a
house, it is the arrangement and adaptation
of the means to the end by which the house
becomes built and science cultivated.
These reflections have been suggested by
the circumstance that for the last 3000 years
and upwards, Pestilences have at certain
intervals done their work of destruction, and
opened the springs of misery to untold mil-
lions, and yet I see not that we are much
further advanced as to the knowledge of the
cause of these inflictions than the Jews in
the time of Moses. In the Levitical law, as
I shall have occasion more particularly to
shew hereafter, were directions specially
given in reference to the plague of leprosy ;
what means should be adopted for the cure
of the disease, and for preventing its exten-
sion, and moreover pointing very signifi-
cantly to certain facts having connexion
with the cause of the affection. Since that
time historians generally, and medical
writers in particular, have diligently re-
corded their observations and accumulated
facts, on tlie various desohiting phigues which
B 2
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have afflicted mankind. Some of these men
have grappled with the whole subject, and
endeavoured to shew the presumed relation
of the supposed causes in all their intrica-
cies, but it is hardly necessary to say that
all have signally failed in their attempts to
furnish us with any practical information.
Satisfied in my own mind that the whole
subject is beyond the labour of one man,
and impressed with the belief that the basis
of the enquiry is in anything but a satisfac-
tory state, I have applied myself entirely
to the study of the groundwork only, as
the primary proceeding for a solid super-
structure.
The days are past, when imaginary spirits,
ethers, and astronomical phenomena, were
believed to have any essential influence over
our destinies in a physical point of view; we
have therefore to deal with matter in some
form or other.
The question, therefore, which I have
proposed for enquiry, is, whether the mat-
ter which causes epidemic and endemic
diseases, exhibits the properties of inorganic
or organized matter.
The properties and qualities of organized
bodies, as well as those of inorganic matter,
need but be stated, and in some instances /
we may picture to ourselves the object,
without having seen it, and not be very far
from a true conception. But for this pur-
pose a clear and definite idea must be pre-
viously formed, and have taken possession
of the mind, of the great general divisions
of objects in the material world.
Having made these preliminary remarks,
I have suggested a certain mode of proce-
dure in making enquiries of this kind, not
perhaps in strict accordance with logical
systems, but on the principle of nature's
operations in our own minds, which appears
to me, when reduced to a systematic and
simple form, to be sufficiently clear and
strict for synthetical application, and so
concise as to be usefully and practicably
applied.
In endeavouring to establish a theory for
the explanation of extraordinary phenomena,
there are certain rules which should guide
us in the thorny and treacherous path of
speculation. But these rules readily flow
from the train of thought, and if we examine
our own minds during their operations, we
6
shall find that the following is the course of
our instinctive reflections. It is a course
we adopt as the test of theories when formed,
and is a guide in all cases for their construc-
tion.
We first commence with an idea, which
exists in our minds in the form of a proposi-
tion : then the following rules naturally
suggest themselves : —
1. The probability of the value of our
proposition from inference.
2. The number and value of facts to sup-
port the proposition.
3. The reasonableness of the application
of the facts to the inference.
4. What amount of information in the
form of results can be produced in proof of
the tenableness of the proposition.*
In illustration of the value of these rules
the history of Dr. Jenner's discovery affords
an appropriate example. To use the words
of Dr. Gregory, " he appears very early in
* " It matters little how vague and false hypotheses may
appear at first : experiment will gradually reduce and
correct them, and all that is required, is industry to elabo-
rate the proof, and impartiality to secure it from distor-
tion." — Sewell " On the Cultivation of the Intellect."—
life to have had his attention fixed by a
popular notion among the peasantry of
Gloucestershire, of the existence of an affec-
tion in the cow, supposed to afford security
against the Small Pox ; but he was not
successful in convincing his professional
brethren of the importance of the idea."
The popular notion of the peasantry origin-
ated the idea in Jenner s mind, and it became
fixed there as a proposition.
1. He commenced his enquiry by observ-
ing that the hands of milkers on the dairy
farms were subject to an eruption, and he
inferred that the notion of the peasantry bore
the stamp of probability, which strengthened
the idea in his mind and gave force to the
proposition.
2. His next step was to accumulate facts ;
he found on enquiry that the persons
engaged on these farms in milking, possessed
an immunity from Small Pox to an extent
sufficient to strengthen the value of his pro-
position.
3. The reasonableness of the application
of the facts to the inference is clear from the
coincidence that the eruption on the hands
of the dairy people bore a striking resem-
8
blance to the Small Pox, and as this disease
does not usually occur twice in the same
individual, the inference was most reason-
able that this eruption protected the people
from Small Pox.
4. We have but to take the almost uni-
versal adoption of vaccination, and its
acknowledged prophylactic powers against
the propagation of Small Pox to shew the
application of our fourth rule.*
Between the conception of the idea and
the accomplishment of Jenner's designs,
vaccination seems to have undergone an
incubation of nearly twenty years. During
that period, with an energy and perseverance
only to be obtained by confidence, did this
great man brood over and elaborate his
idea ; and well might the 14th day of May,
* It is stated by Mr. Crosse, of Norwicli, that vaccina-
tion was adopted in Denmark, and made compulsory in
1800. After the year 1808 Small Pox no longer existed
there, and was a thing totally unknown ; whereas during
the twelve years preceding the introduction of the preven-
tive disease, 5,500 persons died of the Small Pox in
Copenhagen alone. — Dr. Watsons Lectures.
Dr. Blick, an intelhgent Danish physician, corroborated
the above statement to Dr. Watson himself in the year
1838.
9
1796, be styled the birth day of vaccination,
for on that day was a child first inoculated
from the hands of a milker.
In adopting the above method I have
endeavoured to bear in mind M. Quetelet's
observations on the requirements necessary
for medical authorship; he says, "All reason-
able men will, I think, agree on this point,
that we must inform ourselves by observa-
tion, collect well-recorded facts, render them
rigorously comparable, before seeking to
discuss them with a view of declaring their
relations, and methodically proceeding to
the appreciation of causes."
CHAPTEE I.
IS IT PROBABLE THAT EPIDEMIC^ ENDEMIC^ AND
INFECTIOUS DISEASES^ DEPEND UPON VITAL
GERMS FOR THEIR MANIFESTATIONS?
It is^ I believe^ almost universally considered
that Epidemic^ Endemic, and Infectious diseases,
originate from some imaginary poisons of a spe-
cific nature^ each disease having* its own peculiar J
poison. That this conception should have taken
possession of the minds of men, is most natural
from the symptoms which characterize these dis-
eases, but when we come to enquire into the nature ,
of these ag-ents, or supposed poisons, we are at once /
struck with the idea that they exhibit one pecu-
Harity which separates them in a marked manner, \
fi*om those poisons with which we are familiar ; for
the poisons of Small Pox, Measles, Scarlet Fever,
Hooping Cough, Fever, &c. possess the power of
multiplication, or spontaneous increase, a property
which attaches only to the organic kingdom, and is
never known in the inorganic kingdom. The source
of most of the poisons is to be found among mineral
or vegetable products. A mineral in combination
with an acid or oxygen may become a poison, and
12
riitrog-eii in various combinations Avitli oxyg-en^
hydrogen^ and carbon^ or with carbon alone^ may
become a poison ; these combinations are^ however^
in most instances the products of veg-etable life,
^ others ag-ain are obtained from the animal king-dom,
such as the poison of the serpent, &c. but in all of
\ these instances, there is not one in which the power
/ of self-multiplication is to be found.
We are, therefore, constrained to admit that this
feature, which disting-uishes poisons, is one well
worthy attentive consideration. The varieties of
{ poisons may be classified into those which act
1 topically as escharotic poisons, those which act
; chemically on the blood, and those whose effects are
^ manifested in inducing* a speedy annihilation of
organic or vital action, as in the case of hydro-
cyanic acid, which is supposed specifically to affect
the nervous centres from which orig-inate the vital
manifestations. It is rather remarkable that the
vital poisons (as I will call them for distinction),
seem to have their appropriate locality in the blood,
they do not primarily affect one org-an more than
another, all the effects we witness resulting- from
them are to be traced prog-ressively from the blood
to other parts of the body. When a person is
inoculated with small pox, a very minute portion
(indeed it is impossible to say how minute it may
be) is sufficient, when absorbed, to excite a certain
train of symptoms, all due to absorption of the
materies of the disease, and the process by which
\
1.3
that materies arrives at maturity^ is that knowu in
the veg-etable world as the fructification -, this pro-
cess of fructification is a process of development and
increase.
I here may repeat that among- all the poisons ^
known^ constituted as they are of various combina-
tions of elementary matter^ they are without
exception destitute of the power of development or
increase. Now^ it is pretty accurately known what
amount of these poisons is necessary to produce
their effects on the living body ; we can say how
many drops are sufficient of h3^drocyanic acid of
Scheeles strength^ to destroy a man instantaneously.
Ag*ain^ how man}^ g-rains of arsenious acid are
sufficient to induce such an inflammatory condition
of the stomach and intestine as will end in death^
and how many g-rains of morphia^ will bring* about
a fatal coma^— but who shall say the amount of the ^
vital poisons necessary to produce their results ? It /
far exceeds the limit of conjecture^ to what extent >
the dilution of miasmatic or contagious matter may
be carried^ and the poison yet be capable of com- \
mitting- in a short time the most frig-htful ravag-es.
We may fairly then infer^ that if a quantity of
matter inappreciable in amount be sufficient to ex-
hibit the characters of g-rowth and increase^ that it
is endowed with the properties of vitality. That
the poisons of scarlet fever^ of measles^ and of small-
pox have this power of g-rowth and increase, is as
much a matter of universal belief as that '^ the sun
14
will rise and set to-morrow^ and that all living- being-s
will die/'
This power of individual increase^ or reproduction^
is the very summit of vital manifestation \ indeed
Coleridg-e^ in his Theory of Life^ (in which he says^
^^ I define life as the 'principle of individuation j or
/ the power which unites a given all into a whole that
A is presupposed by all its parts/') places reproduction
in the first rank^ and expresses his hypothesis thus :
'^ the constituent forces of life in the human living-
I body are^ first; the power of leng-th or reproduction •
I 2nd; the power of surface, or irritability ] 3rd; the
I power of depth; or sensibility — life itself is neither
V of these separately; but the copula of all three/'
Extensive research is not required to shew that
many thinking* men believe in the existence of living-
org-anic being-S; as the elements of contag-ious and
epidemic diseases; the idea indeed seems to flow
spontaneously in that direction. Whenever thoug-ht;
( and enduring" contemplation; have been concentrated
on the subject; the result appears to have been the
samC; a firm conviction in each individual mind that
a vital force must be" in operation ; or as Schleg-el
would define it; ^^a living* reproductive power;
capable of and desig-ned to develope and propag-ate
itself." — '^ Its Maker orig-inally fixed and assig-ned
to it the end towards which all its efforts were
ultimately to be directed."
Referring- further to being-s having* the property
of reproduction and propag-atioU; he sayS; (using-
15
the word nature here evidently as the vital principle
for want of a better term^) ^^ Nature indeed is not
free like man^ but still is not a piece of dead clock-
work. There is life in it J' — ^^ Thus we know that
even plants sleep^ and that they too as much as
animals^ though after a different sort^ have a true
impreg-nation and propagation/'
When Schlegel wrote this^ how little could he
have imagined the intricacy of this proceeding
among the lower forms of vegetation. It has been
shewn by Suminski^ and verified by many others,
that the mode of impregnation, and the period at
which it occurs in the ferns, do not at all correspond
to the general notion on this subject. He has dis-
covered in the early development of the frond of
ferns certain cells, w hich he denominates antheridia,
or sperm cells; these contain in their cavity a
number of subordinate cells, each containing a sper-
matazoon. At a certain period of the progTess of
the frond, the parent cells become ruptured and
liberate the spermatoza, these move about in a
mucilaginous fluid, which bedews the inferior surface
of the frond, and become the means of impregnating
the germ cells, or pistillidia, with which they readily
come in contact. Thus the process of impregnation
in these plants occurs during the germination, or
what corresponds to the period of germination in
the seeds of exogenous and endogenous plants.
I have referred to the discovery of Suminski in
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this place to recal to the mind the great and incom-
prehensible wonders of creation^ for who could con-
ceive it possible or feasible that even for the
impreg-nation of an inferior vegetable^ animal life
should form an indispensable and essential appurte-
nant of the process. Truly ma}^ we say Avith
Coleridge^ of plants and insects^ "so reciprocally
inter-dependent and necessary are they to each
other^ that we can almost as little think of veg-eta-
tion without insects^ as of insects without veg^eta-
tion/'
I will make but two more quotations on the
supposed vital character of the g-erms of disease.
'' That the air and atmosphere of our g'lobe is in
the hig-hest deg-ree full of life^ I may^ I think^ take
here for g-ranted^ and g-enerally admitted. It is^
however^ of a mixed kind and quality^ combining-
the refreshing* breath of spring- with the parching-
simooms of the desert^ and where the healthy odours
fluctuate in chaotic strug-g'le with the most deadly
vapours. What else in g-eneral is the widespread
and spreading pestilence^ but a living- propagation of
foulness^ corruption^ and death? Are not many
poisons^ esj^ecially animal poisons^ in a true sense^
liviiig forces T^ — Schlegel.*
It were useless to multiply quotations to shew
* Philosophy of Life, Lecture 6, translated by the Rev.
A. J. W. Morrison, MA.
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17
that tlie opinions here entertained are matters of
g^eneral hehef among* thinking- men.- I will at
once then conclude with an observation of Dr.
C. J. B. Williams : he puts the question^ ^^ Does
the matter of contao*ion consist of veo-etable seeds ?
Are infectious diseases the results of the opera-
tions and invasions of living- parasites^ disturbing-
in sundry Avays the structures and functions of
the body^ each after its own kind, until the vital
powers either fail or succeed in expelling- the
invading- tribes from the S3^stem ?''
And this expression, the seeds, is an universal
expression, it is a ^^ Household Word" in connexion
with disease. That it has obtained this position in
the popular vocabulary is alone a proof of the appli-
cabiUty of the term to the thing- intended to be
* The following I quote from Dr. Fuller on Small Pox
and Measles : —
''To this purpose some (and particularly Kircherus)
are of opinion that animalcules have been the causes of
malignant and pestilential fevers in epidemic times, which
differ in essence and symptoms, according to the nature
and venoms of those creatures. /^-^"^
" Thus the atmosphere and air is filled both from above
and beneath with innumerable miUions of millions of
species or corpuscles, aporrhoeas, steams, vapours, fumes,
dust, little insects, &c. all which make it such a wonderful
chaotic compost of things that contains the seeds of good
and evil to man as surpasseth the understanding (as I
suppose) of even the highest order of archangels."
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18
signified. Popular notions^ as we have seen in the
case of Jemima's discovery^ are not to he unheeded.
An instance occurs to me^ it was a popular belief,
that in acne punctata^ the matter of a sebaceous
^ follicle^ was itself^ when pressed out^ a worm^ the
dark portion which results from the accumulation of
dust upon the matter at the mouth of the follicle
was supposed to be the head of the mag-g-ot^ as it
was called; subsequent observation^ however^ has
proved that thoug-h this matter is not a worm^ it
contains an animal within its substance^ the A cams
folliculorum.
The popular notions found among* savage tribes
as to the efficacy of certain remedies in the cure of
disease have been the means of furnishing* us with
some of our most valuable medicines^ indeed it is
\ 1 almost impossible to say whether orig-inally man did
not derive his remedies from the herbs and trees by
j an instinctive faculty impelling* him^ as it does the
I animals when in a state of liberty and with freedom
of rang'e^ to seek certain plants as they avoid others.
It is well known that animals when indisposed
'y will find out some^ spot as if almost led to it by a
visionary g-uide where the ^^ healing* plant'' is to be
discovered. I am told that sheep have this faculty^
and that they will^ when affected with the rot^ feed
upon some plant when they can discover it^ which
eradicates the disease.
Almost every one is familiar with the fact that
cats and dogs will crop herbage and eat it ] I have
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seen them frequently leave the house and proceed to
the gi'ass in the most business-like manner, partake
of some quantity, and quietly return.
A close observer of diseased animals mio-ht obtain
some useful information by noticing* the plants
cropped by them while in that condition. The ^
observations should be made in a variety of districts
in consequence of the uncertain distribution of some -^
even of the most commonly scattered plants 5 in
one year they may be abundant, but in another
they may be almost entirely absent from the same
spot.*
Were it only on the fact of reproduction, I would I
be contented to take my stand that the force of life
is the indwelling- power of pestilential matter. Re-
production is a law of nature, and the law of nature [^
is the law of God. And where do we find He prevari-
cates with us ? The more we study His laws the more
harmony and perfection we find ; what is seeming-
confusion in the ig-norance of to-day, is order in the
knowledge of to-morrow. If any one ig-norant of ;
the law which reg-ulates the diffusion of g'ases were
* I learn from an undoubted authority that the cow
when '' slack of health" eats with avidity the '' field
parsley ;" the sheep under similar circumstances seeks the ^
ivy, and the goat the plantain.
From an equally good source I have the following : that
rabbits and hares, wlien they are what is commonly called
pot-gutted, seek tlic green broom, though at a (hstancc of
twenty miles.
c 2
20
told that a heavier g*as would ascend contrary to its
specific gravity throug'li the septum in a vessel
containing" a lig-hter g-as above the heavier^ he would
naturally doubt your assertion^ and say^ ''- that is
contrary to the law of g-ravity /' but explain to him
the principle by which this comes about^ and the
objects of the law \ the order and beauty of the desig-n
become manifest. But this is no equivocation^ it is
evidence there^ that subordinate laws exist and
nothing" more. It has never been found that men
ha,ve g-athered ^^g-rapes of thorns and figs of thistles/'
nor has it ever been discovered that inanimate
matter multiplies itself. The seed of disease ^^is
within itself/' multiplying- and propag'ating* itself;
whether it formed a part of creation at the beg-in-
nin^ or not^ is rather a question to be solved by
f divines than physicians. When we know^ however^
the latency of seeds and even of entire plants^ and
that they may be dried and remain so for years yet
being- broug-ht ag-ain into conditions adapted to their
active existence^ they^ as it were^ revive from their
sleepy and renew ag-ain their reproductive properties:
can we wonder if, in the g-reat scheme of nature^
existences new to mankind should make theii* ap-
pearance ? When the New Zealander saw the
surface of his g-round producing- to him unknown
plants^ and the skins of his children g-enerating
peculiar eruptions^ and each propagating- its kind^
would he look^ think you^ to the wood or the stones^
the air or the water^ — for the solution of the
21
mystery ? No, he would naturally say these people
broug-ht the seeds with them. From the property
of reproduction possessed by these forms of matter,
we infer the value of the proposition.
•
CHAPTER II.
THE NUMBER AND VALUE OF FACTS TO SUPI'ORT
THE PROPOSITION.
SECTION I.
ON REPRODUCTION.
It is inferred that the proposition^ ^' the matter
wfvich operates in the production of Epidemic^ En-
demic, and Infectious Diseases y possesses the property
of vitality y^ we proceed now to the enumeration of
those facts which further elucidate this subject.
The facts must necessarily be such as illustrate
the identity of properties in the imaginary germs^
that are known to exist in demonstrable germs :
we take therefore the law of reproduction to be to
life^ what the law of attraction is to gravitation.*
* " My settled opinion is, that in regard every effect is
necessarily such as its cause ; it must needs be that every
sort of venomous fevers is produced by its proper and pe-
culiar species of virus.
^^And that the manner and symptoms of every such
fever is not so much from the particular constitution of the
sick; as from the different nature and genius of their
specific venom which caused them.
" And I conceive that venomous febrile matters differ
not in degree of intenseness only, but in essence and toto
genere also; and that venomous fevers are for the most
part contagious. ^^ — Thomas Fuller, M. D. 1730.
But further; do those matters which eng-ender
disease furnish to our minds the properties in-
separable from life in the abstract ? Thoug'h the
faculty of reproduction is essentially an evidence
that the thing- which reproduces its kind must be a
living body^ yet it is only a property or power of
living" being's and is not itself life, it therefore is
necessary to establish the fact that the materies
inorhi not only has the power of reproduction, but
also those properties which in the abstract will prove
as far as demonstration can g'o, that it has
essential properties common to all living* bodies.
I must ag-ain quote from Coleridg-e, he sa;
'^ By life I every where mean the true idea of life,
or that most g-eneral form under which life mani-
fests itself to us, which includes all its other forms.
This I have stated to be the tendency to individuation
and the degTees or intensities of life, to consist in
the progressive realization of this tendency. The
" Another important class of organic poisons are those
which when introduced in almost inappreciable quantities
into the system, seem to increase in quantity ; and which
when communicated in the same inappreciable quantity
from the individual poisoned to one who is healthy, excite
the same series of febrile phenomena and local inflamma-
tion, and the same increase in the quantity of the poisonous
asrent/' — Med, Chir. Review.
" This unseen influence working in the body, presents
very striking analogies to the modes of operation of dif-
ferent poisons." — Dr. Ormerod on Continued Fever.
L^
24
power which is acknowledg-ed to exist wherever the
realization is found^ must subsist wherever the ten-
dency is manifested. The power which comes forth
and stirs abroad in the bird^ must be latent in the
eg-g-."
The tendency to individuation cannot be more
strong-ly marked than in the simple experiment of
vaccination : we insert a small particle of the so-
called vaccine l3^mph under the skin^ and by this
means we multiply to an enormous extent^ the
power which^ in the first instance^ we had in the
form of minute corpuscles in a dry and apparently
inert state ; nevertheless^ thoug-h in this condition
there must have existed the tendency to individua-
tion or multiplication of individual existence^ and
the g'erms are here to their active existence^ as seen
in the development of the vaccine vesicle^ what the
eg'g" is to the bird^* as described above ; we may^
therefore^ say that the power which exhibits itself
in the production of a vaccine vesicle^ must have
been latent in the dried matter. It is the opinion
of MuUer that the entire vital principle of the egg
* I am aware that the vesicle does not here strictly
bear the relation to the original germ, supposing one
active particle alone to be sufficient for its production, that
the egg does to the bird, for in the former case multitudes
of active particles may have been generated from one. I
have, therefore, merely used this expression to signify an
aggregation of vital forces, such as may be imagined to
exist in the bird.
25
resides in the g-erminal disk alone^ and since the
external iiifluenccs which act on the germs of the
most different org-anic beings are the same^ we
must regard the simple germinal disk^ consisting of
g-ranular amorphous matter^ as the potential whole
of the future animal^ endowed with the essential
and specific force or principle of the future being-,
and capable of increasing* the very small amount
of this specific force and matter, which it already
possesses, by the assimilation of new matter.
After speaking" of inanimate objects, Dr. Car-
penter says J ^' and what compared with the perma-
nence of these is the duration of any structure
subject to the conditions of vitality "l To he horuy
to grow, to arrive at maturity, to decline, to die, to
decay, is the sum of the history of every being- that
lives ; from man, in the pomp of royalty, or the pride
of philosophy, to the gay and thoughtless insect that
glitters for a few hours in the sunbeam and is seen
no more ; from the stately oak, the monarch of the
forest through successive centuries, to the humble
fungus which shoots forth and withers in a day."
To be born, signifies the faculty of reproduction
existing or having existed in an antecedent being
to that one born, and also that itself possesses
equally a like power. To be born, is the first ex-
pression which must be used in speaking of the
faculties or properties of living- beings as independent
existences, the annual formation of buds, trees, and
shrubs, is a multiplication of the species ; the coral
^
20
and various budding- polypes increase by this pro-
cess^ indeed what is the seed of a plant^ or the eg-g*
of a bird^ or the ovum of mammalia^ but cast off
buds y in all^ the uew being- was orig-inally a portion
of its parent^ and if we examine the ovary of the
veg-etable^ the bird^ or the mammal, can we find
any expression more fitting- to desig-nate the process
than that of budding-. To be born then^ is the
evidence of an act of one living- being-^ and the com-
mencement of a series of vital phenomena in another^
but all these are subsequent to reproduction^ and
constitute another chain of vital acts^ all tending*
to a similar result^ the multiplication of the
species."^
Now^ whether we apply the philosophical lan-
g'uag-e of Coleridg-e^ or the lang-uag-e of observation
of MuUer^ in confirmation of the doctrine here in-
culcated^ we arrive at the same point.
Do we not witness in the newly formed vaccine
vesicle^ an increase of the specific force and princi-
ple ? We certainly have acquired by the process of
vaccination a manifold multiplication of power^
and is there not also assimilation of new matter in
^ ^^ At an early period the form of the ovisacs is usually
elliptical_, and their size extremely minute^— their long
diameter measuring in the ox no more than -^^-^ of an inch,
so that a cubic inch would contain nearly two hundred
millions of them. They are at this time quite distinct
from the stroma of the ovarium ; this forms a cavity in
wliich they are loosely embedded."
S7
which this power resides ? And does not every
particle of this new matter contain within itself the
same force and principle, as existed in that which
generated it?
" We revert again to potentiated length in the
power of mag^netism (reproduction) ; to surface in
the power of electricity, and to the synthesis of
both or potentiated depth in constructive, that is
chemical affinity."*
Some may be at a loss to. conceive, at first, how
irritability may be considered a property of all
vegetable matter ; that it does exist in some vege-
tables is certain, but that it does exist in all living
beings is equally certain ^f the term, however, which
would appear more appropriate when that irritability
does not exhibit itself in an appreciable form, is
impressibility. Irritability, as commonly under-
stood, is seen in its highest condition in muscular
tissue ; but ^^ the irritable power and an analogon of
voluntary motion first dawn on us in the vegetable
world in the stamina and anthers at the period of
* Coleridge, p. 56.
t "All vegetables/' says Sharon Turner, "from that
pettiness which escapes onr natural sight, to that magni-
tude which we feel to be gigantic, have these properties in
common with all animals —organization ; an interior power
of progressive growth, a principle of life, with many pheno-
mena that resemble imtability, excitability, and suscepti-
bility, and a self- reproductive and multiplying faculty." —
Sharon Turnei-^s Sacred Hi&tory.
\
28
impreg-nation."— "The insect world is the exponent
of irritabihtj^ as the vegetable is of reproduction/^
The property of irritability attains its acme in
man^ the most hig-hly org-anized of all being-s ; and
its g-radations pass downwards throug-h the whole
scale of animate creation ; not so reproduction^ for
this faculty observes the very opposite direction^ for
in plants a sing-le impreg-nation is sufficient for the
evolution of myriads of detached lives.
Reproduction is a fact^ it is an essential property
of life^ and is a reality to us from observation ', but
irritability is not so tangible and demonstrable a
property. We nevertheless may assume its univer-
sality^ from the circumstance that we lose sight of it
\ by imperceptible degrees; the irritability of the
sensitive plant is as much irritability as that of the
highly organized muscle ; but because the faculty
evades our perception^ " in tapering by degrees^ be-
coming beautifully less/' we have no reason for pro-
nouncing its total extinction at any one point of the
vegetable kingdom^* any more than we should have
* " Plants highly sensitive to light are those of the legu-
minous, or Pea kind. They always close up in the evening
and clasp their two upper surfaces together, presenting
only their backs to the air. Plants of pinnated leaves, as the
Tansy, are more sensible than these to the effects of light.
They fold up when light is too strong, as in Robinia ; it
produces the same effect as want of light. Its leaves close
up, apparently, because they are receiving too much. So
thev do if a hot iron be brought near them. They con-
29
in saying* that we see the end of the earthy when
describing- the extent of our vision as we stand on
the sea shore. The extreme limit of our vision is
the tang-ent of the circle in reference to our visual
org-ans , but how many tang*ential points there may
be beyond^ it is impossible to say without knowing
the dimensions of the circle.
I think we are now in a condition to assume^ as A
far as abstraction will conduct us without proceeding* /
to an extreme leng'th, that the materies morhi, ovy
as I will now call them for the sake of clearer dis- \
tinction^ semina morbi, possess those properties \
which in the abstract are common to all living* \
being's.
Another arg*ument strikes me as capable of adding*
further streng*th to the proposition. We need but
be told that a small piece of iron was placed in a
certain position with reg*ard to another piece of iron^
and that the smaller piece moved throug-h a g*iven
space and became attached to the larg-er^ to infer
that magnetic force was in operation. Supposing
this magnet then to be folded in paper^ and that it
tract as if to avoid the heat. Sensitive plants, and those
of tlic Oxalis Lent, are so sensitive that the least motion,
even a breath of air, will make them close/^ — Sir J.
Smith.
" The vitahty of plants seems to depend upon the exis-
tence of an irritability, which although far inferior to that
of animals, is nevertheless of an analogous character.'' —
LindLy's Introduction to Botany.
30
be promiscuously placed near a compass^ the deflec-
tion of the needle would indicate that some object in
the vicinity was the cause of the deflection ; we may
y farther try what positions the needle takes by vary-
\ ing- the position of the packet^ and thus point out
which is the north and which the south pole of the
screw of paper. If we may consider attraction then
to be to gravitation what reproduction is to life^ we
do not err in saying in the one instance that there
is a living" being*, and in the other there is a mag-net.
The nebular theory^ from which some astronomers
made the foundation of many speculations, came
with so much interest to our minds that the fascina-
tion could not be resisted. It was most delightful
to revel in the imagination that we possessed a key
to the mode of formation of the starry hosts, and
when speculation had taken its extreme limits in the
^^ Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation/^ and
the nebulse had served as the ground work of a gi-
gantic scheme^ Lord Ross's monster telescope swept
the heavens of its cobwebs. We can imagine this
great promoter of science saying to us, Gentle-
men, the clouds which have obscured you, are
composed of myriads of stars, and comprise systems
as vast and as luminous as our own, had you but
power of vision to discern them. A new lig'ht thus
appeared to philosophers, and though no great
practical results may flow from the discovery, it is
instructive from the fact that the imperfectly aided
or unaided vision, should not limit legitimate
31
inference. The nebuloe before Lord lloss's discovery
were to the astronomer what the materies of epidemic
and infectious disease are to medical men. In the
absence however of a giant microscope to reveal
such g-reat truths^ we may yet dimly shadow them
by the light of our reason. It was predicted in
1849 that minute vegetable germs^ in all probability
all of the same type^ were the agents producing
epidemic and infectious disease. In 1850^ Mr. Oke
Spoonersays^* "On examining the matter of Small
* Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal. July 10th_,
1850. No. xiv. p. SGJ, ^^Practical Observations on the
Vaccination Question." By E. Oke Spooner, M. R. C. S.,
Blandford.
"If we examine the Cow Pox and the Small Pox
microscopically, as I have done very carefiiUy in every
stage, we find that the essential character consists of a
number of minute cells, not exceeding the 10,000th part of
an inch in diameter, being about one-fourth smaller than
the globules of the blood, containing within their circum-
ference many still more minute nuclei, and presenting beyond
their circumference bud-like ceUs of the same size and
character as those contained within the circle. They ex-
actly resemble in everything except the size, the globules
of the yeast plant, the Torula Cerevesise. Now if we
examine more circumstantially the analogies of what I
would call the Torula Variolse with the Torula Cerevesise,
we observe the foUomng corresponding facts.
" What do we accomplish by inoculation as it is caUed ?
Simply this. We take on the top of a lancet, or an ivory
point, a few of these minute cells or germs, and we put them
U^'
32
Pox and Cow Pox in every stag-e^ he finds its es-
sential character to consist of a number of minute
cells not exceeding^ the lO^OOOth part of an inch in
diameter : being about one-fourth smaller than the
globules of the bloody containing* within their cir-
cumference many still more minute nuclei^ and
presenting" beyond their circumference bud-like cells
of the same size and character as those contained
within the circle."
Should these observations made by Mr. Spooner
turn out to be correct^ they will but fulfil my an-
ticipations. Then again shall we see the same
application of imperfect vision to the limitation or
temporary obstruction of solid and determinate
knowledge.
We may reasonably expect that these bodies^ dis-
covered by Mr. Spooner^ should be the elementary
matters of disease. Their existence was predicted
from the probability that living matter must be the
agent ; moreover^ that this matter when discovered
in their appropriate nidus, the subcuticular tissue, where,
after a few days if they find their appropriate nutrient
elements, they grow and multiply/^
Simon, Chemistry of Man, vol. i. p. 127. "Macgregor
ascertained that the air expired by persons ill of confluent
Small Pox, contained as much as ei(/ht per cent of carbonic
acid, and in proportion as health was restored the percentage
was diminished to its natural standard." Carbonic acid
is also produced during the process of fermentation and
germination.
83
would be cellular^ most probably resembling* the
yeast plant as described by Mr. Spooner.
It was predicted that a planet would be discovered
in a certain position in the heavens^ because the
perturbations of a comet indicated an attracting
body in the path of the eccentric wanderer ; the
prediction and the fulfilment were almost simul-
taneous.
\^
34
SECTION II.
HISTORICAL NOTICE OF EPIDEMIC DISEASES.
The earliest notices we have of Pestilences are
contained in Holy Writ. The plagues which smote
the Eg-yptians in the time of Moses are not un-
worthy some comment here. Of those ten plagues,
four out of the number were due to the miraculous
appearance of myriads of the lower animal tribes,
in three instances of insects,* viz. lice, flies, and
locusts ', in the fourth, when Aaron stretched forth
his hand with his rod over the streams, over the
rivers, and the ponds, frogs came up and covered
the land of Egypt. In these instances living beings
are made the instruments in God's hand for the
punishment of the wicked. These plagues include
the second, third, fourth, and eighth. The first
plague is mentioned as a conversion of the waters
into blood. Now if we may take this expression as
being literal, there is no reason to suppose that this
blood differed in any respect from ordinary san-
guineous liquid^ we therefore may assume, as the
blood is every w^here in Scripture spoken of as the
life^ that this fluid was endowed with vital pro-
perties.
* See History of the Jews, p. 71'
i35
The fifth plag'iie is described us ii murniiii among
beasts , and the sixth, as exhibiting* itself as '' a boil
breaking- forth with blains, upon man and upon
beast."* Now these affections bear a resemblance
to the diseases known to us at the present day
through authentic records. The Black Death of
the 14th century affords in its history but too awful
a picture of the horrors of such pestilences. In the
tenth plague, the smiting- of the first-born, we are
not told by what means it was brought about \ but
we have something even here to lead us to con-
jecture. In the second visitation of the Black
Death, there were destroyed a gi'eat many children
whom it had formerly spared, and but few women.
The seventh plague of hail is within our conception \
as is also that of darkness, the ninth plag-ue.
It is not a little remarkable that of the ten
plagues, seven of them depended upon agents intel-
lig-ible to our comprehension j we can conceive of
* It is said by Whewell, that the murrain is supposed
to have fallen only on the animals which were in the open
pasture. — History of the Jews.
"J. S. Michael Leger, published at Vienna, in 1775, a
treatise concerning the mildew as the principal cause of
the epidemic disease among cattle. The mildew is that
which hums and dries the grass and leaves. It is observed
early in the morning, particularly after thunder-storms.
Its poisonous quahty, which does not last above twenty-
four hours, never operates but when it is swallowed imme-
diately after its faUing." — Mitchell on Fevers.
D 2
i/
36
the invasion of a country by myriads of loathsome
insects and reptiles^ and can imagine the wrath of
an offended Deity directing- the force of a super-
natural storm of hail upon a disobedient people ^
and we can conjecture^ though faintly^ the con-
sternation of human nature on being subjected to a
total darkness of three days' duration^ when we
consider that darkness has been described^ as ^^a
darkness that might be felt/'
From this abstract we discover that the three
plagues whose causes we cannot understand^ or rather
upon which no light has been thrown by Scripture^
bear analogies to those which we recognise^ in the
writings of modern authors^ as fearful pestilences.
It is now our province to reflect on the causes
supposed to be in operation in the three instances^
which become naturally separated from the rest.
We are told that a murrain appeared among the
cattle^ without any preliminary step. When the
blains broke out upon man and beast^ Moses had
been previously directed by the Almighty to take
handfuls of the ashes of the furnace^ and sprinkle
them towards the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh.
^' A nd it shall hecome small dust in all the land of
Egypty and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains
upon man and upon beast^ throughout all the land
of Egypt."
Another coincidence, in connexion with subsequent
pestilences, arrests the attention, on the subject of
the mysterious appearance on these occasions of
37
matter resembling- dust being- prevalent about the
houses^ and on the clothes of the people. Clouds
also^ and showers of dust-Hke particles^ were not of
infrequent occurrence. Indeed^ in the summer of
1849^ during- the progress of the Cholera, several
phenomena of a similar nature were observed and
authenticated ; I m3^self can bear testimony to one
instance of the kind. It was observed by many
persons in my neig-hbourhood after the passag-e
of an ominous and lurid cloud, that as they walked
their clothes became covered with a singular dust-
like matter of very peculiar appearance. That this
phenomenon was not destitute of sig'nificance may
be g-athered from the fact, that on the night of that
day several severe cases of Cholera occurred, though
our village had been comparatively free for ten
days.
Hecker, in writing on the Black Death says, the
German accounts expressly speak of a ^^ thick
stinking mist which advanced from the east,* and
* " The prevalence of the south-east wind was observed
to be particularly favourable to the increase of both cholera
and influenza : and I cannot but think that this had some
connexion with the general tendency exhibited by the
former to spread from east to west. Has the morbific
property of this wind aught to do with the haziness of the
air when it prevails — a haziness seen in the country remote
from smoke, and quite distinct from fog? What is this
haze? In the west of England a hazy day in spring is
called a bligktJ" — Dr, Williams' Principles of Medicine,
38
spread itself over Italy ; there could be no decep-
tion in so palpable a phenomenon." It is not
unworthy of mention^ that in the East successive
invasions of locusts '' which had never perhaps
darkened the sun in thicker swarms/' preceded the
great outbreak of this disease^ for they left famine
in their train.
From 1500 to 1503 in Germany and France^
during" the prevalence of the sweating- sickness^
spots of different colours made their appearance,
*'' principally red, but also white, yellow, g"rey, and
black, often in a very short time, on the roofs of
houses, on clothes, on the veils and neckerchiefs of
women, &c.'' Blood rain is also mentioned as
having occurred at this time, which consisted of the
aggregation of minute particles of red matter.
In the seven plagues, miraculous operations of the
Deity consisted in the unusual manifestation of
phenomena, but which in their effects are recogni-
zable as of clear and definite import. The miracles
here are, — in the mode of producing the swarms of
frogs, locusts, &c. but they are manifest and unmis-
takeable causes of plague and famine ) in the other
three, on the contrary, we witness only the effects,
the causes are hidden from us ; we may, therefore,
as in current events, leg'itimately investigate the
subject, and what better course can be adopted than
that which classifies the traditionary past with all
subsequent history. Presuming such a method of
research to be admitted, I have assumed that as
39
the causes of the seven plagues have been distinctly
given^ the others^ thoug-h only mentioned in their
effects^ were due to causes of a nature in some
way to be comj)ared with their concomitants_, that
is to say^ if a special intervention of the Deity
broug-ht about a miraculous appearance of frog's,
lice, &c. there is but little reason to doubt that some
other agent was miraculously multiplied and con-
centrated to induce the murrain, engender the
blain, and smite the first-born : as if to lead us into
this enquiry, on the visitation of the blain in man
and beast, the Bible History tells us that Moses
threw ashes of the furnace, which became a dust
throughout all the land of Egypt 5 we cannot
imagine that this simply as ashes could have caused
the blain, we may conclude that by some special
miracle, either the ashes were converted into a
specific form of matter capable of inducing the effects
recorded, or that an independent septic matter was
generated for the purpose. If the latter, the act of
throwing the ashes of the furnace into the air may
have been intended to signify that the extremely
minute division of the particles when thus cast into
space, typified the inscrutable and hidden nature of
the matter endowed with such marvellous proper-
ties.*
* We are to understand also that some peculiar opera-
tion took place of a nature difficult to comprehend, which
seems also to typify reproduction, for the handftds of
40
Further on in the book of Leviticus are passages
which I cannot forbear transcribing-^ for they point
out to us most indubitably a line of enquiry in
reference to diseases of a contag-ious nature.
^^ The g-arment also that the plague of leprosy is
in^ whether it be a woollen g-arment^ or a linen
g-arment^ whether it be in the warp or woof, of linen
or of woollen^ whether in a skin^ or in any thing-
made of skin^ and if the plag-ue be g-reenish or
reddish in the garment it is a plague of
leprosy^ and shall be shewed unto the Priest^ and
the Priest shall look upon the plague and shut up it
that hath the plague seven days ; and he shall look
on the plague on the seventh day ^ if the plague be
spread in the garment^ either in the warp^ &c
the plague is a fretting leprosy^ it is unclean. He
shall therefore burn that garment wherein
the plague is^ for it is a fretting leprosy ; it shall
be burnt in the fire. And if the Priest shall look,
and behold, the plague be not spread in the garment
then the Priest shall command that they
wash the thing wherein the plag-ue is, and he shall
shut it up seven days more : and the Priest shall
look on the plague, after that it is washed : and
behold if the plague have not changed his colour,
and the plague be not spread, it is unclean ; thou
ashes which Moses threw into the air became a dust in all
the land of Egypt, thus signifying an enormous reproduc-
tion of atomic matter.
41
shalt burn it in the fire ; it is fret inward ; whether
it be bare within or without. And if the Priest
look and behold the plag-ue be somewhat dark after
the washing- of it^ then he shall rend it out of the
g-arment and if it appear still in the g"ar-
ment either in the warp or the woof it is
a spreading plag-ue : thou shalt burn that wherein
the plagiie is with fire. And the garment
which thou shalt wash^ if the plag-ue be departed
from them^ then it shall be washed the second time
and shall be clean.'' — Chap. xiii. 47 — 6S.
Again in Deuteronomy. The curse for disobe-
dience : ^^ The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave
to thee until he have consumed thee from off the
land — The Lord shall smite thee with a consump-
tion^ and with a fever^ and with an inflammation,
and with an extreme burning, and with the drought,
and with blasting, and with mildew, and they shall
pursue thee until thou perish. — The Lord shall make
the rain of thy land powder and dust : from heaven
shall it come down upon thee until thou be de-
stroyed."
It may be said, and I doubt not will be said, all
this is unnecessarily dragging the sacred volume
into an enquiry totally foreign to its general tenor ;
on the contrary, however, I maintain by that Book
we are to learn the ways of God to man, and further,
that no study can impress mankind with so awful,
so terrific an idea of his responsible position, as that
which leads him into the investigation of the causes
42
by which the Almig-hty^ doubtless in His wisdom^
has thoug'ht fit at various epochs of this world's
history^ to place man face to face with pestilence^
famine and sudden death.
There is no man would less willingly than
myself introduce profanely the revelations of Scrip-
ture. The observations here made are not^ therefore,
intended for lig-ht or heedless controversy ; if they
have a significance of any import, let them be al-
luded to in the same spirit with which they have
been quoted 3 if they convey nothing* for approval to
the reader, let silence rest upon them. To those
who would fain disreg'ard my request, let me recall
to their minds the veneration which from childhood
I trust we have always felt on hearing" or seeing"
those two words— Holy Bible.
It is yet to be determined, whether the g"reenish
or reddish appearance of the g-arment spoken of,
as being" contaminated with the plag'ue of the leprosy
had any specific relation to the disease itself. The
priest orders that the g'arment shall be shut up
seven days, and on the seventh day, if the plag-ue be
increased, by which, of course, is meant if the
g-reenish or reddish colour have increased, and from
which we may g"ather that a power of spontaneous
increase was possessed by the matter, such a result
indicated a fretting" leprosy, and the g"arment was
to be burnt. Ag"ain, thoug"h there may have been
no increase, but a persistence of the coloured matter
after shutting- up and washing" the garment, it is to
43
be burnt^ for it is fret inward^ sig-nifying-^ that the
g-erms of the affection are still there^ and may soon
increase. Other rules follow in reference to the
plag'ue of leprosy^ and the mode of deciding" whether
an article be unclean or clean is definitely laid down^
but our purpose is served in mentioning- the above^
to shew that in the time of Moses the spontaneous
increase of certain minute multiplying* g-erms was
supposed to have a close connexion with disease.
It is equally clear^ that the priests were aware by
the order given them^ that if the ordinary modes of
purifying- articles of clothing- failed in their effect^
the safest and surest method of destroying- infectious
matter was to resort to the practice of consuming- by
fire all materials capable of propagating* an infectious
malady.
The facts above noticed^ accurately correspond to
what we now know as applicable to the matter of
infectious and contag-ious maladies. It is a rule^ I
believe universally adopted throughout the Poor-
houses of this country^ to put the clothes of all
persons about to become residents in these estab-
lishments, into ovens, where they are submitted to a
temperature incompatible with the existence of either
animal or veg-etable life. By this means all living-
matters are destroyed, but the fabrics and inorg-anic
matters retain their properties intact. This simple
proceeding, I am credibly informed, is an effectual
preventive of contamination by articles of clothing,
a desideratum of no small importance, when it is
44
remembered that the diseases among- the poor owe
much of their inveteracy to the accumulation of eifete
org-anic matters about their persons and clothes.
A few more observations are called for on the
quotation from Deuteronomy^ in which allusion is
made to living- matter being- an ag-ent in the pro-
duction of disease. In the curse upon the children
of Israel for disobedience^ we read that they are to
be smitten with mildew. No further information^
however^ is vouchsafed to us^ nevertheless^, we can
conceive the wretched condition of those on whom
the curse mig-ht fall. Ag-ain^ we find in a continu-
ation of this curse that the Almig-hty uses means
such as He adopted in the sixth plague of the
Eg-yptians. The ashes of the furnace became a
small dust in all the land of Egypt^ breaking- forth
with blains upon man and beast. In the curse of
the Israelites the words are : '' The Lord shall make
the rain of thy X^^tA powder and dust: from Heaven
shall it come down upon thee until thou be de-
stroyed."
It mig-ht be conjectured that the absence of rain
would be sufficient to account for the extinction of
the people on whom the curse was pronounced^ by
the famine and droug-ht necessarily attendant upon
the loss of moisture. But this does not appear to be
the meaning of the passage^ for the powder and
dust are mentioned as the ag'ents of destruction ;
besides^ in the continuation of the curse^ the locust
is to destroy the grain, the worm the g-rapes, and
45
the olive is to shed his fhiit ; we may thus take for
granted that drought and famine are not to be
caused by the showering- of powder and dust^ it
must consequently be supposed that the effects of
the dust in the instance of the Eg-yptians are to be
compared and classified with those of the dust which
smote the Israelites.
As far then as Sacred History conducts us in the
enquiry^ concerning* the causes of pestilences^ we
gain encouragement in the belief that living germs
are the active agents^ for in the case of the leprosy^
we have evidence of reproduction in connexion
with infection^ which^ if our line of argument be
tenable^ amounts to demonstration; then^ in the
other instances of the plagues^ by boils and blains,
they distinctly bear comparison with the accounts
given by profane writers^ of the visitations of pesti-
lences on the earth, subsequently to those mentioned
in Scripture history.
This leads now to the consideration of recorded
facts observed and noted during the various Epi-
demics in the early and subsequent periods of
Man^s History, as given by those on whom reliance
may be fairly placed.
Setting aside the uncertain information contained
in the writings of the Chinese,* a people whose
* The Chinese affect to trace the origin of Small Pox
back to a period of at least 3000 years, or 20 years beyond
the era of the Trojan war, 1212, A. C.
46
progress in the science and practice of Medicine
has nothing- to commend it (even as it is at the
present day) to the notice either of the ph3^sician or
the historian^ unless it be to the latter as a mark of
peculiarity both in a social and political point of
view_,— passing* also over the Eg-yptians^ the Ara-
bians^ and the Greeks^ — and even Hippocrates
himself, we are driven to the Romans for any
authentic or precise notice of Epidemic Affections.
It has been attributed to Hippocrates that he
predicted the appearance of the Plag-ue at Athens,
The Chinese pretend to discriminate no less than 40
different species of Small Pox.
" They also pretend to discover whether a person has
died by violence or from natural causes^ not only after the
body has been some time interred and decomposition of
the softer parts has commenced, but even after the total
disappearance of the soft parts, and when the dry skeleton
alone is left." — For the process, see Hamilton s History of
Medicine, vol. i. p. 31.
To give some notion of the state of Medical Science
among the Chinese, I may quote the following: "The
theory of the circulation of the blood, Du Halde affirms,
was known by the Chinese about 400 years after the
deluge ; be this assertion veracious or not, no correct
knowledge up to the present day, do the nation possess of
the circulating system of the human frame." — China and
the Chinese, Henry Charles Sirr, M, A.
According to their anatomy, the trachea extends from
the larynx through the lungs to the heart, whilst the
oesophagus goes over them to the stomach.
47
and that when it was introduced into Greece he
dispelled it^ " by purifying- the air with fires into
which were thrown sweet-scented herbs and flowers
along- with other perfumes."* But little advantag-e
can be derived from enquiries concerning' the first
appearance of any disease^ for the probability of
discovering- the primary cause is certainly a hope-
* "And Aaron took as Moses commanded, and ran
into the midst of the congregation : and behold the plague
was begun among the people; and he put on incense
and made an atonement for the people. And he stood
between the dead and the hving, and the plague was
stayed/^ — Numbers.
The practice of burning scented herbs has been observed
in all times during an invasion of the plague, as a means
of protection. Also wearing perfumes and aromatic
preparations has been recommended. Whether they have
any counteracting influence, it is impossible to say.
Virgil in the third Georgic speaks of a murrain among
cattle. He says, if any wore a vestment made of wool
from an infected sheep, fiery blains and filthy sweat
overspread his body, and ere long a pestilential fire preyed
upon his infected limbs.
In his directions for preserving the health of flocks he
" Disce et odoratam stabulis accendere cedrum.^'
The motive for burning the fragrant cedar is not men-
tioned ; we cannot doubt but it was a good one, and having
some great practical utility, from the following line —
" Galbaneoque agitare graves nidore chelydros."
48
less case^ if attempted by means of the writings
of ancient authors^ when it is recollected that with
all the science and learning- of the ancient Eg-yp-
tianSj the use of optical instruments was not
comprised among* the paraphernalia of their arts.
The knowledg-e that was limited to the powers of
natural vision^ where the foundation of knowledg-e
is based upon facts obtained through the aid of that
penetrator of nature's secrets^ the microscope^ offers
no advantag-es to the student of the present day.
To say that a disease commenced in the East and
travelled westward^ and at length found a habitation
and a name in every part of the globe^ is no more
than to say that disease is coeval with the fall of
man. The cause is as much hidden in the region
of its birth^ as in that where it sojourns for a time.
The cause of the sweating sickness was as much a
mystery in England as in all the other nations of
Europe^ which were visited by its devastating power.
And these observations apply with as much force to
one disease as another; for even our indigeno,us
ague^ originating in some places so limited that the
shadow of a passing cloud may mark the boundary
of its dwelling place^ as inscrutably evades our
vigilance^ with all the appliances that art can bring
to our assistance^ in endeavouring to evoke its extra-
ordinary properties under the cognizance of our
senses.
' If we weigh the air which carries the poison^ or
analyze it by the most delicate chemical tests, or
49
take- the weight of the atmosphere which is charged
with it^ or if we take the blood which carries the
germs of the disease to the tissues of the bod}^^
and submit them after the work of destruction is
accomplished^ to the most rigid inspection, we can
but exclaim,
" These are Thy marvellous works !"
and confess our total inability to fathom the un-
bounded.
If then no practical advantage can accrue from
investigating the writings of the ancients on these
subjects, beyond comparing their historical statements
with those of more recent date, our purpose will be
served by occasionally embodying any remarkable
observations of the former with those of the latter.
In proceeding with this course it were better to
confine our minds chiefly to two diseases which ap-
pear from history to have been known from the
earliest periods, these are the Plag^ue and the Small
Pox, mentioning other diseases only en route.
Passing then, to the sixth century of the Christian
era for the first distinct and connected account of
the Plague, it appears from a host of testimony,
that the history of this disease, as given by Proco-
pius, well merits our attention. Drs. Friend and
Hamilton, in their Histories of Medicine, and Gibbon,
in his History of Rome, are equally warm in their
praise of Procopius : the latter says, he " emulated
the skill and diligence of Thucydides in the descrip-
E
i^
50
tion of the Plague at Athens." The account g-iven
by Procopius of this disease^ does not differ materially
from that g"iven by subsequent eye-witnesses of
similar pestilences. Its point of orig-in is clearly
marked^ and its mode of dispersion in all directions
distinctly traced from ^^ the neig'hbourhood of Pelu-
sium^ between the Serbonian bog* and the eastern
channel of the Nile/' It commenced in the year
54:2, It rag-ed in Constantinople in the following-
year^ and it was in this city that our historian
g-athered the materials w^hich are handed dow^n to
us. When^ however^ w^e anxiously look for any
explanation as to the cause of the malady^ we are
told that it must have been a direct visitation from
Heaven^ in consequence of the eccentric characters
exhibited in its wide-spreading* influence^ in not
yielding" to the scrutiny nor bending* to the laws
known to prevail^ and to reg-ulate the course of
other diseases : neither country nor clime^ ag-e nor
sex^ the strong- and healthy^ nor the weakly and
previously diseased^ could be said to be free from
its indiscriminate destruction.
But some phenomena preceding* the outbreak of
the pestilence are observed as coincidences by all
authors. Gibbon thus writes : ^^ I shall conclude
this chapter with the comets^ the earthquakes, and
the plag-ue which astonished or afflicted the ag-e of
Justinian. '^ From the accounts g-iven b}^ this
author^ earthquakes for some years had been threat-
ening- and destroying- many portions of the g-lobe.
51
that in the ruins of cities and in the chasms of the
earthy great was the sacrifice of human life. Con-
stantinople^ which suffered so severely from the
plag'ue is said to have been shaken for forty days.
These g-reat disturbances of the g-lobe have been
always looked upon as indicating* other and import-
ant influences of a secret or hidden nature ; these
impressions on the minds of the people are traceable
throughout the histories of all epidemics^ and have
been sufficiently distinct among* the people of our
own time^ preceding- and during" the period of
infliction.
From this short notice of the Plag-ue of 543^ I
pass to the ninth century^ when Rhazes^ the Arabian
physician^ endeavoured to enlighten the world on
the subject of Small Pox.* In quoting his opinions^
I am not to be understood as subscribing* to them,
but merely endeavouring to point out some peculiar
and interesting observations.
First, then, Rhazes attributes the disease to a
condition of the blood, which he thus describes, to
shew how it happens that in infancy and childhood
the disease is most prevalent, and that old age is
* The earliest mention of this complaint upon which
rehance can be placed, is an ancient Arabic MS. preserved
in the pubUc library at Ley den. ^^ This year, in fine, the
Small Pox and Measles made their first appearance in
Arabia." The year alluded to being that of the birth of
Mahomet, or the year 572 of the Christian sera."
Hamilton's History of Medicine^ vol. i. p. 215.
E 2
no
least liable to the affection.* " The blood of infants
and children may be compared to mustj in which the
coction leading- to perfect ripeness has not yet begun^
nor the movement towards fermentation taken place ;
the blood of young- men may be compared to must
which has already fermented and made a hissing-
noise^ and has thrown out abundant vapours and
its superfluous parts^ like wine which is now still
and quiet^ and arrived at its full streng-th^ and as to
the blood of old men^ it may be compared to wine
which has now lost its strength^ and is beg-inning-
to g-row vapid and sour.''
^^ Now the Small Pox arises when the blood
putrifies and ferments^ so that the superfluous vapours
are thrown out of it, and it is chang-ed from the
blood of infants which is like must, into the blood of
young- men which is like wine perfectly ripened :
and the Small Pox itself may be compared to the
fermentation and the hissing- noise which take place
at that time.''
But the cause of the disease is simply alluded to
by this author^ as depending- upon ^^ occult dispo-
sitions in the air/' and as he speaks here of Measles
with the Small Pox he g-oes on to say — ^^ which
necessarily cause these diseases and predispose
bodies to them." This notion of Rhazes that there
is some peculiar condition of the blood which favours
a process resembling- fermentation is not without
interest. The circumstance that individuals are not
* Dr. W. A. GreenhilFs translation.
53
usually liable to a second attack of the disease^ no
doubt directed the attention of this physician to
compare the process of fermentation with disease of
such a nature^ seeing* that when the whole of the
saccharine matter was converted into spirit^ the
hissing" noise^ as he calls it^ or the diseng-agement
of carbonic acid g-as would cease^ and the capacity
for fermentation be entirely g-one. So that the
occult conditions of the air^ their power of inducing*
a disease^ and multiplying^ the matter capable of en-
g'endering' a similar affection^ stood in the mind of
Rhazes as analog-ous if not identical phenomena.
We pass now without further comment to the
epidemics of the Middle Ag^es ; and here the work
of the philosophical Hecker leaves us little else to
desire in the way of information^ as far as it is ob-
tainable from published records. From the manner
in which he has g-rouped the facts which presented
themselves to his mind in the course of a most
laborious research^ he has saved the student of this
subject much toil in acquiring- matter for reflection ;
he has here but to read and dig-est.
I know not how to select from this invaluable
work the most striking- passages^ to strengthen
and support my hypothesis, for not a page is desti-
tute of facts corroborative of the doctrine that vital
germs are the material agents of pestilential dis-
orders. The opening paragraph to the Black
Death is^a most cogent illustration of the assertion ;
it is, as it were, the theme of the work. " That
54
Omnipotence^ which has called the world with all
its living creatures into one animated being, espe-
cially reveals himself in the desolation of great
pestilences. The powers of creation come into violent
collision ; the sultry dryness of the atmosphere ,
the subteiTanean thunders ; the mist of overflowing"
waters are the harbing-ers of destruction. Nature
is not satisfied with the ordinary alternations of life
and death^ and the destroying ang-el waves over man
and beast his flaming* sword .'^
I must here apolog-ise for larg-e transcripts from
Hecker's work^ for neither could I command the
amount of knowledg^e there displayed^ nor use such
appropriate languag-e as the learned translator has
employed.
It is not doubted that the Black Death was an
Oriental plagne^ only of more than usual severity,
and wider spread influence of the infectious nature
of this disease^ and the active properties of the matter
producing" it. Hecker says^ ^^ articles of this kind —
bedding" and clothes— removed from the access of
air^ not only retain the matter of contagion for an
indefinite period^ but also increase its activity, and
engender it like a living being, frightful ill con-
sequences followed for many years after the first
fury of the pestilence was past."*
* The Black Assize at Oxford, 1572, is an instance in
which a pestilential vapour suddenly appeared in the court,
'^whereby the judge, several noblemen, and more than
300 others, died within three days.^'
As extraordinary atmospheric and telluric phe-
nomena preceded the Plag-ue in the time of Justinian^
so do we find similar instances recorded as the
precursor of a similar visitation 700 years later.
I am concerned more with those circumstances
which refer more especially to my subject^ viz, the
development of org^anic matter^ and the peculiar
odours of the atmosphere^ the latter being* evidence of
some foreign and unusual production in our respira-
tory media. ^^ On the island of Cyprus^ before the
earthquake^ a pestiferous wind spread so poisonous
an odour^ that many being- overpowered by it^ fell
down suddenly and expired in dreadful agonies.
A thick stinking" mist advanced from the east^ and
spread itself over Italy.''
" Of an unaccountable vapour suddenly coming, I have
this relation from Richard Humphrey, my neighbour, and
a man of veracity, that on Wednesday, April 27, 17^7^ as
he and one Walter, were travelling a-foot from Canterbury ;
when they came to Rainham, they were assaulted with
such a strong loathsome stink, as he thought was like the
stench from a corrupted human corpse. They were so
offended at it, as thinking it was from carrion in that
town, that they would not stay there to rest and refresh
themselves, but travelled on for about two hours, mostly
in the stench, but sometimes out of it, till they came to
the hill that leads down to Chatham : and there they
went clear out of it and smelt it no more/^ — Dr. Fuller.
It appears that these persons did not fall sick of any
disease, but the fact of itself is remarkable enough.
56
It is probable that the atmosphere contained
foreig-n and sensibly perceptible admixtures to a
great extent^ which^ at least in the lower reg-ions,
could not be decomposed or rendered ineifective by
separation. In 1348 an unexampled earthquake
shook Greece^ I^aly^ and the neig'hbouring* coun-
tries. During- this earthquake the wine in the
casks became turbid, a proof that chang-es causing"
a decomposition of the atmosphere had taken place.
" The insect tribe was wonderfully called into life^
as if animated being-s were destined to complete the
destruction which astral and telluric powers had
beg-an."
" The corruption of the atmosphere came from the
east^ but the disease itself came not upon the wings
of the wind^ but was only excited and increased by
the atmosphere where it had previously existed.^'
" The most powerful of all the spring's of the dis-
ease was contagion ^ for in the most distant coun-
tries, which had scarcely yet heard the echo of the
first concussion, the people fell a sacrifice to organic
poison^ the untimely offspring" of vital energ-ies
thrown into violent commotion."
" After the cessation of the Black Plag-ue, a greater
fecundity in Avomen was every where remarkable, a
gTand phenomena, which from its occurrence after
every destructive pestilence/proves to conviction the
prevalence of a higher power in the direction of
general organic life."
57
In the article Contagion, of the Essay^ Sweating-
Sickness : " Most fevers which are produced by
g-eneral causes^ propag-ate themselves for a time
spontaneously." ^^ The exhalations of the affected
become the g"erms of a similar decomposition in those
bodies which receive them^ and produce in these a like
attack upon the internal org-ans^ and thus a merely
morbid phenomenon of life, shows that it possesses
the fundamental property of all life, that of propa-
gating itself in an appropriate soil. On this point
there is no doubt, the phenomena which prove it have
been observed from time immemorial, in an endless
variety of circumstances, but always with a uniform
manifestation of a fundamental lawJ^
Mead^ in his Essay on the Plag^ue^ makes many
observations of great interest and worthy a physi-
cian of eminence -, and where^ in recent times^ shall
we look for any more definite information concerning
the causes of pestilences ? It is not a little sing-ular
that at the time this book was published^ it was
read with such avidity that it went throug"h seven
editions in one year.* From this circumstance we
may gather that the public generally took a lively
and proper interest in a subject that was not only
of domestic^ but national importance. Whether
this interest was stimulated by the fact that the
w ork was written expressly by order of the govern-
* Hamilton's History of Medicine.
58
ment^ it is now impossible to say^ at any rate much
credit is due to the Lords of the Reg-ency for having-
placed so important a duty upon one so thoroughly
and in every way so duly qualified for the task as
Dr. Mead. It had been well if some of the advice
g-iven at that time^ as means of protection ag-ainst
the Plag-ue^ had been applied and put in force
during- the late visitation of epidemic Cholera^ for^
however the minds of some may be convinced of
the non-contag-iousness of Cholera_, there are many
who hold a different opinion^ and all will acknow-
ledg-e^ that if not strictly a contag-ious affection^ it
is clearly proved to be capable of being* carried from
place to place^ or to use Dr. Copland's words^ it is
'' a portable disease." But this is not the place to
discuss the subject of contag-ion^ allusion will be
made to it hereafter. To return^ Mead's expressions
are sing-ularl}^ illustrative of the vital power pos-
sessed by the g-erms of disease^ he saj^s^ ^^ There
are instances of the distemper's being- stopt by the
winter cold^ and yet the seeds of it not destroyed^
but only kept unactive^ till the warmth of the fol-
lowing spring has given them new Ufe and force.
His confession as to the hidden cause of the disease,
is worthy transcribing- : " We are acquainted too
little with the laws, by which the small parts of
matter act upon each other, to be able precisely to
determine the qualities requisite to chang-e animal
juices into such acrimonious humours, or to explain
59
how all the distiug-uishing" symptoms attending*
the disease are produced."*
On the spread of the Plague is the following : —
" The plag-ue is a real poison^ which being- bred in
the southern parts of the world^ maintains itself
there by circulating* from infected persons to g*oods^
that when the constitution of the air happens to
favour infection^ it rag-es with great violence/'
Contagious matter is lodg-ed in goods of a loose and
soft texture, which being packed up, and carried
into other countries, let out, when opened, the
imprisoned seeds of contagion, and produce the
disease whenever the air is disposed to give them
force, '^ otherwise they may be dispersed without
any considerable ill effects." Gibbon thus speaks of
the above quoted work : " I have read with pleasure
Mead's short but elegant Treatise concerning Pes-
tilential Disorders ;" many also might read it at
the present day with infinite advantage. Mead
most satisfactorily combats the opinions of the
French physicians who maintained the non-conta-
giousness of the Plag^ue. Experience proves beyond
doubt, that certain conditions of atmosphere, of
* It has been said, that '' an induction once carefully
drawn, is as perfect from a single instance as it is from
ten thousand, and that it is only an uncultivated mind
which requires a load and accumulation of knowledge to
assist his thoughts.^' — Sewell '^ on the Cultivation of the
Intellect.''
60
which we are ig-norant^ favour the growth and
increase of pestilences as they do of all veg-etation.
Dr. Bancroft was of opinion that specific conta-
gions are each and severally creatures of Divine
Wisdom, as distinctly and desig-nedly exerted for
their production, as it was to create the several
species of animals and veg-etables around us.
The indigenous fever of Ireland, which has
several times shewn itself in an epidemic form,
appears to have been as fatal, as the Plag*ue in the
South of Europe. Its devastations have generally
been associated or preceded by famine and g'eneral
distress. Dr. Harty, writing* in 1820, says that
thrice within the last eighty years has the same
fever appeared in its epidemic character. In the
year 1741 Ireland lost 80,000 of her inhabitants
from this cause. It is a maculated typhus, and
considered to be a special product of the Emerald
Isle. It has been shewn that fever began to exceed
its ordinary rate in those places first where famine
and want of employment were most severely felt,*
and that in such places and under such circum-
stances, it was most prevalent and fatal. The
physicians generally believed it to have been spon-
taneously produced and not to have been imported.
In the last Famine Fever of Ireland, Liverpool and
several other places suffered severely from the
* See Dr. Alison's Pamphlet on the Fever in Edin-
burgh.
61
importation of their Channel neighbours with the
disease in some instances^ and the infection in
others about their persons. Hitherto these have
to all appearance been the limits of the affection ;
we know not^ however^ how soon the time may come
when the invisible bonds which have thus chained
the disease to certain localities may be severed^ and
spreading" itself like other pestilences in an ag'g'ra-
vated form^ attack this country as a last and crown-
ing* act of retributive justice. At present it has
but cost us money and reg'rets^ but if the history of
pestilences is to be heeded^ there are many tokens
which seem to indicate that a few slight concurrent
circumstances only are wanting^ to bring the full
force of this disease upon us ; then will there be a
sacrifice of life. Edinburgh and other towns of
Scotland have had some visitations already^ our-
selves but slightly^ but let our labouring population
suffer to any large extent for want of work^ and we
shall inevitably be the sufferers from that fever
which in consequence of general destitution is now
always more or less prevalent in Ireland.
The Sweating Sickness prevailed in England
alone at first^ but at length sought foreign victims.
The Cholera is an exotic disease^ as well as the
Plague^ but they occasionally have visited our
shores^ and their seeds remain among us. The
Small Pox is now even not known in some parts of
the world^ but when once it is established^ who can
predict the period of its first appearance in an
^
6S
epidemic form. The history of the disease informs
us that in all the countries where it has been
introduced^ sooner or later an epidemic has seized
the inhabitants.
A disease previously unknown in India appeared
at Rangoon in the year 1824^ which obtained the
name of Scarlatina Eheumatica. Four years after-
wards it attacked the Southern States of North
America^ and thoug'h the disease was so impartial
as scarcely to spare a single individual of any town
to which it extended its influence^ it was not accom-
panied with that mortality which has usually been
the characteristic of wide spread epidemics.
There is one peculiar feature of all epidemics
which may be here mentioned as indicative of some
definite^ thoug'h at present unaccountable cause^
operating' in the sudden suppression of the disease
after a certain period of duration. This distinctive
character may almost be considered as a law in
reference to these affections , if we take three dis-
tinct diseases^ the Plag-ue^ the Irish Fever and the
Cholera^ we find the rule apply to all. Of the latter
disease we have so recently been witnesses^ that I
need not quote authorities on this point concern-
ino* it. In Dr. Patrick Russell's work on the
Plag'ue at Aleppo I find the following- remarkable
passage. After alluding- to the great increase of
pestilential effluvia that there must be towards the
close of an epidemic^ compared with the amount at
the onset of the disease^ and expressing his astonish-
63
ment that so many escape infection^ he says : '^ The
fact^ however unaccountable^ is unquestionably
certain \ the distemper seems to be extinguished by
some cause or causes equally unknown^ as those
which concurred to render it more or less epidemical
in its advance and at its heio-ht." He then mentions
that in Europe the sudden cessation may be partly
attributable to the measures adopted for preventing-
its extension \ but ^^ at Aleppo^ where the disease is
left to run its natural course^ and few or no means
of purification are employed^ it pursues nearly the
same progress in different years ) it declines and
revives in certain seasons^ and at lengthy without
the interference of human aid^ ceases entirely."
The expressions of Dr. Harty on this subject^ in
connexion with the Irish Fever^ would apply as w^ell
to all other epidemics : '' It is a fact^ that though
every diversity of management was resorted to for
effecting the suppression of the disease^ yet^ never-
theless^ there was an almost simultaneous and
apparently spontaneous decline of the epidemic in
the various and most remote parts of Ireland.
It is not an easy matter to offer a satisfactory
explanation of this circumstance^ some general cause
must no doubt have influenced the subsidence of the
disease, yet that cause could not be atmospheric^
inasmuch as the decline, though it might be said to
be simultaneous^ was not sufficiently so to admit of
that explanation."
64
SECTION III.
THE DISPERSION OF PLANTS AND DISEASES.
The dispersion of Diseases and the dispersion of
Plants^ exhibit analogies which mig-ht be little
expected^ on a superficial view of the enquiry.
We are led to believe^ that the earth as a whole^
was not covered with veg'etation in a day^ the g'eo-
log-ical history of this planet is one of development,
and though at first sight this expression of opinion
may appear to savour of doubt in the Mosaic
record, a more extended acquaintance with the sub-
ject, favours rather and confirms Scripture history.
As the peopling of the earth has been a gradual
process with the animal creation, so has it been
also with the vegetable kingdom. We see at the
present day, that plants by various means of transit
from place to place, multiply themselves on new
soils and in new climes, the same with animals. By
other means we observe, or can trace, the extinction
from various localities and countries, of members
of both the animal and vegetable kingdom.
We learn that originally this planet had ^ tem-
perature much higher than at present, and that the
variation of temperature between the equator and
the poles, which we now witness, did not obtain
in the earlier condition of the globe. We are given
to understand, and not without considerable proof,
0;j
if not demonstration^ that the earth was a vast bog*^
in ^\hich rank ^eg-etation g-rew^ and in which the
ichthyosauri and plesiosauri^ must have floundered
about as unwieldy and loathsome bodies. We can
readily conceive a condition of atmosphere at this
time to have been loaded with pestiferous vapours
of an organized nature ; it is entirely in accordance
with all we know^ that it should have been so.
Allied forms of plants to those now in existence^
are found in the form of fossils^ by which com-
parisons are made^ but how the transition into the
present Flora took place^ or at what period^ it is
impossible to say. That these plants should have
been entu*ely destroyed during* the revolutions of
the earth by earthquakes^ and their consequences ;
the collection of waters into the vacuities formed^
and their draining- off* from other places by eleva-
tions of the land^ is not to be dwelt on without
astonishment ; then ag-ain the ultimate changes of
temperature on the surface of the earth, may have
been another element in the history of their extinc-
tion. But if we may be allowed to imag-ine that there
were org-anic germs floating in the vapours of the
atmosphere, these would hardly be subject to the same
influences as those which depended solely on their
fixation to the soil for subsistence. The atmosphere,
their native element, being influenced by the com-
motions from below, would be agitated ; vortiginous
currents would be established, hurricanes would
sweep over the stagnant pool and reeking morass,
F
and the higher regions of the air might have thus
given protection to these subtle germs^ while almost
a total extinction of the elegant ferns^ the stately
palm^ and the towering cane was in course of pro-
cedure. Then when the strife of the earth and
elements had subsided, these would descend with
the gentle breezes^ and again find in various spots
a local habitation —
'^ Where blue mists, through the unmoving atmosphere.
Scatter the seeds of pestilence and feed unnatural vege^
tation"
In the new era^ when the earth took its present
physiognomy^ who shall say whether much of the
pestiferous matter may not have been enclosed and
condensed in the bowels of the earthy and when it
is remembered^ that earthquakes and convulsions of
nature^* have invariably preceded the outbreak of
* Earthquakes have in all times been considered to have
some connexion with pestilences. " A most grievous pes-
tilence broke out in Seleucia, which from thence to
Parthia, Greece, and Italy, spread itself through a great
part of the world, from the opening of an ancient vault in
the temple of Apollo, and that it raged with so much fury
as to sweep away a third part of the inhabitants of those
countries it visited." — Dr. Qiiinci/, on the Causes of Pesti-
lential Disease.
^^ Upon an earthquake the earth sends forth noisome
vapours which infect the air ; so it was observed to be at
Hull in Yorkshire, by the Rev. Mr. Banks, of that place.
07
any great pestilences, that stinking* mists, coming
from some unknown regions, and unusual vegeta-
tions have made their appearance in concert at these
times, what I ask is more natural than to imagine,
that they have been let loose during the general
convulsion ? It may be asked, what is to be said
about that revolution of the earth, when the great
Deluge spread over the whole face of the globe ? It
can only be replied, that this is a part of the scheme
of cosmogony into which we are not called upon to
enter. There are yet strenuous supporters of the
partial as well as total submersion of this planet,
but whether it be true that the vast torrents which
appear to have swept the surface uniformly in a
southern direction, were of a date coeval with the
deluge, and constituted an essential portion of the
phenomena, of which one was, that " the fountains
of the great deep were broken up," or whether they
were anterior to this catastrophe, will not at all inter-
fere with the conjecture of a very early formation
and propagation of the germs of pestilential diseases,
for the commotions of a deluge were less likely to
interfere with the vapours of the atmosphere, than
extensive volcanic and electric disturbances. More-
over, it is rather in favour of this theory, that the
after a small earthquake there in 1 703, it was a most sickly
time for a cousidcrable while afterwards, and the greatest
mortality that had been known for fifteen years."
Anonymous, 1769.
F 2
\
68
regions where the temperature and exhahitions
most nearly resemble those of the former condition
of the earthy are those in which pestilential disor-
ders most frequently arise^ and where their virulence
has always been most strong-ly marked.
After the various commotions which left the
giobe^ with its present physiog-nomy of mountains^
plains^ valleys^ rivers^ lakes^ and oceans ; a new
Flora and Fauna appeared to adorn and animate
the scene of man's existence. Plants and animals
were created apparently in adaptation to the nume-
rous climes^ which the seasons in the various latitudes
or the elevations of the soil^ were prepared to render
fruitful and useful each in its ow-n sphere. Besides
this^ the plants of the &ame latitude^ in some in-
stanceS; differ materially from each other 3 in this
ease it seems that the soil has much to do with this
peculiarity^ for it is certain that the soil and the
contig'uous atmosphere^ have a close and intimate
relation ; the drought of the desert depends upon the
sand^ as humid atmosphere is connected with the
morass. To illustrate the tendency which vegetation
shews in appropriating" one locality more than ano-
ther^ I ma}?- quote the following : ^^ Some of the
volcanic masses of the ^olian or Lipari Islands^
that have existed beyond the reach of history^ are still
without a blade of verdure , while others in various
parts^ of little more than two hundred years date^
bear spontaneous vegetation^ and the same is seen
on two lavas of Etna near each other, for the one
69
of I086 is still black and arid^ while that of 1636^
is covered with oaks^ fruit trees^ and vines/^
In comparing- the diffusion of plants^ and the
diffusion of diseases^ the different modes by which
this generally has been effected may be considered
under heads^ that the comparison may be more
readily traced.
First, seeds are diffused by the atmosphere,
either by the prevalence of certain currents^ which
are produced by known laws^ in which case^ no ^
difBculty occurs in the explanations ] or in a more
imperceptible manner, as by those more uncertain
atmospheric currents of a partial nature, which,
thoug-h they seem to have laws governing them, are
not yet understood.
Second, seeds are transported by water across
oceans, &c. when they can be floated on any mate- ^
rial by which they are preserved, as by wrecks and
masses of wood, which have been washed down the
rivers.
Third J they are conveyed by man to all parts of
the globe.
Fourth, a period of latency is observed to apply
to them, that is, they require certain essential con-
ditions before germination occurs ; so that even in .y
some localities, a plant may not have been known
to exist in a particular neighbourhood, but by a
train of circumstances, it may make its appearance,
and again be a centre of development.
1st. I shall not here wander into th(^ speculation,
70
whether })hiiits had orig-inully one birth-pltiee^ as a
centre from which they spread by various agencies^
as supposed by Linnseus^nor into any enquiry beyond
those facts^ which may fairly come within our own
comprehension^ and within our own means of de-
monstration.
Many seeds are provided with means adapting-
them for floating* in the atmosphere^ these are by
pappi^ or wing-lets and hairs^ but it cannot be doubted
that the ag-ency of atmospheric currents^ is produc-
^ tive of considerable effects in the dispersion of
^ lig-hter seeds^ such as those of mosses^ fung-i^ and
lichens — lichens have been discovered in Brittany^
which are peculiar to Jamaica^ and Monsieur De
Candolle concludes^ that their seeds had been car-
ried thence by the south-westerly winds^ which
prevail during- a great part of the year on this
portion of the French coast.
But Humboldt's testimony on the subject of
winds is most satisfactory^ for he says^ ^^ Small
sing-ing- birds_, and even butterflies^ are found at sea^
at g-reat distances from the coast (as I have several
times had opportunities of observing- in the Pacific)^
being- carried there by the force of the wind^ w^hen
storms come off the land." It is g-enerally believed^
from abundance of proofs^ that the trade winds^
and other continuous currents^ are means by which
plants are conveyed from one country to another.*
* See Sharon Turner's Sacred History, text and notes,
vol. i. p. 161 & 162.
\
71
As to the partial curreiitSj Humboldt further
says^ ^^ The heated crust of the earth occasions an
ascending* vertical cui'rent of air by which light
bodies are borne upwards. M. Boussing-ault^ and
Don Mariano De Bivero^ in ascending* the summit
of the Silla^ one of the gneiss mountains of Caraccas,
saw in the middle of the day^ about noon^ whitish
shining bodies rise from the valley to the summit of
the mountain^ 5755 feet high^ and then sink down
towards the neighbouring sea coast. These move-
ments continued uninterruptedly for the space of an
hour. The whitish shining bodies proved to be small
agglomerations of straws^ or blades of gTass^ which
were recognized by Professor Kunth^ for a species
of vilfa^ a genus^ which together with agrostis^ is
very abundant in the provinces of Caraccas and
Cumana."
On the plague of locusts we read^ that ^^ the Lord
brought an east wind upon the land^ all that day
and all that night, and when it was morning the
east wind brought the locusts."
On the Black Death we read, " There were many
locusts which had been blown into the sea by a ^
hurricane, and a dense and aAvful fog was seen in
the heavens, rising in the east, and descending upon
Italy.''
Of the Plague of 542, Gibbon says, " The winds
might diffuse that subtle venom, but unless the
atmosphere be previously disposed for its reception,
the plague would soon expire in the cold or tem-
u^
72
per ate regions of the north. The disease alternately
lang'uished and revived^ but it was not till a
calamitous period of fifty-two years^ that mankind
recovered their healthy or the air resumed its pure
and salubrious quality/^
In the history of the Sweating- Sickness^ of which
^ there were Hye distinct visitations^ we find ample
allusions to the atmosphere^ and the mode in which
the disease was conveyed by this medium.
I quote ag-ain from Hecker : ^^ It seemed that
the banks of the Severn were \he focus of the malady j
and that from hence^ a true impestation of the
atmosphere^ was diffused in every direction. Whi-
thersoever the winds wafted the stinking* mists^ the
inhabitants became infested with the sweating*
sickness. These poisonous clouds of mists were
^ observed moving from place to place, with the dis-
ease in their train^ affecting- one town after another^
and morning- and evening* spreading- their nauseating-
insufferable stench. At g-reater distances^ these
clouds being- dispersed by the wind^ became g-ra-
dually attenuated; yet their dispersion set no
bounds to the pestilence^ and it was as if they had
imparted to the lower strata of the atmosphere, a
kind of ferment which went on engendering itself
even without the presence of the thick misty vapour,
and being- received into men's lung's^ produced the
frig-htful disease everywhere."*
* " Each seed includes a plant ; that plant, again,
Has other seeds, which other plants contain,
73
Mr. K. B. Martin, liarbour-master of Riiius<rate,'
ill a communication to Lord Carlisle on the Cholera
of last autumn^ says^ "At midnight of the 31st
Aug-ust (1849); the Samson (steam-tug*) proceeded
to the Goodwin Sands^ where the crew were em-
plo3^ed under the Trinity ag-ent^ assisting- in work
carried on there by that corporation. While there,
at 3 A. M. 1st September, a hot humid haze^ with a
hog-like smelly passed over them ] and the gTeater
number of the men there employed instantly felt a
nausea. They were in two parties. One man at
work on the sand was oblig-ed to be carried to the
boat ) and before they reached the steam vessel at
anchor, the cramps and spasm had supervened upon
the vomiting's ; but here they found two of the party
on board similarly affected. Here then is a very
marked case without any known predisposing- local
cause. Doubtless it was atmospheric, and in the
hot blast of pestilence which passed over them.''
Many more instances might be quoted, to shew
that the germs of disease, as well as of plants, are
borne on the wings of the wind from place to place
Those other plants have all their seeds ; and those
More plants, again_, successively enclose.
Thus ev'ry single berry that we find,
Has really in itself whole forests of its kind.
Empire and wealth one acorn may dispense.
By fleets to sail a thousand ages hence ;
Each myrtle-seed includes a thousand groves.
Where future bards may warble forth their loves."
U-
74
ill one country^ and from one country to another^
the distance being* no obstacle^ however g-reat that
may be.* " Dust and sands/^ says Sharon Turner^
'^ heavier than many seeds^ are borne by the winds
and clouds for several hundred miles across the
atmosphere^ falling* on the earth and seas as they
pass along*/' " The clouds not only bring us occa-
sionally meteoric stones^ hail; and epidemics^ but also
veg*etable seeds/'f
2nd. The transportation of seeds of plants by
water requires very little notice ; every one is fami-
liar with the mode in which coral islands^ which
gTadually rise out of the sea^ become covered with
veg-etation. '' If new lands are formed^ the org*anic
forces are ever ready to cover the naked rock with
life. — Lichens form the first covering* of the barren
* On June 5th, 1849, a man and his son, a lad aged
14 years, left Noss to fish, and when five miles out at sea,
no vessel being in sight, they both simultaneously became
aware of a hot offensive stream of air passing over them.
It was so decided, that the crab pots were examined to
discover if it were from them, but it did not, and five
minutes after the father's attention was directed to the
boy, who was vomiting and purging/' — Dr. Roe on the
Cholera at Plymouth, Med, Gaz. Aug. 24:th, 1850.
t Linnaeus remarked that Erigeron Canadense was
introduced into gardens near Paris from North America.
The seeds had been carried by the wind, and this plant
was in the course of a century spread over all France,
Italy, Sicily and Belgium.
75
rocks^ where afterwards lofty forest trees wave their
airy summits. The successive growth of mosses^
g-rasses^ herbaceous plants and shrubs or bushes^
occupies the hiterveniiig* period of long* but undeter-
mined duration."
The following" may be cited as an instance of the
transportation of disease by water. '^ Cyprus lost
almost all its inhabitants^ and ships without crews
were often seen in the Mediterranean^ or afterwards
in the North Sea^ driving* about^ and spreading the
plague wherever they went on shoreP*
It requires no arg-ument to enforce the conviction
that cottons^ woollens^ furs^ skins^ &c. will retain the
matter of infection for almost an indefinite period ;
instances of the kind have been already given \ it is
therefore easy to understand that portions of wrecks
and ship's g-oods would be a fi^equent thoug"h un-
suspected source of infection. Dr. Halley mentions
a case^ in which a bale of cotton was put on shore
at Bermuda b}' stealth ; it lay above a month with-
out prejudice^ where it was hid^ but when opened and
distributed among" the inhabitants^ it produced such
a contagion that the living scarce suflSced to bury
the dead. Dr. Walker found seeds dropt accidentally
into the sea in the West Indies cast ashore on the
Hebrides. He says, '^ the sea and rivers waft more
seed than sails." The waters of many rivers induce
diarrhoea and dysentery.f Well water also in many
* Hccker.
t This is found most generally to be the case where
^
U
76
\ places has a similar effect^ especially if aii}^ surface
drainag-e happens to liiid its way into the well.
3rd. The part performed by man himself in the
communication of disease to his fellow creatures^ is
perhaps the most fruitful source of the extensive
spread of epidemic and contag-ious diseases.
In the time of Moses^ restrictions were laid on
those who had the plag-ue of the leprosy to avoid
contag-ion ; the dictum for one so affected was^ " he
shall dwell alone 3 without the camp shall his habi-
tation be."^ All the ancient authors believed in the
rivers flow through uncultivated tracts of country. The
Californian emigrants suffer much from diarrhoea and
dysentery, if they drink of the river and certain well
waters of that gold district.
* "Purification from leprosy. As this fearful disease
was contagious and hereditary to the third and fourth
generation, the separation of lepers from the camp and
congregation, and the destruction of infected houses and
clothes, was of the utmost importance to the preservation
of public health.
"Leprosy was of three kinds: 1st, Leprosy in man.
2nd, Leprosy in houses. 3rd, Leprosy in clothes.
" Contagious or malignant leprosy was of two kinds, viz.
" 1st. The white leprosy, or bright berat, which was the
most serious and obstinate form which leprosy assumes.
It exhibited itself as a bright white and spreading scale, on
an elevated base ; turning the hair white in patches, which
were continually spreading.
" 2nd. The black leprosy, or dusky berat, which was less
serious than the foregoing. It did not change the colour
infections natnre of pestilential fevers^ and some
other diseases ; but^ according to Mr. Adams^ they
held that no specific virus wns the cause^ and merely
a contamination of the surrounding* air by effluvia
fi*om the sick. Thucydides^ Hippocrates, Procopius,
Galen, Plutarch, all recognized the property of
communicability from one individual to another of
the plague ; and Hecker, on the epidemics of the
middle ages, abounds with instances in support of
contagion. As regards small-pox and measles,
Rhazes observes particularly the connection that
exists between the condition of the air and the
severity or mildness of these diseases, remarking
that small-pox seldom happens to old men, except
in pestilential, putrid, and malig'nant constitutions
of the air in which this disease is usually prevalent.
The history of the introduction of Scarlet Fever,
Hooping Cough, Lues, and other diseases into
the various countries of the globe, is sufficiently
convinchig that men carr}^ about with them the l_^
seeds of disease 3 that while these attach themselves
to the persons and clothing of those who introduce
them into new climes, and flourish independently of
cultivation, yet the exotics which they foster with
so much care, often disappoint their most sanguine
expectations j and these ^^ languishing in our hot-
of the hair, nor was there any depression in the dusky spot ;
but the patches were perpetually spreading, as in the white
leprosy." — Analysis and Summary of Old Testament His-
tory. Oxford.
\
78
houses cfin g-ive but a very foint idea of the majestic
veg-etation of the tropical zone." Art in this
procedure fails to accomplish here^ what nature but
too sadly^ under some circumstances^ effects most
readily. The germs of some diseases thoug-h of an
exotic character^ under cong-enial influences of vari-
\ ous kinds^ appear to flourish with native vigour :
is it not SO; also^ with some forms of veg-etation ?
The aloe^ a native of Mexico^ which lives^ but does
not thrive well^ or reproduce under ordinary circum-
stances in this country^ will occasionally send forth
a most luxuriant blossom^'* so rare is this^ that
some say it occurs every 50 or 100 years^ but no
law seems to be established on this pointy any more
than the statement that we may expect pestilential
diseases at certain intervals. But that there are
intervals of uncertain duration when the aloe will
blossom, when the grapes will ripen^ and a general
productiveness of exotics will occur^ is as certain as
\ that seasons will occur when contagion will be
rife^ and a most unusual multiplication of disease
prevail. This is not an imaginary or speculative
notion^ — all observers of seasons and diseases within
the last twenty years^ may fully verify the state-
ment.
In 1846; a large vine^ the black Hambro-grape^
* The Mexican Aloe blows when nine years old, and
then dies. At least this is its usual course in the island
of Cuba.
79
ripened its fruit out of doors^ and was as fine as
an}' g-reen-house production ; but during nine 3'ears
that the vine has been under my inspection^ this was
the only time I have witnessed such a result.
We are apt to attribute an abundant or scarce
iruit season to temperature alone^ but this is an
error— for we have before remarked^ that though
certain lands may be in the same degTee of latitude^
the plants which thrive well on one land^ will not do so
on the other: infine^ that where reason and analog-y
would lead one to expect a particular form of veg-e-
tation^ a totally different Flora is presented to the
view. These facts are indeed suo-o^estive of new
and important deductions. Is it yet explained why
the town of Birming-ham should be free from
Cholera ? There is a larg-e manufacturing- popula-
tion^ a great number of poor^ the usual overcrowding*
of individuals in small chambers^ a considerable
amount of destitution and depravity ', irreg-ular
habits of living-^ and unwholesome diet^ and doubt-
less many parts of the town^ which on investig'ation
w^ould have yielded all the elements usually con-
sidered necessary for the localization of the disease :
but no — here was some repelling* cause^ some
opposing- ag-ent to the g-eneration and propagation
of the pestilential seeds. There are no known laws
by which inorg-anic matter could be supposed to
observe such a selection^ or such an antag-onism.
Electricity^ mag-netism^ ozone^ g-ases^ exhibit no such
elective properties that here they will destro}'^ and
L
\
80
there the}^ will spare y that thej^ con almost depopu-
late small ^'illag^es^ and scarcely find a victim in
Birming-ham and Bath. But if we suppose a
living-^ and multiplying* matter as the cause of
disease^ many local causes ma}^ conspire to arrest
the development of the g-erms^ or perhaps^ even
utterly destroy them.
4th. As to the time of latency^ facts crowd
upon us indefinitely^ as elements of comparison
between veg-etation g-enerally^ and disease in its
early stag-es and history. The seeds of plants are
extraordinarily^ tenacious of life. What a m^^sterious
arrang-ement of the ultimate particles of matter
must there be^ by which the vital force remains
apparently inactive for many years^ and yet when
the conditions arise favourable to its manifestation^
as it were by an extraordinary fiat^ life appears.
Previous to the year 1715; no broom g-rew in
the King*'s Park^ at. Stirling- , but in that year a
camp was formed there^ and the surface of the
ground consequently was broken in many places.
Wherever it was broken^ broom sprang up. The
plant was subsequently destroyed; but in 1745 a
similar growth appeared after the ground had been
again broken for a like purpose. Some time after-
wards the park was ploughed up^ and the broom
became generally spread over it. ^^ In several
places in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh/' says
Professor Graham^ ^^ the breaking of the surface
produces an abundant crop of Fumaria parviflora^
81
although the same plant had never before^ been
observed in the neighbourhood. It is impossible to
say the lapse of time since these were buried^ before
they were ag*ain excited to the performance of all
their vital functions." Dr. Graham also gives
another proof of the vital force existing in seeds.
" To the westward of Stirling there is a large peat
bog, a great part of which has been flooded away
by raising water from the River Teith, and dis-
charging it into the Forth^— the under soil of clay
being then cultivated. The clergyman of the
parish standing* by while the workmen were forming
a ditch in this clay, which had been covered with
fourteen feet of peat earth, saw some seeds in the
clay which was thrown out of the ditch y he took
some of them up and sowed them : they germinated
and produced a crop of Chrysanthemum septum.
What a period of years must have elapsed while the-
seeds were getting their covering of clay, and
while this clay became buried under fourteen feet of
peat earth !"*
* " Ground that has not been disturbed for some hun-
dred years,, on being ploughed, has frequently surprised the
cultivator by the appearance of plants which he never
sowed, and often which were then unknown to the country.
The principle has been ascertained to be capable of exist-
ing in this latent state for above '2000 years, unextinguished,
and springing again into 'active vegetation, as soon as
planted in a congenial soil.
'* In boring for water near Kingston on Thames, some
82
What limit can there be to the dispersion of seeds
when their vital properties may remain so long-
unimpaired? The seeds of which we have been
speaking" were^ no doubt many of them^ washed
away with the waters of the Teith^ and carried by
the stream into the Forth ; and who shall then mark
their destination j for we have seen that by such
means the most distant lands are supplied with
veg-etation j for whence come the plants which cover
the Goral Islands^ unless by the air and the water,
and that both contribute, has been incontestably
proved. Dr. Lindley states that melon seeds have
been known to grow when forty-one years old )
maize thirty years, rye forty years, the sensitive
plant sixty years, kidney-beans a hundred years.
But seeds in g^eneral have an indefinite period, ap-
parently, at which they can retain their power of
germination ; for many of the seeds which had been
kept in the herbarium of Tournefort for more than
a century, were found to have preserved their
fertility.
It has now to be shewn that the g'erms of disease
also retain their vital powers in a state of dormancy
during- a lengthened period.
earth was brougbt up from a depth of 360 feet_, and though
carefully covered with a hand-glass to prevent the
possibility of other seeds being deposited on it, was yet in
a short time covered with vegetation.
"Turner says, from the depth, these seeds must have
been of the diluvian age/' — Jesse's Gleanings.
8;3
Mead has veiy judieioiisl}^ observed^ ^^to breed a
distemper^ and to give force to it Avhen bred, are
two different thing-s." He further remarks^ that
the seeds of the Pkigue ma}^ confine themselves
to a house or two duiing- a hard frosty winter^ and
be preserved^ and ag*ain put forth their mali^ant
quality as soon as the warmth of the spring* gives
them force. It is certainly very remarkable that
the Plag-ue of London^ which commenced at the
latter end of the year 1664^ should ^Hie asleep/' as
Mead says^ from Christmas to the middle of
February^ and then break out in the same parish.
It has been also known that an infected bed laid
by for seven years had done infinite mischief on
being* ag^ain broug-ht into use. Indeed^ it is quite
uncertain for how long* a period woollen^ fur^ linen,
cotton, and other articles may retain infectious
matter in a dormant state. It has be^n supposed
by some that in closely packed bed and body clothes
a multiplication of the g-erms may and does take
place, nor do I see any reason why this should not
be the case, for these articles contain within their
structure the effluvia of the animal body, and they
may possibly there find sufficient nutriment for
their development. Nees von Esenbeck believed
that some of the minute Cryptog'amia were re-pro-
duced in the air, we are not therefore exceeding*
philosophical conjecture when we imag*ine a basis
and substratum, though an unusual one, for the
g*erms of veg-etation. Exclusion from air and lig'ht,
G 2
84
however, as would be the case in packed-up clothes^
\ would a priori give a better colour to the conjec-
ture^ as these are the usual conditions necessary for
the growth of seeds.
Small Pox and Cow Pox matter^ which are now
proved to be the same virus^ the former modified by
having" been through a process of growth and
maturation in the cow^ are both remarkable for
exhibiting their active properties after having lain
dormant for a considerable time. And each^ though
so closely allied^ retaining its specific properties.
This peculiarity in the history of Small Pox
virus suggests a comparison with some phenomena
of vegetation^ viz, that of grafting or budding. The
lower Cryptogamia in their fructifications resemble
rather multiplication by buds than by seeds. M.
Moyen's idea is that every spore or little globule^
independently of its neighbouring one^ lives^ absorbs^
assimilates^ grows^ and re-produces on its own
account ) this is certainly the characteristic of the
Torula and the Uredo^ and doubtless is so of many
other of the Cryptogamia^ the Protococcus nivalis is
another instance. Other modes of cultivation pro-
duce also great varieties of results of an unexpected
kind.
Would any one^ says Dr. Walker^ imagine that
cabbage^ cauliflower^ savoy^ kale^ brocoli^ and turnip -
^ rooted cabbage^ were the same species ? yet nothing
is more certain than that they are only varieties
produced by the cultivation of the Brassica oleracea,
85
a plant which grows wild on the sea-shores of
Europe.
These varieties in vegetables have now become
permanent^ and thoug-h it is supposed that each is
liable to return to its original condition^ I am not
yet certain that such is the tendency. A deteriora-
tion is not unlikely to ensue in the course of time,
because the propagation by seeds must necessarily
very much approach the system of intermarriage,
on which Mr. Walker has so ably written and
clearly shewn that as a result we may invariably
expect a deterioration of the species. Dr. Darwin
has also poetically described what his experience
taught him,
" So grafted trees with shadowy summits rise^
Spread their fair blossoms and perfume the skies.
Till cankei^ taints the vegetable blood,
Mines round the bark and feeds upon the wood ;
So years successive from perennial roots,
The wire or bulb with lessened vigour shoots,
Till curled leaves or barren flowers betray
A waning Uneage verging to decay ;
Or till amended by connubial powers.
Rise seedling progenies from sexual flowers."
The minute nature of the germs of disease pre-
clude all possibility of their being submitted, as far
as we know at present, to the inspection of the
])hysiologist, but we may infer many facts from
results. In the same way, though with humbler
86
ideas^ as Cuvier could build up an animal from a
sing-le boiie^ can we by a combination of facts infer
the existence of living* being's and conjecture their
forms. '^ The re-production or g-eneration of living*
\^ org-anized bodies is the g*reat criterion or character-
istic which disting-uishes animation from mechanism/'
We find the virus of Small Pox^ according* to Mr.
Ceely's experiments^ developing* itself as a consti-
tutional disease upon the cow^ and becoming
modified into a form known as the Cow Pox 3 this
resembles the process of cultivation by which a
species is converted into a variety^ this variety
remains for a certain time persistent ; the time is not
yet known^ but it is known that by degrees^ as
stated above^ a deterioration occurs^ and fertility
becomes impaired^ ^^ a waning* lineag*e verg'ing* to
decay/' and this has been observed as a feature in
the result of vaccination. I believe Dr. Greg*ory
A\as one of the first to notice this fact^ and deemed
it necessary to obtain fresh lymph from the cow ;
this has been done^ and it is not improbable^ if the
analog*y we have drawn be correct^ that the slowly
spreading scepticism regarding vaccination may be
arrested in its progress. If we can explain the
deterioration of cow pox virus on this principle we
have a hold at once upon the public^ and can assure
them that the efficacy of the proceeding is as certain
as in the time of Jenner. The people^ I contend^
have a right to demand of us the reason why
vaccination is not so efficacious as formerlv, and I
87
affirm as unhesitatiiig'ly that we are bound to give
the subject our most earnest attention.*
Now concerning- the re-production of Cow Pox
matter^ and assuming- it to resemble that of the
lower Cryptog-amia^ we can easily understand how
degeneration in a course of years should ensue^ for
we find that though the Small Pox is a constitu-
tional disease^ that produced by vaccine lymph is a
local affection^ so that it bears the relation that
grafting does to vegetation, and it is not improbable
that such a modification takes place in the germs
by passing through or becoming generated in the
blood of the cow^ that they entirely lose their
original and characteristic form of reproduction :
the seeds of the disease were originally capable of
vegetating, if I may be allowed to use the term^ by
diffusion through the atmosphere ; they now^ how-
ever, have lost that property^ and require to be
grafted to exhibit any manifestation of vitality.
How often will the seeds of a cultivated fi'uit
grow ? If you bud it upon another plant^ you ob-
tain a being exactly like the parent^ but this^ as we
have seen^ deteriorates in a course of years^ we
have also seen that the virus deteriorates j but not
to stretch this point to an unseemly leng-th^ I
cannot avoid expressing my conviction^ that these
are elements of comparison^ possessing an interest
and a practical utility of no small value.
* Hamilton's History of Medicine, vol. ii. p. 276, uotc.
\
88
I have before said^ that the reproduction in the
Cryptogam ia^ rather resembles budding' than seed-
ing*. If we observe the Torula^ or take the process
of all formation^ g-enerally it will be found to accord
more exactly with the budding- than the seeding*
process^ and this peculiarity is not confined to veg-e-
tation^ it is also a marked feature in the reproduction
of infusoria^ spong-es^ polypes^ &c.
" New buds surround the microscopic plant/'
The reproduction of plants and animals appears
to be of two kinds^ solitary and sexual ; the former
occurs in the formation of the buds of trees^ and
the bulbs of tulips.
The microscopic productions of spontaneous
vitality propag-ate by solitary g*eneration only.
We have but reached the threshold of this vast
and interesting* subject^ the experiments which sug*-
g-est themselves to the mind while reflecting* upon
it^ would alone occupy a whole life of leisure^ and
I can but feel how forcibly Mr. SewelFs words
apply to us : " The g-rand field of investigation lies
immediately before us^ we are tramj)ling* every
hour upon things which to the ignorant seem
nothing but dirt^ but to the curious are precious as
gold.^'
It is difficulty perhaps^ to bring many instances^
in which the germs of disease have lain dormant for
a lengthened period^ because many may take excep-
tion to them^ from the fact^ that sporadic cases of
89
most epidemic and infectious diseases^ are rarely
absent from any country in which those diseases
have become indigenous, and these cases may be
said to be the foci whence orig-inates the epidemic
constitution of the air; this, however, would not \y
invalidate the supposition, because one of two in-
ferences must be drawn, either that the germs of
disease always exist in a dormant state, requiring"
circumstances and conditions only for their develop-
ment, or that the g*erms are imported from some
distant locality, where the disease has occurred,
and finding a nidus there, grow and multiply.*
Whichever notion we take, however, matters very
little to the fact of the dormancy of the germs, for
in both, a certain period elapses between their
transmission and their propagation. It may fairly
be presumed, that sometimes one method may apply
* "\Miat I wish you to remark is this, that while
almost all men are prone to take the disorder, large por-
tions of the world have remained for centuries entirely-
exempt from it, until at length it was imported, and that
then it infallibly diffused and established itself in those
parts." — Dr, Watson on the Principles and Practice of
Physic.
Dr. R. WilUams says, " The seeds of intermittent fever
lay dormant for months, it was not at all uncommon for
cases of intermittent fever to be brought into the hospital
eight or ten months after the patients had subjected them-
selves to the influence of paludal or marsh effluvia.'^
^
90
and sometimes the other^ perhaps both during*
g-eneral epidemic conditions of the atmosphere.
The Oidium vitis attacked the vines partially last
year^ and I believe generally spared other forms of
veg-etation 3 but this year in my vicinity^ cucumbers^
melons^ and vegetable marrows^ are all suffering
more or less under the disease.* How shall we say^
whether are the seeds of last year the cause of the
g-eneral diffusion at the present time^ or were there
a sufficient number of old and dormant seeds^ uni-
versally diffused^ and only waiting- opportunities for
multiplying- themselves ? We are here on the horns of
a dilemma ; and spontaneous g-eneration^ from which
one naturally shrinks^ can alone extricate us^ if we
do not admit diffusion and dormancy. I think I
may^ without undue assumption, affirm that a
period ^f latency of indefinite duration, applies as
cogently to the germs of disease as to those of
plants.
There is yet one other point in connection with
this subject, and that is the apparent extinction of
some diseases, at any rate their non-appearance in
certain localities, which had been at one time con-
genial to them, and in which they flourished. We
have seen, in illustrating the dormancy of seeds,
that the broom must have been a common plant at
* I have observed in the hot-houses_, that many of the
exotic plants, which are in company with the diseased
vines_, have been attacked, while others again have been
entirely free.
91
some considerable period back^ in the King's Park
at Stirling-^ or on that site.
Then ag*ain^ the appearance of Fumaria par-
viflora in the vicinity of Edinburg-h^ in several
places where the ground is broken^ is sufficiently
convincing" that this plant must once have been a
common form of veg^etation there ; and as it had
never before been observed in the neighbourhood^
there must have been a combination of peculiar
circumstances capable of rendering* germination
impossible^ otherwise a continued multiplication^ as
in other forms of vegetation^ would have followed
of necessity.
But besides these instances^ how many are
passing under our own eyes of the disappearance of
plants under the influence of cultivation^ and the
generation of the noxious fumes arising from
different and innumerable manufactories. In the U^
vicinity of large cities and manufacturing towns^
how rarely do we see healthy vegetation ', shrubs
and animals drag on a sickly and almost unprolific
existence^ and their term of natural hfe is much
shortened.
And if we compare diseases with this peculiar
feature of vegetation^ how very close do we find
the analogies. The Sweating Sickness which ap-
peared in the latter part of the fifteenth century, L^
and at certain intervals multiplied and extended
itself at first only in this country, but ultimately
more or less over the continent of Europe^ has
92
never since the year 1551 shewn any symptom of
productiveness^ indeed for all we know the disease
may be extinct ; on the other hand^ it is impossible
to say whether or not circumstances may arise^
under which it may commence ag-ain^ to put forth
its energ-ies and ag-ain desolate the land.*
Since 1665^ the Bubo-plag'ue has not found a
cong-enial soil in this country^ or if the seeds be
here^ which is more than probable^ the necessary
conditions to excite them to activity do not exist.
It cannot be imagined that with all the merchan-
dize which comes into this country from the
Mediterranean^ but that an abundance of the g-erms
of the disease are annually broug'ht into our ports^
and disseminated throughout the land. The law by
J which we have seen that they possess a power of
vitality and reproduction^ holds now as it did in for-
mer times ; — the properties of matter never alter^
but the conditions under which they exist may be so
modified^ as to influence their properties^ and the
usual course of their operations. It is therefore to
\
* By causes of the greatest variety plants may become
extinct for a time. It is not very easy to trace them, but
one fact may be mentioned in proof of the statement.
Dr. Prichard states that vast forests are destroyed either
for the purpose of tillage or accidentally by conflagrations.
" The same trees do not reappear in the same spots, but
they have successors, which seem regularly to take their
place. Thus the pine forests of North America when
burnt, afford room to forests of oak trees."
93
an alteration or modification of conditions that we
are to look for the exemption^ during- the last two
centuries^ fi*om an invasion of the Plague. To say
what those conditions ma}?" be in their totality
is difficulty perhaps impossible. We may g-eneralize
on the subject^ and imag-ine the reason discovered,
but all those causes which were said to have con-
spired to favour the spread and contamination with
Plag-ue^ were as distinctly specified and attributed^
as the cause of our late infliction with Epidemic
Cholera. Why then did we have the Cholera and
not the Plag'ue ? To what particular element was
it — in the mode of living*^ of destitution^ of filth
and want of drainage— can it be ascribed that we
suffer under one disease, and not under the other ?
We have made some few observations and com-
parisons on the mode of dispersion of plants and
diseases^— but there is yet one more point which
invites notice. Not only do seasons vary in their
effects on vegetation in a remarkable and unexplained
manner^ but there are many localities to which some
special form of veg-etation attaches^ and which
appear to have a power of exclusion of other forms ;
and as yet I have not been able to trace the
connexion^ nor can I discover it in the writing's of
botanists and travellers^ who would be most likely
to have sought an explanation of so interesting- and
curious a fact. Dr. Prichard has on this subject
some very apposite illustrations. " Still further
southward, the austral temperated zone completely
94
chang-es the physiog-nomy of veg-etatidn^ and the
Isle of Norfolk has^ in common with New Holland^
the Auracania found also in the harbour of Balade^
and with New Zealand^ the Phormium tenax. It is
however remarkable^ that this vast island^ composed
of two lands^ separated by a channel^ thoug-h so
near New Holland^ and lyings under the same lati-
tude^ differs from it so completely_, that they display
no resemblance in their veg-etation. Yet New
Zealand^ so rich in g-enera peculiar to its soil^ and
little kno wn^ has some Indian plants : such as Pepper^
the Olea^ and a reniform Fern/ which is said to
exist in the Isle of Maurice."
I must quote one more passag*e from Dr.
Prichard's excellent work. ^^ We have one instance
of an island at no g'reat distance from a continent^
having" a peculiar veg-etation. Mr. E. Brown has
remarked^ that there is not even a sing-le indig-enous
species characterising" the veg"etation of St. Helena^
that has been found either on the banks of the
Cong"o^ or on any other part of the Western coast
of Africa. Does the diversity of marine and atmos-
pheric currents more completely separate this
island from the continent^ than its situation would
imply ', or are the nature of soil and other local
circumstances^ the cause of so marked a diversity?
The last supposition seems the most probable j
because not only the species of plants^ but likewise
the genera in St. Helena, are different from those of
the African coast."
95
We are not without instances of diseases^ observing-
this peculiarity which attaches to plants ; but their
specific characters have hardly been sufficiently con-
sidered in reference to climate and situation^ together
with diet and local influences^ to afford us accurate
data for comparison. It has^ however^ been remarked^
in every country where Epidemics have prevailed,
that some districts or tracts of country, though sup-
posed to possess all the qualities favourable to the
development of the diseases, have nevertheless been
entirely or nearly fi'ee from them. The following* pas-
sage on the course of the Cholera gives an example of
this peculiarity. ^^Whenever the malady deviated, so
to speak, from its normal direction, and passed
towards the west, it seemed incapable of propagating i^
itself; and died away spontaneously ^ even in places
which appeared to he well Jit ted for its reception, —
The rich fertile and densely peopled countries to the
right of the Dneiper, enjoyed an equal freedom
from attack, which can only be explained by the
fact that they were situated heyond the line of the
disease,^' With this I close the subject of the dif-
fusion of plants and diseases, though it would
require a volume of itself, to record all that has
been noticed. I have endeavoui'ed to select such
instances as shall mark distinctly the features which
point to comparison without overloading the enquiry.
\
90
SECTION IV.
THE RELATION BETWEEN EPIDEMIC AND ENDEMIC
DISEASES.
Epidemic diseases^ which multiply their g-erms in
any climate^ and under apparently the most varying*
conditions of temperature and hyg-rometric and
electrical states of atmosphere^ offer many points of
contrast with Endemic affections^ and many of rela-
tionship. The latter are traceable to a certain
extent^ to g"eolog*ical and g-eog"raphical positions of
the localities where they are observed to prevail^
in combination with atmospheric vicissitudes and
peculiarities^ as well as to extent of cultivation of the
soil: it has been remarked that the sickly island
(as it is called) of St. Lucia has certain salubrious
parts^ but these are where sulphur abounds \ this
g'eolog'ical peculiarity has been deemed sufficient to
account for the absence of endemic affections in
these partS; and with much force of reason \ for in
the neighbourhoods where sulphur or sulphurous
acid^ a compound of sulphur^ is an element prevalent
in the soil or atmosphere^ veg*etation and the ag*ue
disappear tog'ether.
Now ag'ue^ and other endemic fevers^ doubtless
o orig-inate from some allied^ if not identical cause j
for the localities in which they appear have so many
97
features in common^ that we are constrained to
acknowledge that endemic fevers have some rela-
tions and analogies^ though not yet unravelled.
Geographical situation, together with certain
vegetation, particularly of grounds which grow rice,
is one remarkable for the production of endemic
affections. But the soil which generates or gives
force to the contaminating matter, is not alone the
part where human beings feel its influence most
severely. A low marshy ground, prolific of malaria,
may be comparatively free; while some neigh-
bouring elevated land, to which prevailing currents
of air waft the volatile elements of disease, may be
desolated by their virulent and concentrated action.
" Malaria may be conveyed a considerable distance
from its source, and he condensed in the exhaled
vapour, when attracted by hills or acclivities in the
vicinity, and when there are no high trees or woods
to confine it, or to intercept it in its passage."
The inhabitants of the city of Abydos were at
one time subject to disease, arising from malaria,
generated in . some neighbouring marshes ; by
draining these marshes, which suspended the growth
of rank vegetation, the city became healthy.
Rome is in like manner even now subject to
fevers, having a similar origin. Sir James Clark
says, " Among the more prevalent diseases of Eome,
malaria fevers are the most remarkable, and claim
our first notice." He considers the fevers to be of
exactly the same nature as those of Lincolnshire
H
L^
\
98
and Essex in this country^ of Holland^ and certain
districts over the g-reater part of the globe. To the
climate^ the season^ or the concentration of the cause
of these fevers^ he attributes their varieties. It is
the same disease^ he says, whether from the swamps
of Walcheren^ or the pestilential shores of Africa.
From July to October the inhabitants of Eome
are most subject to these affections.
Sir James Clark further says : '^ It may be
stated as a general rule^ that houses in confined
shaded situations^ with damp courts or gardens^ or
standing" water close to them^ are unhealthy in every
climate and season; but especially in a country
subject to intermittent fevers^ and during- summer
and autumn. The exemption of the central parts of
a larg-e town from these fevers^ is explained by the
dryness of the atmosphere^ and by the comparative
equality of temperature which prevails there."
In this respect there is a marked difference be-
tween an epidemic and an endemic affection; for
when an epidemic disease attacks a city or town we
do not discover that the central parts are more
exempt than others ; indeed^ it is rather the con-
trary; for the most crowded parts of towns and
cities are those^ if not exactly in the centre^ which
would be comprised in a space nearer to the centre
than the circumference ; and it has been in those
parts g-enerally where the epidemic influences seem
to have exercised the most potent sway. One would
more naturally suppose^ that a city surrounded by
u-
99
paludal miasm^ and not itself being- capable of gene-
rating- the poison, should be more affected at the
circumference, from the simple fact that the paludal
g-erms, which rise in the air, are suspended in the
fog's and dews of the atmosphere. These, unless
widely dispersed by the winds, would remain w ithin
a comparative^ confined space j and those situations
nearest to them would be most subject to their in-
fluence. Besides, it has been shewn, that a small
wood or hill, or even a wall, has been sufficient to
cut off or obstruct the paludal miasm.
Without enumerating all the known endemic
diseases, two or three may be alluded to for our pre-
sent purpose \ viz. that of shewing- that endemic
and epidemic diseases have a similar orig-in.*
It is well known that under certain favouring-
conditions an endemic may become a malig-nant and
pestilential disease; that Yellow Fever, which is
always endemic in the west. Cholera in the east, and
the Plague in the south of Europe and north of
Africa, every few years takes on an epidemic form,
and desolates considerable tracts of country.*
The Pestilence which rag-ed in the summer and
autumn of 1804 in Spain, commenced at Malaga,
and remained for a considerable time confined to its
* Hecker says of ChaUn de Vinario, that " he asserted
boldly and with truth, that all epidemic diseases might /,
become contayious, and all fevers epidemic, — which atten-
tive observers of all subsequent ages have confirmed.'^
P. 60.
H 2
100
boundaries^ in consequence of the measures of pre-
caution that were used^ in preventing" all communi-
cation between the inhabitants of the infected city
and those living* in the surrounding* country. It
Avas only in consequence of persons escaping* throug*h
the cordon^ and passing* into the interior of the
country^ that the disease spread^ and extended its
ravag*es to distant places.
It appears to be quite clear^ that this disease may
properly be considered in the first instance of en-
demic origin ; but the tendencies^ atmospheric and
otherwise^ were such as to favour its multiplication
in other districts than that in which it first came
into active existence. From this we may infer^ that
the seeds of the disease were dormant^ and only
became roused into vital activity by fortuitous cir-
cumstances. Dr. Rush states^ that the endemic
disorders of Pennsylvania were con^erted^ by clearing*
the soil^ to bilious and malig*nant remittents, and to
destructive epidemics. Dr. Copland says^ it has
been observed^ especially in warm climates^ and in
hot seasons in temperate countries^ that when the
air has been long* undisturbed by hig-h winds and
thunder-storms^ and at the same time hot and moist^
endemic diseases have assumed a very severe and
even epidemic character.
Dr. Robertson also confirms this view. ^'Endemic
diseases^ in cases of neg-lect and preposterous ma-
nagement^ are found to become more malig-nant
even in the most temperate climates , and to g*ene-
101
rate a matter in their course^ capable of producing*
a particular disease in any circumstances. Indeed
the origin of every contagious fever unattended with
eruptions^ with the exception of Plag-ue^ must com-
mence in this way.'^ Why Dr. Eobertson should
except eruptive Fevers and Plague I cannot under-
stand^ for they must have had a commencement ;
and their many points of similarity indicate^ if not an
identical^ an analogous source to other endemic
fevers.
It will doubtless be generally acknowledged that
endemic and epidemic diseases depend upon some
unknowTi agents^ having their source in malarious
districts^ and being capable of assuming either a
contagious or non-contagious character^ according
to circumstances.
If, therefore, we find that under any conditions an
endemic affection becomes capable of being propa-
gated by contagion, the same law will hold with
regard to it as to the Plague ; that the power of re-
production in this matter is evidence of life, according
to the doctrine laid down in the earlier part of this
work. But whether or not infection be admitted, a
matter generated in a malarious district, if confined
in its effects to that district alone, would not neces-
sarily imply an inorganic nature of the poison ; for
it is difficult to understand how inorganic poison,
prevailing generally over a certain tract of country,
could select particular individuals for its victims.
If chloroform, chlorine, carbonic acid, sulphuretted
hydrogen, or even spores of poisonous fungi, (as
102
supposed by Mitchell^ which^ as he reg-ards their
effects^ would act in a similar manner to inorg-anic
compounds) were the ag-ents^ all persons would
suffer more or less^ and the majority be similarly
affected. We do not find that uniformity of symp-
toms^ which attend upon the exhibition of poisons
in the ordinary acceptation of the term^ poisoning.
This subject shall be more particularly considered^
when treating* of the influence of org-anic g'erms on
animals and plants.
The history of the Eclair steamer is particularly
interesting-^ as shewing- the extraordinary tenacity
with which the g-erms of disease attach themselves
to vessels^ which we may call floating houses.
The crew of the Eclair contracted Yellow Fever
on the coast of Africa^ and a number of them died.
The remainder^ sick and well^ landed at Bona Vista,
one of the Cape de Verde Islands, and the vessel
underwent a process of washing-, whitewashing-, and
fumig-ating-. Nevertheless, on the return of the ship's
company, the disease broke out ag-ain with equal
mtensity, and the vessel was ordered home. Sixty-
five out of 146 officers and men, who composed the
crew, died of the disease before reaching- Portsmouth,
and twenty -three were sick at the time of arrival.
Eig-ht days after the Eclair left Bona Vista, a
Portug-uese soldier who had mixed with her crew
died in the fort which had been occupied by them.
Other soldiers then fell sick, and the fort was aban-
doned. The fever still spread.
From the 20th September, when the first soldier
103
was attacked^ to the first week in December^ the
fever continued to rage^ and at that period it had
found its way into almost all the country villages.
The fever was believed to be the genuine black vomit
fever ; it proved contagious almost without excep-
tion to the nurses of the sick.
This is an abstract of Mr. RendelFs letter to Lord
Aberdeen^ Mr. Rendell being British Consul at
Bona Vista.
Now at the time the fever broke out in the island
the weather was extraordinarily hot^ and much rain
had fallen^ and the town itself was badly drained
and in a filthy state ; can it be imagined then that
the seeds of a disease liable to assume a pestilential
character should lie dormant or be annihilated under
circumstances the most favourable for their develop-
ment^ especially when we know that endemic diseases
may assume a malignant character ?
This is just one of many cases which confirm our
opinion in this respect, that plants and diseases are
not long in making their appearance where the soil
and atmosphere are congenial.
The tenacity with which the disease attached
itself to the Eclair is sufiiciently explained in the
absence of due ventilation ; in fact^ that in the first
instance there was no ventilation at all in the hold
of the ship. This also the more readily affords a
clue to the disaster through all its stages, first in the
contraction of the disease as an endemical affection
in the vessel ; secondly, in the multiplication of the
104
g-erms in the damp ill-ventilated hold^ in a warm
climate ; and thirdly^ the persistence and entire
localization of the disease to the vessel when it
arrived in the climate of the British shores ; while^
fourth and lastly^ in the unusually hot and damp
island of Bona Vista^ the seeds of the disease were
sown^ and^ as we mig-ht expect^ multiplied indefi-
nitely.
The consecutive attacks of the crew of the Eclair
shew that here a noxious gas or a vaporized inor-
ganic poison could not have been the cause of the
disease^ for as I have before said^ in this case the
attacks should have been simultaneous ', we find^ on
the contrary^ that as the depressing* effects of the
melancholy condition of the crew was almost hourly
undermining" the health of the stoutest of them they
as surely became the victims. The Kroomen^ or
natives on board the ship had not suffered^ shewing*
that they were inured to the miasm^ or were destitute
of that condition of blood which would be favourable
to a propagation of the materies of the disease.
The Eclair we learn had left Bona Vista eight
days when the first victim breathed his last ; this
would give perhaps three or four days for the incu-
bation of the disease in the patient^ or supposing he
had not contracted the germs of the disease before
the crew of the Eclair left the fort^ some local
favouring conditions were the means of keeping the
germs in a fertilizing state^ for it is clear from this
spot the infection spread as from a centre or focus.
105
Such instances as these mig-ht be multiplied to extend
the length of the enquiry, but, I think, to little
advantag-e. The chief facts to be g'athered are
that an endemic affection became epidemic and pes-
tilential, contrary to its usual mode, for the Portu-
g'uese oflScial physician, on being* consulted by the
Governor of the Island as to the safety of landing-
the contaminated crew, said, ^^ No dang-er at all ; I
have often brought sick men on shore coming- in
vessels from the Afi-ican coast, and I never knew
any ill effects to arise." Putting- the most reason-
able construction on this emphatic and straig-htfor-
ward lang-uag-e, we may presume that ordinary^
remittent, and yellow fever had been commonly
imported into the island, for it is not to be supposed
but that both forms of disease must have existed
among- those sick men who had ^^ often been landed j^
under the sanction of the Portug-uese physician.
To take another instance 5 intermittent fever or
agne, is a disease known among- almost all nations
of the world, but it usually occurs in the endemic
form onty. It is universally supposed to depend
entirely upon marsh effluvia, and we are accustomed
to consider it as attaching- only to low lying- coun-
tries ;* but this is not always the case, for disease in
* In 1539, the thirty-first year of Henry the Eighth,
was great death of burning agues and flixes ; and such a
drouglit that wclles and small rivers were dryed up, and
many cattle dyed for lacke of water ; the salt water flowed
above London Bridge. — Slowe.
In 1556, the fourth of Mary, and the third of Philip,
this respect^ like veg-etation^ may be found in various
latitudes^ to accommodate itself at varying* altitudes^
to the temperature and climatic relations^ so as to
appear indigenous. But thoug-h our prejudices are
in favour of a simple miasmatic source of ag-ue^ as
its sole cause^ there are some who believe in its
infectious nature. M. Sig-aud^ in his work on the
Climate and Diseases of Brazil^ speaks of Epidemics
oi grave intermittent Fever ^ and Dr. Copland says^
that the epidemic prevalence of ag-ue is a better
established fact than its infection^ and has been
admitted by most writers.* We have^ therefore^ but
to g-o one step further to arrive at infection^ after
having found that an endemic disease under pecu-
liar circumstances^ though but rarely^ becomes
about this time began the burning fevers, quarteme agues,
and other strange diseases, whereof died many. — Stowe,
The next winter, 1557, the quarteme agues continued
in hke manner, or more vehemently than they had done
the last yere. — Stowe.
* Every writer on the chmate of Egypt has remarked, that
the Endemic Fever which is so frequent, originating on
the coast, particularly about Alexandria, becomes occasion-
ally so virulent, that it cannot be distinguished from the
true Plague. — Robertson on the Atmosphere, vol. 2, p. 384.
" Endemial Fevers of every situation become occasion-
ally so aggravated, that they cannot be distinguished from
such as originate from contagion ; and in every unusual
virulence of this Endemic Fever, it is probable that it may
be propagated afterwards by contagion as every epidemic."
Ibid, p. 388,
107
epidemic. The number of persons attacked by
agne in a malarious district^ in proportion to the
population^ is not so g'reat as mig-ht be expected^ con-
sidering- that they are always subject by night and
day^ more or less^ to respire the air containing* the
germs of intermittent fever 3 we mighty therefore^
deny the paludal source of the affection^ as reason-
ably as deny infection^ if we found that occasionally^
persons^ though subject to all the usual influences^
yet escaped all injurious consequences.
There are g-rades and varieties of infectious dis-
eases^ from the most inveterate to the most mild and
doubtful y but that all^ without exception^ which can
in any way be traced to a specific generating and
organic cause^ may assume an exalted infectious
character^ and that the most inveterate^ on the
contrary^ may more resemble the mild and doubt-
fully infectious forms^ is a conviction that must
be forced on all who pursue this enquiry with
unbiassed interest.
L^
CHAPTEK III.
THE EEASONABLENESS OF THE APPLICATION
OF THE FACTS TO THE INFERENCE.
SECTION I.
THE CHEMICAL THEORY OF EPIDEMICS UNTENABLE.
It has been inferred that the g-erms of disease
possess the property of vitahty^ and a number of
facts have been adduced to support the proposition
that vitahty is the indwelUng- force by which the
matter g-enerating- epidemic and endemic disease
exercises its influence over man and animals. The
reasonableness of the application of these facts to
the end in view has now to be considered. Chemistry
cannot account for epidemics.
Our first subject of reflection points to the che-
mical discoveries of the last few years^ and parti-
cularly to those of the great German chemist Liebig*.
We find in the first parag-raph of his Org-anic
Chemistry applied to Physiology and Patholog'y^
the following" words : '^ In the animal ovum^ as well
as in the seed of the plant^ we recog-nize a certain
remarkable force^ the source of growth or increase in
the mass^ and of reproduction or of supply of the
matter consumed ] a force in a state of rest. By
the action of external influences^ by impreg-nation^
by the presence of air and moisture^ the condition
109
of static equilibrium is disturbed. This force is
called the vital force j vis vitce^ or vitality."
The doctrine of Liebig*^ that the vital force
manifests itself in two conditions^ or rather^ that it
is known to be in two diiferent states^ that of static
equilibrium as in the seed^ and in a dynamic state^
as in that of g'rowth and reproduction^ is perfectly
applicable to the germs of disease ; the static equi-
librium is referrible to the matter of vaccine lymph
when dried and preserved for use, and the dynamic
forces of the matter are known to be in operation
during* its reproduction and g'rowth in the system of
the vaccinated child.
Then as to reproduction of matter by any chemical
process, our author can furnish us with no examples,
for even in his explanation of the causes of disease
he is quite silent on this point, merely acknowledging-
that diseased products must be either rendered
'' harmless, destroyed, or expelled from the body.''
He further says, that " in all diseases where the
formation of contagious matter and of exanthemata
is accompanied by fever, two diseased conditions
simultaneously exist, and two processes are simul-
taneously completed," and that it is by means of
the blood as a carrier of oxygen that neutralization
or equilibrium is established. Liebig thus admits
that an agent exists in the blood, capable of dete-
riorating it at the expense of the oxygen, which he
maintains is contained in the red globules; he
further acknowledges that two processes of diseased
110
action are going" on at the same time^ and though he
does not explain them^ I imagine him to mean that
new contagious matter is generated and eliminated
from the bloody and that at the same time^ there is
that condition of body which he would call simply
a diseased state^ and characterizes it thus : ^^ Disease
occurs when the sum of vital force which tends to
neutralize all causes of disturbance^ (in other words^
when the resistance offered by the vital force) is
weaker than the acting cause of the disturbance."
If I rightly apprehend his notions^ they perfectly
harmonize with my ideas^ to a certain extent^ on
the subject. They accord^ at any rate^ most com-
pletely with the theory attempted to be established^
and fully confirm the reasonableness of the ap-
plication of the facts recorded to the inference drawn
from other sources. The difference only rests on
the question whether vitalized or non-vitalized
matter is thefons et origo mail.
How is the production of new matter^ resembling
that originally causing the disease^ to be explained
by any known hypothesis^ except on the assumption
of hving organized matter 1 Though Liebig and
Mulder both deny the fact^ that the Torula cerevisiae
is the sole agent in the process of fermentation :
they both equally fail in shewing upon what it does
depend^ and their difficulty rests entirely on their
incapacity to explain the uniform reproductive pro-
perties of the matter engaged in this^ as well as in
all other allied operations. Liebig's statement
Ill
however on this matter requires notice— he says^
^* that 27utrifyi?ig bloody white of egg, flesh and
cheese^ produce the same effects in a solution of
sug-ar^ as yeast or ferment. The explanation is
simply this ; that ferment or yeast is nothing* but
veg-etable fibrine^ albumen or caseine^ in a state of
decomposition/'
This state of decomposition^ however^ involves a
much more complex proceeding*^ than simply a
reduction of matter into its elementary forms of
g-ases, earths^ and minerals ; for we nowhere find
decomposition of this kind g'oing* on without the
development of some org-anized bodies^ either animal
or veofetable : and since we have seen that the
spores of the cryptogami are always in existence in
the atmosphere^ and making their appearance under
favouring" conditions^ and especially when we find
that fermentation is invariably accompanied^ and I
may safely say^ preceded by the deposition in the
fluid of the sporules of the Torula^ we can hardly
believe that they are an}^ other than the sole ag-ents
of the process. I have now a considerable quantity
of the Torula obtained from the urine of a diabetic
patient^ in which they appeared^ as it were^ spontane-
ously. After the urine had been allowed access to
the air for a certain time, and the whole of the
saccharine matter was converted into new com-
pounds, reproduction of the Torula ceased ; — and
those which remained when the process was
completed, still continue as organic cells, deposited
112
in the bottle in an inert state^ but ready^ on the
addition of fresh sug'ar^ as has been proved^ to
resume an active existence. These g-erms^ it is now
well known, may be dried into powder^ so as to be
blown away like dust without any^ or but little,
detriment to their vital energies 3 and there is now
no doubt that they exist in this condition in the air,
as do the spores of mucor, aspergillus, oidium,
agaricus, and all other fang-i. .
Mulder, however, does allow some properties to
the yeast vesicle ; he says, '^ a variety of strange
ideas have been entertained respecting the nature of
yeast \ recent experiments have convinced me that
it undoubtedly is a cellular plant consisting of
isolated cells. They resemble the composition of
cellulose in some respects, but differ from it in many.''
^^ These vesicles, consisting of a substance re-
sembling that of cells, do not contribute in the
least to the fermentation, but are exosmotically
penetrated during fermentation by the protein
compound." These chemists seem to have an
instinctive horror of allowing any active properties
to the yeast vesicle, that is as far as the conversion
of sugar into carbonic acid and alcohol is concerned
in the act of fermentation. Dr. Carpenter, as if
desiring to conciliate the chemical and physiological
disputants, considers that the truth is to be found in
the mean of the two extremes,— that is, that the
process of fermentation is neither entirely dependent
on chemical laws, nor on those laws which preside
113
over the growth of reproductive matter^ but is a
process in which both perform certain offices^ each
depending" on the other to produce the combined
result^ he thus approaches more nearly to the theory
of Mulder^ than that of Liebig".
But to revert, to Mulder, he speaks of theTorula cells
being* " exosmotically penetrated during- the process
of fermentation by the protein compound." Now
the Torula is acknowledg-ed to be one of the Fung-als,
and the chemical constituents of the Fung"i approach
very nearly that of animal tissues. They contain a
peculiar principle, residing- in and obtainable from
them, termed Fung-in, which is as hig-hly azotised as
animal fibre. The protein compound alluded to,
Mulder says, is not g'luten, because insoluble in
boiling- alcohol, and not albumen, because it is very
readily dissolved in acetic acid, and he reg-ards it as
a superoxide of protein. This superoxide of protein
can onl}^ have been produced by a vital action in
the cells of the Torula, and as the fung-i consume
oxyg-en, and g*ive out carbonic acid, we clearly have
all the elementary conditions for their growth in
almost all decomposing- animal and veg-etable
matters. It is the nature of the fiing^i to live on
org-anized matter, but always when it has a tendency
to decay ; it is for this reason they have been called
" Scaveng-ers." Again, we can understand why
some animalized or nitrogenous matter should be
necessary for fermentation, otherwise fungi could not
grow, nitrogen being an essential constituent of
I
114
their structure^ and further fermentation does not
commence without the presence of oxyg-en^ and
like as in animals^ this g-as supports their existence.
The conversion of sug'ar into alcohol is represented
by the following* formula : —
Result.
Sugar.
Alcohol. Carbonic Acid.
Hydrogen . .
. . 3
3
Oxygen . . .
. . 3
1 . . 2
Carbon . . .
. . 3
2 . . 1
If therefore the process were merely of a chemical
nature^ where is the necessity for atmospheric
oxyg-en to accomplish the end ? it is quite certain
that fermentation cannot g'o on without its presence.
Let us compare the action of ferment or yeast in a
dried state to the action of albumen^ which Liebig*
says is sufficient when decomposing* to set up fer-
mentation. ^^The white of eg-g-s when added to
saccharine liquors requires a period of three weeks^
with a temperature of 96° F. before it will excite
fermentation."* But any saccharine liquor on
exposure to the air^ thoug-h entirely destitute of
albumen or g-luten^ will ferment^ and the Torula may
be found in it. I have found the Torula in a gTeat
variety of syrups which have spontaneously under-
g-one fermentation. I have also discovered that
the development of the cells is delayed or accelerated
by the nature of the ing-redient used in flavouring
* Dr. Ure.
115
the syrups^ with other peculiarities which need not
here be mentioned.
But the conversion of starch into su^ar by means
of g'luten requires some notice^ as by some persons it
is associated in their minds with the org-anic process
of fermentation.* Mulder ascribes the latter in the
first instance to the action of heat; e\ddently believ-
ing- that the pseudo-catalytic operation of gluten
upon starch is the type of all such actions^ and
reg-arding- them all as simply chemical^ but we here
disting-uish a wide difference ; in the latter instance
the g'luten is decomposed^ and rendered unfit for a
repetition of the chemical phenomenon^ and if it is
desired to renew the action fresh g'luten must be
obtained; and a certain temperature kept up^ other-
wise the experiment fails. How different is fer-
mentation : in the ordinary temperature of the
atmosphere the yeast vesicle will multiply^ no incre-
mental or unnatural addition of heat is requisite^
and it is one of the commonest and most natural
instances of veg-eto-chemistry : the g-rape cannot
shed its juice^ nor the sug-ar cane its sap without
admitting" these g-erms^ which; under certain condi-
* "The metamorpliosis of starch into sugar depends
simply, as is proved by analysis, on the addition of the
elements of water. All the carbon of the starch is found
in the sugar ; none of its elements have been separated,
and except the elements of water, no foreign element has
been added to it in this transformation."
Liebig, Organic Chemistry, p. 7l«
I 2
IIG
tions multiply themselves and convert the saccharine
elements into new compounds. The method by which
the conversion of starch into sug-ar is accomplished is
thus described by Dr. Ure. He sa3^s that if starch
one part be boiled with twelve parts of water and left
to itself^ water merely being- stirred in it as it evapo-
rates^ at the end of a month or two in summer
w eather it is chang-ed into sug-ar and g-um^ bearing-
certain proportions to the amount of starch used.
But " if we boil two parts of potato starch into a
paste^ with twenty parts of water^ mix this paste
with one part of the g-luten of wheat flour^ and set
the mixture for eig-ht hours in a temperature of
from 122'' to 167° F. the mixture soon loses its pasty
character^ and becomes by deg-rees limpid^ transpa-
rent^ and sweety passing- at the same time first into
g-um and then into sug-ar.'^ — '^ The residue has lost
the faculty of acting- upon fresh portions of starch."
Four points of contrast present themselves for
notice as elements of comparison with true fermen-
tation. 1st. The starch solution has to be boiled^ so
that heat^ by which it is to be supposed that the
starch g-lobule is ruptured^ seems to be an essential
portion of the chemical chang-e^ and even this may
in fact alone be sufficient in such a case to produce
some elementary chang-e in the starchy and may
prepare it for the subsequent catal3^tic action of
some related org-anic^ thoug-h not vital material.*
* As regards starch there appears to be some pecuUar
faculty regarding it. It is converted into sugar during
117
2nd. Not only a summer heat is necessary^ but a
period of one or two months time must elapse before
the starch with the water simply becomes converted
into sug-ar^ and if artificial heat is to be used to
hasten the operation^ a temperature from 122° to
167° F. must be resorted to in order to obtain the
desired result. 8rd. When e^en this is accom-
plished there is no reproduction of the fermenting
matter^ and artificial and chemical means must again
be applied to repeat the experiment. 4th. The
conversion of starch into sugar can be accomplished
without the presence of gluten at all^ by the aid
only of temperature and time. It seems to me^
therefore^ to be entirely unnecessary to occupy more
space in the elaboration of a proof of the doctrine
that the germs of the Torula are the sole agents in
the conversion of saccharine fluids into alcohol and
carbonic acid. By another chemical process starch
can be converted into sugar^ but I am not aware
that hitherto any method has been discovered by
which sugar can be converted into alcohol except by
the process of fermentation proper.
I have been thus particular in commenting* on
this subject^ as it bears, in an especial manner^ on
the question under consideration.
the ripening of fruit, and it is just possible that being as
it is of a cellular natiu-e, the property of vitality may
attach to it until it has, by being converted into sugar,
fulfilled its destination.
118
The physiolog-ist cannot afford to lose this pro-
cess from the category of chemico-vital^ or bio-
chemical manifestations.* The philosophy of the
ag'e has a tendency to make every thing- chemical ;
it is true that the Divinity is as much seen in the
laws which govern the elementary particles of mat-
ter^ as in those laws which preside over the trans-
mutation and sustentation of those elementary and
inorganic particles_, when compounded in the tissues
which are engaged in the formation of living beings.
The laws by which acids and alkalies neutralize each
other^ and the affinities single^ double and elective^
which the particles of matter exhibit^ together with
the influences of light^ heat^ and electricity upon
almost every condition of matter^ are as truly won-
derful as the creative power. Man may^ in many
instances^ imitate the processes of nature^ he can
render iron magnetic^ and form alkaloids^ but the
* Though I do not consider that the fermentation pro-
cess is a fac-simile of diseased action,, yet I think its
phenomena generally afford an apt illustration of the
changes which may be effected by living germs. Many
able chemists still maintain the (entire dependence of fer-
mentation upon the Torula ; " M. Blondeau propounds
the view that every hind of fermentation is caused by the
development of fungi."
The varieties of opinions found in the literature of this
subject^ forms a curious specimen of scientific enquiry, and
is suflBcient alone to convince us of its vast importance and
extensive relations.
119
laws which g*overn the particles of matter are still
the secret of the whole proceeding's. We do but in-
terpret the language of nature in discovery^ the book
is ever open before us^ and every atom of the world
is a word and a theme^ capable of occupying the short
span of sublunary existence allotted to man. We
have read of ^^ sermons in stones/' but a book has
been w ritten on a " pebble.^'*
To return^ as we every where in nature find a
gradual transition in the forms^ arrangements and
properties of matter^ so we may expect to find a
link between the inorganic and vital chemistry of
nature. The fungi^ by which we contend this
transition appears to be accomplished^ are also a
link in chemical composition^ between the animal
and vegetable kingdom^ and not only in that^ but
in their subsisting upon matter which has been or-
ganized^ they are deoxidizers and reducers^ as the
vegetable kingdom in its highest function is a com-
pounder. To their functions and ofiices in the
great scheme of creation^ we may fairly apply our-
selves with a sure and certain result of the most
interesting discovery. Is it no hint that wherever
decaying organic matter is found, there do we find
fungi ? is it no hint that they are found in all parts
of the world ? that even in snow the germs of fungi
will grow and multiply to such an extent, accord-
ing to Capt. Ross, that the protococcus was seen
* By Dr. Mantell.
1^6
by him^ clothing" the sides of the mountains at
BafBn^s Bay^ rising-^ according- to his report^ to the
height of several hundred feet ^ and extending- to the
distance of eight miles ?
Even stones contain in their interior^ or interspaces
of their structure^ the germs of fungi. A species
of Tufa is found in the vicinity of Naples of a porous
texture^ which^ when moistened and shaded^ pro-
duces vast mushrooms^ four or five inches high^ and
eight or ten inches broad.* This author further
says : ^^ In the Maremma^ where the volcanic tufa
is the basis of the soil the surface is intermixed with
the animal remains of departed empires^ and the
ordure of cattle^ is covered with grasses of old
pasturages^ and is wet with heavy dews. Every-
thing^ therefore^ conspires there to a fungiferous
end.'^
They are found growing in and upon both vege-
tables and animals. Nees von Esenbeck imagined,
that minute forms multiplied themselves in the
atmosphere; and really, when we consider the
amount of effluvia composed of the atoms cast off
from the bodies of living or decaying organic
matters, which are incessantly passing into the
atmosphere, the conjecture is not an unreasonable
one. The minuteness of those, which we know are
always found growing on decomposing bodies, does
not preclude the possibility, nay, further favours
* Mitchell on Fevers.
121
the probability^ that others infinitely more minute^*
may be destined to remove the more subtle and
vaporous particles which escape into the air.
We can^ therefore^ I think^ conclude^ that the
lower tribes of veg-etation^ may consistently be re-
garded as capable of existing* in almost any con-
dition^ and almost under any circumstances^ they
may be made to g-row in plants by inoculation^ as
shewn by De CandoUe, and Dr. Hassall. If the
stem of wheat also is inoculated with vibriones, they
will make their appearance in the gTain.t If the
seed contain them and have not lost its g-erminating*
properties^ these worms will be found ag^ain in the
g-rain. If the g'rain containing* them be dried for
years^ and moistened ag*ain with water^ these ani-
malcules^ according- to Bauer and Steinbach^ will
present all the phenomena of life. This experiment
I have witnessed^ and can confirm the statement.
These animalcules in the diseased ^ain^ have under
the microscope the appearance of an immense num-
* We wonder, and ask ourselves : " What does small
mean in Nature?" — Scldeiden's Lectures on Botany.
t Speaking of the bunt in wheat : " It appears certainly
to be contagious, fro ii numerous experiments, which shew
that the contagious principle lasts a long time. I have
tried it myself; some, however, doubt it, but it cannot
be denied, that seed sown, infected with bunt, produces
plants similarly aifected; every one who has had the
slightest experience must be convinced of it." — Essay on
the Diseases of Plants. Count lie.
122
ber of eels crowded together in a small space^ and
presenting" a movement more^ perhaps^ vermicular
than any other^ and it is continued for a consider-
able time. Now if these animalcules^ or their ova^
can be proved to pass with the sap to the seed^ there
can be no difficulty in comprehending* how g"erms^
considerably more minute and of a veg^etable nature^
should be found subject to the same peculiar mode
of obtaining" an entrance into animals and vege-
tables for sustenance. '^ It is usually imag"ined/'
says Dr. Carpenter^ ^^that the g-erms liberated by
one plant are taken up by the roots of others^ and
being" carried along- the current of the sap^ are de-
posited and developed^ where vegetation is most
active."
The chemical theory of disease would be better
sustained by a comparison of '^ the artificial forma-
tion of alkaloids/' and the phenomena of trans-
formation of blood into the tissues of animals^
and their degeneration into effete matters^ and of
sap into the tissues of plants and their degenera-
tions.
Professor Kopp of Strasburg^ s^yS; ^^In a che-
mical point of view^ the alkaloids are remarkable
for their composition^ for their special properties,
both physical and chemical, and for the interesting
reactions to which many of them give rise, when
exposed to the influence of different reagents.
Considered medically, the organic bases are dis-
tinguished by their energetic properties. They
123
constitute at the same time^ the most violent and
sudden poisons, and the most valuable and heroic
remedies."
Upon this very intricate and interesting part of
chemical philosophy, it is rather dang'erous to enter
without a thoroug'h and practical knowledg^e of the
subject. This, however, falls to the lot of few men.
We, who are engaged in the study of disease, and
of the best methods of cure, are obliged to take the
investigations of the analytical chemist, and examine
them for ourselves in the intervals of leisure allowed
us during the active exercise of our calling.
Though with less advantages for the study of these
transcendental relations of organic and inorganic
matter, we are not, nevertheless, precluded from
forming* our opinions on their practical bearings to
the phenomena and treatment of disease.
That there is a matter of a poisonous nature con-
cerned in the production of endemic and epidemic
aifections, cannot be doubted by any one ; I believe
indeed, that the chemical theorists admit this, at
all events Liebig does, for he says, ^^The morbid
poison changes in the blood are fermentative, just
such as occur in beer making." If we start, then,
with the consideration that poisons, in a chemical
point of view, are the objects of our research ; the
obvious course to take is to enquire what is the
source of poisons generally, and what their effects
on the animal economy ? The mineral poisons are
entirely excluded from the enquiry by their inapti-
124
tude for diffusion^ and their uniform effects upon
all persons^ differing* only in degree in their opera-
tion. The same objections apply to g-aseous poisons^
except that to them the property of diffusion would
be admitted.* We come then to the alkaloids^
which constitute^ as Kopp says^ the most violent
and sudden poisons. For the production of alkaloids
by artificial means^ org-anic products of some kind
are required. Artificial heat^ powerful chemical
ag-ents or leng-th of time^ are^ as far as information
at present extends^ the indispensable requirements
to induce these peculiar chang^es in matter. The
only instance I can find, in which elementary mat-
ters can by artificial means be combined, so as to
resemble the products of nature, is that of the con-
version of carbon and nitrog-en into cyanog"en. But
the process by which this is accomplished, leads
rather to doubt whether it be really and simply by
a combination of elementary carbon and nitrogen.
I extract the following* from the Annual Eeport
of the Prog-ress of Chemistry, for 1848. '^ H. Del-
bruck has performed some experiments on the
important subject of the formation of cyanog*en.
He confirms the statements of Desfosses and
Fownes, inasmuch as a weak hut distinct formation
of cyanog-en was observed on ig-niting* sugar-
* We have already spoken of the effects of these poisons,
and have stated that the amount of each poison capable of
destroying the body is pretty accurately known.
125
eharcoal* with carbonate of potassa in an atmos-
phere of nitrog'en." The use of sugar-charcoal^
may be perhaps an explanation of the weak forma-
tion of cyanogen^ for in these numerous and
successive chemical changes of matter^ it is
impossible to say how many sources of error may
arise. The constant contradictions of each other^
and the opposite statements made by chemists^ of
equal eminence^ leave us in a wilderness of doubt^
from which we are not likely to be freed^ until
definite laws shall be discovered to act as a guide
in the comprehension of the higher branches of
Chemical Philosophy.
But supposing that the generation of alkaloids
could take place in the body^ or some analogous poi-
sonous matter^ we have yet to imagine a whole host of
peculiar and essential conditions to effect this change,
besides an atmospheric agent or agents to set in mo-
tion those compositions and decompositions, capable
of bringing out these new products from the elements
of blood. We are aware that in the blood, carbon
and nitrog*en are sufficiently abundant as well as
saline compounds, to generate c^^anides, and, with
hydrogen also there in plenty, hydrocyanates, and
thus from them many other poisonous products, but
how is all this to be effected ? And even if effected,
it is yet a question if such compounds can in any way
simulate the attacks of epidemic disease. We have
* The italics are my own.
126
already shewn that the amount of most poisons
necessary to destroy an individual^ can be pretty
clearly estimated^ and their modus operandi is
tolerably well understood. Again^ the most essen-
tial part^ in which all chemical theory fails^ is an
explanation of the reproduction of contagious matter.
The catalytic process^ by which decompositions
are said to be effected^ and in which Liebig* includes
the various fermentations^ is one of those chemical
relations of matter to matter^ considered by some
as the probable cause of infection. Mr. Simon^ in
a late lecture^ has said^ '^ I consider the phenomena
of infective diseases^ to be essentially chemical^ and
I look to chemistry to enlighten the darkness of
their pathology. Qualitative modifications^ affect-
ing the molecules of matter as to their modes of
action and reaction^ are such as form the subject of
chemical science 5 and those humoral changes which
arise as the result of infection clearly fall within the
terms of its definitions.'^ Further on he adds : " The
phenomena of infected diseases appears then^ in
many respects^ to be sui generis. Certainly they
are chemical. Prohahly they belong to that class
of chemical actions called catalyticr^
* Gmehn says : " But the mode of action in these trans-
formations, sometimes admits of other explanations; and
when this is not the case, our conception of it is by no
means sufficiently clear to justify the positive assumption
of this, so called contact-action or catalytic force, which,
after all, merely states the fact without explaining it." —
GmelirCs Hand-hook of Chemistry, vol. i. p. 115.
127
It is not improbable that something- resembling a
catalytic action may take place in the blood in those
diseases of endemic and epidemic origin^ but that it
can be by a chemical process alone is contrary to
all experience of catalytic operations^ for except in
the instance of fermentation proper^ there is no
multiphcation of the fermentative matter. The
action of the matter of contagion seems to stand on
the confines between electro-chemical and bio-chemi-
cal manifestations^ and so long* as no chemical
explanation can be given for the multiplication of
the matter of infection^ the most rational course to
adopt is to assume that life under some unknown
form is^ as we every where find it, the sole reproduc-
tive ag-ent.
128
SECTION II.
THE ANIMALCULAR THEORY OF EPIDEMICS UNTENABLE.
The animalcular theory of disease^ after remain-
ing- almost unnoticed for nearly two centuries^ has
been again revived under the auspices of Dr.
Holland in this country^ and Henle of Berlin. And
thoug*h not entirely buried in obscurity^ this theory
had completely failed to modify the practice of
physicians in the treatment of those diseases which
were supposed to owe their existence to these invi-
sible atoms of created being*. The resuscitated
notions and all their amplifications^ to which the
advance of science has contributed so much^ are
threatened with a like fate^ an absence of all practi-
cal results.
Thoug-h I would not attempt to deny the possi-
bility^ nay^ even the probability^ that insect life may
yet be discovered as the cause of some diseases^"^ still
* The history and symptoms of some epidemic diseases,
such as cholera and influenza^ are not inconsistent with the
hypothesis that they are caused by the sudden develop-
ment of animalcules from ova in the blood. But there is
a total want of direct observation in support of this hypo^
thesis. — Dr. Williams* Principles of Medicine.
129
there are many and cog-ent reasons ag'ainst both^
and which are at variance with facts and observa-
tions. Where insect Hfe has been found associated
with disease, it more especially appears as a conse^
quence than as a cause.
Disease^ in its most enlarged sense, is a conversion
of one form of matter into another y it is a transfor-
mation of healthy blood and tissue into new and
abnormal products. AVhere insects in all their
variety of forms are discovered, their voracious
propensities are their chief characteristics, they are
the consumers of matter after its partial disinteg-ra-
tion, if animal matter be their food, unless they be
carnivorous and predacious, or if herbivorous they
usually feed upon the tender shoots of plants. Thus
far we are certain of the manner in which insects
destroy living- matter ; it is a process the unassisted
eye may every where witness, and which experience
has amply attested. To take, however, the animal-
cular world as it presents itself to us under the
microscope, and as the intermediate step between
the manifest and the hidden for a fairer and more
direct method of reaching* the truth, what do we
observe to be the ruling* law of infusory instinct ?
They live to feed ; the term polyg*astrica sufficiently
implies their natural tendency to consume. The
simplest form of animalcular life, seen in the g*enera
of monads, still preserves the animal character by
possessing" a stomach or stomachs in which the food
is received, to be digested for the nourishment of the
K
130
system ; and even some of these minute objects
which vary in size from one two-thousandth^ to one
three-thousandth of a line in diameter^ are said to
be carnivorous and predacious. Upon this fact
alone^ I would place the improbability of insects
being" the cause of epidemic disease. Each insect
doubtless has its own peculiar food^ and whether it
be a veg-etable or animal feeder^ it consumes the
matter already organized for conversion into its own
tissue^ and the only change which could be affected
by them in the blood, would necessarily be that of
appropriation of some one of the constituents as
an element of food; when that food is digested^
(taking- dig-estion generally as an identical process^)
the excrementitious matter is composed of secretions
and disorganized matter^ mixed together as an effete
product; and destined then for reorganization by the
vegetable kingdom. Now all animals^ whether
they be large or small^ live on organized matter^ —
they convert that matter into an inorganic form,
and I cannot help imagining that if epidemic
diseases and fevers depended upon animalcular
growth and development in the blood or tissues of
the body, the excretions or secretions from them
would have yielded some information to the search-
ing enquiries of the chemist, supposing that these
excretions and secretions were capable of reaching
to a suflScient amount in quantity, to bring about
those fatal effects of poisoning, we witness in
Cholera and other epidemic affections. Insects, I
131
believe are poisonous only by their secretions^ and
thoug-h they are known to multiply with exceeding
rapidity^ I can hardly imagine that by their deve-
lopment^ however rapid^ they could produce such
a change in the human body^ as to bring about
the speedy dissolution^ and generally gangrenous
appearance^ that has invariably been observed in
those suddenly dying under the influence of epidemic
poisons. The vibriones^ whose destructive effects on
wheat are so well known^ are a genus of animalcules^
which at first would seem to favour the animalcular
theory in a remarkable manner ; for on examining
them^ they do not appear to possess any other
structure than a gelatinous absorbing mass, in this
respect resembling a vegetable.
But Ehrenberg'^s scrutiny corrected the error of
De Blanville, and shewed, that they were far from
being agastria, or stomachless animals. The Rev.
William Kirby says, " Ehrenberg has studied the
vibriones in almost every climate, and has discovered,
by keeping them in coloured waters, that they are
not the simple animals that Lamarck and others
supposed, and that almost all have a mouth and
digestive organs, and that numbers of them have
many stomachs." All the discoveries indeed which
have been made on the minuter forms of animal
life, have tended to confirm the doctrine that the
stomach is the exponent organ of an animal ; that
is, in all animals there exists, in a variety of modified
conditions, a receptacle for food. Some of the
K 2
132
animalcules^ however^ are still supposed to exist by
absorption^ as the vinegar eel^ vibrio anguilla* but
when we find that the law is^ g-enerally speaking*^
that the receptacles of food become multiplied in
number in these minute being-s^ and the vibriones
which were supposed to be stomachless^ have been
proved to emulate their associates in the number
of these organs 5 it would be more reasonable to
conclude that our imperfect vision is the barrier to
their detection^ rather than to suppose that they do
not exist. Besides, when we are told on undoubted
authority that some of the animals of this class^
have as many ^^ forty orjifty stomachs ] the least
we can do^ is to allow that all of them possess^ at
least one digestive organ^ though we may not be
able to detect it.f
So far then for the consideration of animalcular
structure : let us now more particularly enquire into
their destructive habits^ and their functions^ inasmuch
* Since writing the above, I have referred for informa-
tion on this subject, and find, that the Anguillula aceti
exhibits sexual distinctions ; and that the ovaries of the
females are situated on each side of the alimentary canal.
— Cyclo. Anat, and Phys. Art. Entozoa.
t Speaking of the examination of the infusory animal-
cules — Mr. Kirby says : " But to us the wondrous
spectacle is seen, and knoT\Ti only in part ; for those that
still escape all our methods of assisting sight, and remain
members of the invisible world, may probably /«r exceed
those that we know" — Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. p. 158.
133
as they may be supposed capable of eng-endering"
epidemic diseases and fever. The truly carnivorous
animalcules^ or those truly herbivorous in their
instincts^ we may presume to be beyond the
limits of our enquiry. We have rather to do
with those which take an intermediate position,
namely, those which feed upon matter underg-oing-
decomposition, or upon fluids containing* org-anic
matters in solution, or suspension. If w^e take
Entozoa g-enerally, they may be considered as most
conveniently to be placed in this intermediate class 5
and here we find still the dig-estive apparatus, and
more than this, — for upon the modifications of the
organs appropriated to dig^estion is their classifica-
tion founded. '^ Rudolphi divided the Entozoa into
Sterelmintha, or those in which the nutrient tubes
without anal outlet are simply excavated in the
g-eneral parenchyma, and into the Coelelmintha, in
which an intestinal canal with proper parietes floats
in a distinct abdominal cavity, and has a separate
outlet for the excrements."*
How do these animals obtain their sustenance,
and what chang-es can they produce upon the vital
fluid of the body ? Analogy is here our only g-uide.
If the trichina spiralis is examined, it is found to be
enclosed in a cyst containing- fluid 3 and this is,
* Mr. Owen has added another class, as the first, called
Protelmintha, which comprises the cercariadse and vib-
rionidse.
134
doubtless, the source of its nutriment^ and contains
in solution the elements for its nutrition; but in
this instance there is no selection^ and there can be
no locomotion to an extent sufficient to imply
searching* for food^ as the animalcule in its natural
state^ when taken from the human muscle, is found
coiled upon itself^ making' about two and a half
turns. The fluid of the cyst is thus in all likelihood
prepared by endosmosis^ for the immediate and
appropriate nutrition of the parasite. The cyst is
thus the part which performs the diseased process^
the containing- animalcule is merely the consumer of
what is prepared for it by the cyst. And this would
seem to be the rule with all parasites^ of the encysted
kind.
We have alluded to the vibriones which are found
in the fluids of living* bodies^ and the trichina which
is found in the solid muscle 5 we have now to refer
to those which infest the cavities. It was, I believe,
Ehrenberg-, who shewed that the tartar which accu-
mulates on the teeth is composed of the debris of
minute animalcules; in fact^ that it consists of
calcareous matter, having- once formed a portion of
the structure of their bodies^ the ubiquity of these
creatures is therefore as much and clearly established
as the lower forms of veg-etation. The intestinal
worms, of which perhaps the Taenia is the most
curious and important to be noticed, are from the
locality in which they are found, chiefly injurious
by the irritation they set up, and by appropriating-
135
to themselves the nutrient juices elaborated in the
process of animal dig-estion^ thus depriving- the in-
dividuals they infest of that which was destined for
their own nourishment. In this^ as in all associated
instances^ the character by which these parasitic
animals are marked is their consuming* propensity.
There is^ however^ one more observation to make
upon parasitic g-rowths j but the question is yet
unsettled in what king-dom of nature is the acepha-
locyst^ or hydatid^ to be placed. Mr. Owen says^
^^ As the best observers ag-ree in stating*^ that the
acephalocyst is impassive under the apphcation of
stimuli of any kind^ and manifests no contractile
power^ either partial or g-eneral^ save such as results
from elasticity^ in shorty neither feels nor moves^ it
cannot^ as the animal kingdom is at present charac-
terized^ be referred to that division of organic
nature.''
We thus arrive at the simple cell^ and the multi-
plication of living beings by cell buds; it is the
point at which the confines of the animal kingdom
are reached^ and at which we are driven to specula-
tion. The hydatid Uves like a plant^ by imbibition ;
and procreates, like a plant, by budding, either en-
dogenously or exogenously, as regards the original
or parent cell.*
* " It is probable that in the waters of our globe an
infinity of animal and vegetable molecules are suspended,
that are too minute to form the food of even the lowest
130
This condition of being-^ sug*g-ested the notion of
Protozoa^ or first animals^ in the same way that the
purely cellular plants^ that is^ each individual^ con-
sisting- of a sing-le cell^ g-ave the idea of Proloph3^ta^
or first plants. Mr. Kirby thus expresses himself
on this subject : ^^ The first plants^ and the first
animals^ are scarcely more than animated molecules^
and appear analog-ues of each other; and those
above them in each king-dom represent jointed
fibrils.^'
Admitting"^ then^ that animals as well as plants
exist in the form of simple cells^ and that their
multiplication proceeds apparently upon the same
principle in each^ it is nevertheless abundantly
manifest; that the cellular form of perfect individuals
is infinitely more numerous in the veg^etable than in
the animal king-dom.
and minute animals af the visible creation : and therefore
an infinite host of invisibles was necessary to remove them
as nuisances." — Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. p. 159.
" When Creative Wisdom covered the earth with plants^
and peopled it with animals, He laid the foundations of the
vegetable and animal kingdoms with such as were most
easily convertible into nutriment for the tribes immediately
above them. The first plants, and the first animals, are
scarcely more than animated molecules,* and appear analo-
gues of each other ; and those above them in each kingdom
represent jointed fibrils.^t — Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i.
p. 162.
* Globulina and Monus. t Oscillatoria and Vibrio.
137
From the mosses downwards to the fungi^ the
whole structure of the plants consists of an ag'g're-
gation of cells^ more or less in number and com-
plicate arrangement^ until^ through a variety of
gradations^ we reach the single cell as a perfect
individual.
It is rather remarkable^ that the lower forms of
vegetables and animals seem to derive their nutri-
ment from matter of a similar kind, and though
the office of plants is as a rule^ to convert inorganic
into organized matter^ it appears that some of the
fiingi may live as animals do on organic matter
when in a state of solution. This, however, is un-
certain ; for we do not know what are the first signs
of decomposition in organized bodies, and for aught
we can tell, it may be pei'petually going on ', so far
as the disengagement of carbon from the system is
concerned, this is certain ; but whether the nitro-
genous compounds also are subject to a resolution
into their elements in the living body, is another
question, and not so eas}^ of solution. The partially
decomposed elements of animal structures are, how-
ever, particularly adapted for the nutrition of the
lower forms of vegetation ; it is, indeed, from the
decaying organic matters that the fungi derive, it
may be said, their entire food.
138
SECTION III.
SKETCH OF THE PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY OF PLANTS
AND ANIMALS.
Animals and plants depend for their existence
upon a nutritive fluid^ which permeates their
structure ; it is the element from which all their
secretions are formed^ and their organs are
nourished.
The food of animals is composed of previously
org-anized matters^ and is conveyed into a reservoir
called a stomachy where it underg*oes a process of
solution, previously to entering" the circulation. At
this period^ the animal and the plant ag-ain present
points of resemblance^ the lymphatics or absorbent
vessels take up the products of dig-estion^ and convey
them to the blood-vessels^ where ming-ling" with the
current of the bloody they are conveyed to the lung's^
there to underg-o a process of oxygenation before
they become fitted for the renovation of the tissues of
the body. Such is the nature of the food of man^
that it contains all the elements necessary and
adapted for transformation into bone^ muscle^ brain^
and parenchyma^ as well as the other tissues of the
body; besides other elementary matters^ which,
thoug-h they form a very insignificant portion of
139
animal textures^ from their constant presence in the
vital fluid^ evidently perform some important offices
in the g-eneral economy of life 5 they are partly^
perhaps^ occupied in forming* constituents of secre-
tions.
Plants do not require a stomachy — the humus or
soil to which they are fixed is the laboratory^ Avhere
the nutritive matter is prepared in a state fit for
absorption by the spong-ioles of their roots^ and
these correspond to the lymphatics of animals;
after being taken up by the spong-ioles^ this new
fluid ming-les with the sap^ and passes to the leaves
or breathing* apparatus of plants^ where carbonic acid
gas combines with the crude vital liquid^ and converts
it into a condition fit for all the offices to be per-
formed by the plant : viz. the growth of tissues^ and
the elaboration of secretions.
The tissues^ however^ of plants^ though more
simple in their nature^ present a much more varied
character than those of animals^ when the different
species are compared.
The bones of animals which give them their form^
are invariably constituted of phosphate and car-
bonate of lime^ deposited in a matrix of gluten ;
muscle^ nerve^ brain^ tendons^ and ligaments^ have
nearly^ if not completely^ an identical composition
throughout the w hole range of the animal kingdom :
their secretions^ however, vary much more con-
siderably, as also do the secretions of vegetables.
But vegetable tissue may contain, as in the stems of
140
grasses^ a considerable amount of silex^ and some
notable quantity of sulphur^ and so essential to
their existence is the former element^ that they can-
not live without its presence in the soil^ and also
with it an alkali^ to render it soluble. A large
amount of soda^ is an invariable attendant upon the
structure of marine plants^ as potash is of those
growing- on the land.
Thus^ whether we reg-ard the health of animals^
or vegetables^ we discover^ that besides the matters
which are absolute^ indispensable for the nutriment
of the tissues which undergo rapid transforma-
tion^ those of a more permanent and durable
nature require in an almost insensible degree^ a
restitution of elements ; and though not apparently
absolutely necessary to preserve vitality in the beings
yet have so marked an influence over it^ as to
indicate an extensive bearing of each indivdual part^
on the whole associated entity.
The elementary tissues of both kingdoms have
been traced^ in whatever form they may be found^
to a cellular origin. The minutest vegetable germ^
is a cell containing a granular matter within it^
and even man himself, in his embryonic state^ may
be represented as an insignificant point in the
realms of space j and might be placed side by side
with the smallest particle of living matter^ without
suffering by the comparison.
The laws by which the development of these
elementary cells is regulated^ so that each e^vances
141 I'
to its limit^ and fulfils its destination^ is one of
those inscrutable and overwhelming" mj^steries of
nature^ which leads the admirer of creation on and
on into the abyss of the future^ and fills his soul
with aspirations for that time^ when the veil of
ig-norance shall be withdrawn. But this is not my
subject.
The org*anization of the two animated king*doms,
is then reg-ulated by definite laws^ and all matter,
whether acting- upon them as agents of nutrition
or destruction, are equally under their dominion ;
to investigate and to endeavour to fathom some
of these laws, is the aim I have in view.
The sap is to the plant, what the blood is to the
animal,— the elements of nutrition and secretion
are contained in it, and whatever interferes with its
normal constitution by subtracting- from, or adding-
to it, deteriorates its qualities, and retards or ac-
celerates the functions of the individual. Excess or
deficiency of the natural elements may also be
a source of disturbance ; if carbonic acid be too
abundantly liberated in the soil, as Dr. Lindley
expresses it, '' plants become g-org-ed f and if, on
the other hand, the elimination be too slow, they
become starved. It has been also shewn, that
plants though they give out oxygen from their
leaves, do not throw it off as animals do carbonic
acid from their lungs; but that this arises as a
result of digestion, and the fixation of carbon in
the system, and that they really respire oxygen as
142
animals do^ and ^ve off carbonic acid, both by day
and nig'ht.
That lig-ht is the stimulant of the digestive
functions, and that, therefore, during- the day, the
amount of oxygen thrown off, far exceeds the
amount of carbonic acid liberated during- the same
period.
The great and important distinction between
animals and plants is, that the former possess a ner-
vous system, by which they are subject to a ver}^
extended series of psychological relations; it is
in these chiefly, if not entirely, that we are to look
for the distinctive and well-marked differences of
diseased action. In animals there are special
media of communication between the sources of
dynamic power, and the parts upon which the force
is exercised: and again, a return communication
exists, which conveys impressions to the source of
power, and to use a simple comparison, a system of
telegraphing is in incessant and watchful operation.
This force is influenced and modified in its
action, when exercised in the regulation of nu-
trition, growth, and reproduction of tissues, by the
passions and emotions of the mind. All the
secretions and functions of the body are more or
less susceptible of being accelerated, retarded or
modified by the psychical relations of mind and mat-
ter. Though we are apt to imagine that in man
alone, these phenomena obtain much importance —
there can be but little doubt, that wherever a nerv-
143
ous system exists^ whether in the form of aggreg-ated
or diffused g-ang-lia^ the interdependence of force and
organization^ each upon the other^ bears a certain
and definite physiological comparison , the more
aggregated the ganglia^ the more close^ intimate^
and extensive the psychical connexions^ and the
gradations pass downwards^ until they appear to be
lost on the confines of the vegetable kingdom.
The diseases of plants and animals deserve a more
careful comparison than^ I think^ has hitherto been
bestowed upon them.* If the study of physiology^
or an enquiry into the laws which regulate the func-
tions of living beings in a state of healthy has been
materially aided by the intimate knowledge of
vegetable physiology^ which^ from the simple struc-
ture of plants, so favours the experiments of the
student, there is every reason to suppose that vege-
table pathology may also lead us to an equally
important and useful result.
It is quite certain, that if a healthy seed, or leaf-
bud, be placed in such a situation, that, according*
to the laws known, it will in all likelihood germi-
nate, if all the elements for its sustenance exist in
the soil, and the temperature and hygrometric
* "A treatise which should present a systematic ar-
rangement of all the diseases of plants, giving in detail the
exact history of each, and adding the means of preventing
and curing them, would certainly be of the greatest utility
to agriculture/^ — Essay on the Diseases of Plants, Count
Philippo i?e, translated into Gardener s Chron,
144
condition of the atmosphere are adapted to it^ a
healthy plant will be the result. Lig'ht, heat,
moisture^ and soil are therefore to be considered
as the ag'ents required to exist in a certain balance,
or proportion, in reference to the health or power
of vitality of the plant. Within a certain amount
of variation, health may persist in virtue of the
power of selection, which appertains to the spon-
g-ioles of the root in absorbing nutriment; and
also as reg-ards lig'ht, from the tendency which most
plants have to accommodate themselves to any
deficiency of this element, by presenting- their leafy
expansion in that direction where the most of its
influence may be obtained. But beyond a certain
limit an unhealthy condition sets in. If the soil
contain not the inorg^anic elements, which are abso-
lutely indispensable for the tissues of the plant,
or even if they be there and not in a state to be ab-
sorbed, a dwindling* and degeneration ensue ; if lig'ht
be deficient in quantity, pallor, feebleness, and elon-
gation of tissue follow, with more fluidity and
general softness of texture. These conditions of
plants have their analogues in the ill-fed and ill-
nourished children in some of our manufacturing
districts ; they are stunted and diseased. Transport
a healthy country lad, with the bloom of health on
his cheek, from his native hills and valleys, or woods
and fields, to the stool behind a desk for eight hours
a day, in a narrow street in any city, where the rays
of the sun rarely penetrate, it will not be long before
145
the skin of the animal and the cuticle of the plant
may be submitted for comparison, when both will
testify to the importance of the solar rays^ as an
indispensable agent in supporting* the normal pro-
cesses of organic life. So far common observation
is competent to a solution of the facts ; but beyond
this we come to the enquiry, what resemblances are
there in the early conditions of plants and animals.
Each originates from nucleated cells, endowed by the
All-seeing Power with a blind impulse of pro-
gressive development ; the most simple cell of a
vegetable multiplies itself by a generation of new
cells within it, when the parent dies, and liberates
the offspring. Here progression is simply multipli-
cation ; it is, as it were, progression in length only.
The original cell, however, of animals, which is
styled the g^erminal vesicle, extends or becomes
developed into dissimilar parts ; and whatever may
be the variety, all alike proceed from the original
germ cell, and the tout ensemble of parts constitutes
the one and indivisible whole ; in this instance
there is addition besides multiplication, tissues and
organs are added in all variety, until the maximum
of organic development is attained in the wonderful
being*, man.
Yet how many points of resemblance are there
between the vegetable cell and the fully developed
human being, in a physiological and pathological
point of view. There must be nourishment to sus-
tain both ; both require a certain amount of light
146
and heat for their g-rowth and increase, and are
dependent upon various unknown causes for active
and healthy existence; and when a certain time
has expired^ all alike return to a condition^ in which
the particles composing* them are subject only to the
dominion of the laws which preside over inorg'anic
matter.
But during- the existence of plants and animals^
we discover other features of comparison ; plants^ as
well as animals^ are liable to disease; they are
subject to functional and org-anic affections. The
former^ among* plants, are usually traceable to
atmospheric vicissitudes or irreg-ularities, changes
of situation, &c. ; and in man to irreg*ularities of
diet, and mental and bodily excesses, as well as to
atmospheric vicissitudes.*
The org-anic diseases of plants and animals depend
upon a repetition, or continuance, of functional de-
rangement. As a consequence of this, the nutrition
and reproduction of tissues lose their normal and
definite character, wherefrom an indefinite and ab-
normal result is obtained. There is a hmit to
abnormal productions, and they are apparently
* " Plenck published a treatise on Vegetable Pathology,
in which he divided diseases into eight classes : 1. External
injuries; 2. Flux of juices; 3. Debility; 4. Cachexies; 5.
Putrefactions; 6. Excrescences; 7- Monstrosities; and 8.
Sterihty. And he concludes with an enumeration of the
animals which injure plants." — Essay on the Diseases of
Plants, Gardenei's Chronicle.
147
subject to laws^ thoug-h not yet understood. In
animals^ they may be either excessive development
of natural tissue in natural localities^ as obesity and
fatty tumours; they may be natural products in
unnatural situations^ as fatty deg'enerations of mus-
cular tissue ; or altogether new and unnatural pro-
ducts^ as tubercle and cancer.
In plants^ from their greater simplicity of struc-
ture^ organic affections are perhaps entirely limited
to the two first forms of animal organic disease ;
viz. to undue development of tissue in natural
situations^ and to the formation of natural tissue in
parts of a plant where they are not usually found in
a state of nature. The variety of excrescences seen
on the stems^ branches^ and twigs of plants^ may be
given as instances of the former ; and the conversion
of stamina into petals, as in double flowers, as an
instance of the latter.
We derive our sustenance from vegetables, and
they from us; they produce for us the soothing
opiate and the deadly strychnia ; we for them the
animating ammonia, and the distortions and sterility
of excessive culture 3 we engender in them, by the
latter, debility, disease, and death; and in our
turn we become their prey. All this indeed is but
a C3^cle of events, that requires no learned mind to
fathom, and to comprehend ; it is a matter of every
day occurrence, and, thoug-h perhaps not entirely
unheeded, is not dwelt upon in the fulness of its
bearings and importance.
L 2
148
Let us now consider the diseases of plants^ as a
study progressive to those of man ; and as their
physiolog-y has so extensively served us^ we may
possibly also find in their pathology much material
for instruction ; not that it will be attempted to shew
that the same diseases affect both kingdoms^ but
that diseases^ though dissimilar in eifectS; may have
similar sources.
Unfortunately^ there are not many men in this
country^ who need go further than their own gar-
dens to find abundance of disease among their fruit
trees and vegetables. The vine^ the apple and the
potato^ common to most gardens^ will furnish speci-
mens.
It is an error of a serious kind to suppose^ that
the parasites which infest plants are not essentially
the cause^ or^ perhaps^ more properly speakings the
elements of disease. I confine myself here to dis-
ease of parasitic origin^ as that is the subject of
which I am chiefly treating.
That parasitic growths are the elements of disease
in some instances^ is now beyond dispute. The
experiments of Mr. Hassall^ detailed in Part II. of
the Transactions of the Microscopical Society of
London^ are most conclusive 3 and they are of that
simple nature^ that any one may convince himself of
their accuracy^ by a repetition of them from the
directions there laid down.
He sayS; the decay is communicable at will ^^to
any fruits of the apple and peach kind; no matter
149
how strong" their vital energies may be^ by the simple
act of inoculation of the sound fruit with a portion
of decayed matter^ containing- filaments of the fungi.
We may use with success the sporules of such fung-i ;
but in this case the decomposition does not set in so
quickly ; in the one case^ the smaller filaments of
the fiing-i have advanced several stag-es in their
growth 3 while in the other^ the sporules have yet
to pass throug-h the several stag-es of their deve-
lopment."
Mr. Hassall^ however^ seems to speak doubtfully
as to the mode in which the disease becomes natu-
rally introduced ;* how the spores enter the fi'uit^
"is not very clear — thoug-h probably^ it is by
insinuating- themselves between the cells of which
the cuticle is composed^ or perhaps by means of the
stomata^ where they are present. I may here
state that the experiments were made on fruity while
living-^ and attached to the tree."
But why should there be a doubt as to the parts
by which the sporules of minute fung-i enter the
plant, when it is clear, that not only can they enter
* The Bunt. "This disease appears at the moment of the
germination of the plant. The affected individuals are of a
dark green, and the stem is discoloured. As the ears are
issuing from the sheaths, their stalks are of a dark green^
but very slender. When the ear has fully grown out, its
dull, dirty colour, causes it to be immediately distinguished
from the healthy ones, and it soon turns white." — Essay
on the Diseases of Plants, "
150
by the spongioles^ but by the stomata of the leaves^
and ming-le with the sap. It is true^ that they
make their appearance and grow upon the leaves
and the finit; but these are the situations most
adapted for their fructification. I have seen the
spores of the fungi which attack the cucumber and
vegetable-marrow^ in the cells of the hairs^ and
even their filamentous prolongations ; these ap-
propriate the fluids conveyed to the cells of the
hair^ rupture them^ and at length fructify.
On referring to Dr. Lindley's Medical and Eco-
nomic Botany^ I find that many fimgi are the
active elements of disease^ and in a manner which
renders it highly improbable that they are so in any
other way^ than by obtaining an entrance to the sap
of the plants. Of the microscopic fungus which
destroys wheat^ the Uredo caries of De CandoUe,
we find the habitat to be within the ovary of the
com^ and that 4^000^000 may be contained in a
grain of wheat^ — now this and another fungus^ the
Lanosa nivalis^ are said to destroy whole crops of
corn: we cannot imagine that such an extensive
affection^ can have any other source than by means
of the spores through the sap^ seeing that bruising
of the surface^ or rupture of the cuticle of the
apple^ a comparatively soft fruit is necessary to
produce the disease artificially in them 3 besides^ a
grain of corn containing vibriones^ when grown and
having fruited^ the new fruit also contains them —
now here^ as this is I believe almost invariably the
151
case^ either they or their ova must be carried with
the sap to the new germs.
It is rather a remarkable fact; that these entophytes
appropriate the nutriment destined for the plant in
which they g-row^ they are consequently the means
in many instances of its entire destruction^ though
only partially so in others.
There are many Fungi which have this tendency.
The Puccinia gramienis^ ^^ preys upon the juices of
plants, and prevents the grain from swelling.'^
The ^cidium urticse^ common on nettles, deprives
the plant on which it grows, of the organizable
matter, intended for its own nutrition. The
Erysiphe communis, overruns and destroys peas.
The Botrytis infestans, ^^ attacks the leaves and
stems of potatoes.^' The Oidium abortifaciens,
attacks the ovaries of grasses — and the Oidium
Tuckeri, ^^ a formidable parasite, destroys the
functions of the skin, of the parts it attacks.^' The
latter has been most injurious to the vines, during
the last two years. I have known instances in
which the vines have been cut down, and every
means taken to rid the houses of the disease ; but
this year, it has made its appearance, with all its
former virulence, in the new shoots.
This, however, is sufficient to shew that plants
are liable to disease, depending upon parasitic
growths, which affect their vital powers, and deprive
them of their natural nutritive fluids.
But somewhat similar diseases belong also to
152
warm climates ; in a letter from Cuba^ dated Dec,
1843^ — Mr. Bastian writes^ '^ a plague has appeared
among" the orange trees — a mildew attacking the
leaves and the blossoms^ which finally dry up. It
most frequently kills the trees. None of the orange
family are exempt; lemons^ limes^ and their varieties^
with the shaddock and forbidden fruity have all
suffered." This disease has continued without
intermission^ till the present year^ — when the same
gentleman writes^ Feb. 20th^ 1850: "The evil
exist^;^ although in a diminished degree^ so much so,
as to have allowed the trees to produce me 30,000
oranges again. In old times, the same plantations
produced me 100,000.''
The West India sugar-canes are also liable to
a disease, which the Rev. Mr. Griffiths, in his
Natural History of the Island of Barbadoes, speaks
of, in the following manner : " This, among- diseases
peculiar to canes, as among those which happen
to men, too justly claims the horrible precedence.''
This disease is called the Yellow Blast. It is
difficult to distinguish the Blast in its infancy, from
the effect of dry weather.
There are often seen on such sickly canes, many
small protuberant knobs, of a soft downy substance.
It is likewise observable, that such blades will be
full of brownish decaying spots. The disease is
very destructive to the canes. It is observed, that
the Blast usually appears successively in the same
fields, and often in the very same spot of land.
153
This Blast is often found far from ^^ infected places/'
and the infection always spreads faster to the
leeward^ or with the wind.
" It is remarkable if canes have been once
infected with the Blast^ althoug-h they afterwards to
all appearance^ seem to recover ; yet the juice of
such canes will neither afford so much sug-ar^ nor so
good of its kind^ as if obtained from canes which
were never infected."
I may here allude to the circumstance^ that in
the island of Cuba, the destructive mildew is com-
monly called, la pesta.
It were needless to multiply instances of other
endemic and epidemic diseases of vegetables ; they
are well known by practical observers to be -very
numerous, and I believe, in most instances, depend-
ing- upon fung-oid gTowths. The destruction of
veg*etables by insects, is of a very different nature
to that produced by the fiingi ; it would be as
unreasonable to consider the consumption of corn
and herbag-e by locusts, as a disease of veg-etation,
as the massacre and devouring- of human being's by
cannibals, a disease of the human body.
It is true that insects are exceeding-ly destruc-
tive to plants, but as far as I am able to obtain
information, they appear to be so chiefly by their
voracious propensities ) they consume the structure
of the plant in its entity, and do not primarily inter-
fere with its vitality. The instance of the vibriones,
before-mentioned, seems at first to be an exception
154
to the rule, but this is rather apparent^ than real ;
and it may be made to apply more as a confirmation^
than an obstacle to the vegetable theory : for if we
may fairly compare the diseases of animals with
those of plants^ the existence of entozoa in the lat-
ter^ would be considered an essential point to be
substantiated.
Having- now considered the question as to the
infeasibility of supposing* that chemical fermentation
is the basis upon which a theory of diseases can be
sustained; and having' shewn that life is inseparable
from infection^ and miasmatic g-eneration -, —having*
explained the phenomena of the dispersion of
diseases by comparison with the dispersion of plants^
and finally^ having* demonstrated that the physiolog*y
and pathology of plants bear so close a relation to
each other^ and that their epidemic affections
depend upon minute org*anic g*ermS; I submit to the
judgement of my readers^ whether there is not much
reasonableness in the application of the facts to the
inference— that living germs are the cause of epi-
demic disease in man and animals.
CHAPTER IV.
RESULTS IN PROOF OF THE TENABLENESS OF THE
PROPOSITION.
SECTION I.
OBSERVATIONS ON SOME OF THE LAWS OF EPIDEMIC
DISEASES.
The results obtained by comparmg" certain facts
connected with Epidemic Affections of animals^
with analog'ous affections in plants^ afford^ from the
few instances I shall here notice^ a very strong-
presumption^ that analogous causes operate in the
production of these affections. I have already
quoted from Hecker^ to shew that previously to^
and during the Epidemics of the Middle Ages^
the minuter forms of animal and vegetable life
appeared to be called into existence^ much more
abundantly than usual ; that famines prevailed in
consequence of failure of cereal crops^ no doubt
depending then^ as now^ upon the various forms of
ftingiferous gi'owth. I cannot refrain quoting here^
a passage or two from our old friend Virgil • for he
confirms not only the fact of peculiar showers in
156
connexion with diseases^ but he also refers to the
rust of corn^ thus :
150. "Mox et frumentis labor additus; ut mala culmos
Esset rubigo , . • •
Intereunt segetes."
Georg, 1.
Then :
311. " Quid tempestates autumni et sidera dicam?
322. '^ Saepe etiam* immensum coelo venit agmen aquarum
Et foedam glomerant tempestatem imbribus atris
Collectse ex alto nubes.^'
Georg, 1.
The occurrence of black showers in this country
has been observed during* the present year^ and I
understand that in the fenny countries of the East,
the corn has suffered much from the Uredo. I am
not mentioning the circumstances as cause and
effect, but merely to call attention to the fact, that
unusual phenomena of this kind have been generally
associated with disease of the animal and vegetable
tribes.
The same causes also predispose plants as well
as animals, to epidemic attacks of disease. The
repeated observations in the public journals on the
subject of ventilation, drainage, and over- crowding,
render all notice from me needless, to shew that
these, though they do not produce the diseases
* Vidi understood.
157
treated of, yet that under the influence of bad air,
bad drainage, and over-crowding*, epidemics are
fostered and spread.
Lastly, says the Count Philippo Re, ^^ I would
remark that if had cultivation, and especially had
drainage, does not produce hunt or smut, it is
certain that those Jields, the worst treated ifi these
respects, suffer the most from these diseases. ^^
It has been remarked by many observers, that a
greater fecundity has attended upon Pestilences,
and this has been proved by comparison, that the
births in proportion have far exceeded the ordinary
limit.* In juxtaposition with this observation, I
will place the following*, not as a proof, but as a
remark made quite independently of the subject of
which I am treating*. " From the first the diseased
ears are larger than the healthy ones, and are sooner
matured. What appears singular, but which I
have not, perhaps, sufiiciently verified, is that the
seeds are more ahundant than in a sound earP
* " At the close of the year 1665/' says Dr. Hodges,
" even women, before deemed barren, were said to prove
prolific.''
"After the cessation of the Black Plague, a greater
fecundity in women was every where remarkable — a grand
phenomenon, which from its occurrence after every de-
structive pestilence proves to conviction, if any occurrence
can do so, the prevalence of a higher power in the direction
of general organic life. Marriages were almost without
exception proHfic ; and double and treble births were more
frequent than at other times." — Hecker, p. 31.
158
Now these are facts which require amplification^
and if these two alone should be shewn upon an
extensive field of observation^ to apply not only to
corn, but to other members of the vegetable king--
dom, as I doubt not will be the case, thoug-h I am
not fiilly prepared to prove it, it would be difficult
to dissociate the fertility of the two living* king*-
doms from the operations of one and the same, or an
analog'ous law.
The epidemic diseases of plants are both infectious
and contagious, at times they are observed to be
endemic only, and then depending" particularly upon
some local causes. This is a law of diseases which
applies equally to those of men and animals. In
connexion with this law is another, which, as far as I
am aware, has not hitherto been noticed in connexion
with plants. The potato disease, which excited so
much interest and created so much anxiety for the
poorer classes of society, led the Government of this
country to employ the most learned men to inves-
tig-ate the subject, in the hope of propounding- some
reasons which should explain the cause of the
calamity, and thereby deduce a method of eradi-
cating* the evil, or, in other words, discover a cure for
the disease. Many were the opinions as to the cause of
the distemper, which it were useless here to recount,
but a method was sug-g-ested, to which most people,
I believe, looked forward with great anticipations,
and this was to obtain native seed, and to sow it
on virg-in soil. Was the end accomplished ? No.
159
For thoug-h the seed was sown^ and the plants
g-rew^ the disease still appeared among- the newly
imported individuals^ to as gi^eat an extent^ as
among" the native or domesticated plants.
As a parallel to this^ it may be stated^ that^ as
reg-ards either endemic or epidemic disease^ those
persons newly arrived^ either in a district or coun-
try where these prevail^ are even more liable to
them than the residents.* Ag-ain^ I have learned^
that where the potato disease has been so bad as
to render the crop almost valueless^ the best plan to
be adopted is^ to allow the plants to remain in the
earthy and thus leave such as retain their g-erminating*
powers to come up spontaneously the following-
year. I certainly saw one larg-e field treated in this
way, yield a crop almost without disease.
* It is stated that on the decline of the Plague, 1665,
those who returned early to London, or new comers, were
certain to be attacked. In proof of this the 1st week of
November, the deaths increased 400, and "physicians
reported that above 3000 feU sick that week, mostly new
comers.''
See also Dr. Copland's Diet. Pract. Med. Epidemic and
Endemic Diseases.
" The hardy mountaineer is a surer victim of paludal
fever, whether he visits the low countries of the tropics, or
the marshes of a more temperate cUmate, than the feebler
native of those countries." — Dr, R. Williams on Morbid
Poisons.
IGO
The seasoning"^ in this instance^ seems to hear
a comparison with the seasoning- of animals and
man^ under a variety of diseases^ which for a time
renders them insusceptible of another attack. It
therefore does not appear so improbable^ that these
affections may be reg-arded^ as Ung-er^ the German
botanist supposed^ the Exanthemata^ or Eruptive
Fevers of veg-etables.
Another feature seems to associate the Epidemics
of plants and animals^ in a manner sug-g-estive of
analog-ous causes operating- in both instances.
The lung-s of animals and the leaves of vegetables^
are their respiratory org-ans^ by means of which,
the blood in the one case and the sap in the other,
derive g-as from the air, and impart g-as to it, each
taking- what is thrown off by the other.
Now the epidemics amon^ veg-etables, have a
remarkable tendency to exhibit their effects pri-
marily on the leaves, and particularly on those
parts which are appropriated to the function of
respiration. It is from the stomates that many of
the fung-i commence to g-erminate, and their fructi-
fication may be seen sprouting- from the opening-
composed of a chink, surrounded by a peculiar ar-
rang-ement of cells, which constitute the breathing-
apparatus of their victim.
In the earlier epidemics, of which we read, one of
the most remarkable circumstances, was the extra-
ordinary influence the poisonous matter appeared to
101
exercise over the lung's^*' and the}' again^ were the
means of propag-ating* the disease^ and spreading-
the conta^ous particles throug-h the atmosphere,
for we read : " Thus did the plag'ue rag-e in Avig*-
non for six or eig-ht weeks, and the pestilential
breath of the sick, who expectorated blood, caused
a terrible contagion far and near, for even the
vicinity of those who had fallen ill of plag'ue was
certain death y so that parents abandoned their in-
fected children, and all the ties of kindred were
dissolved."! "The like was seen in Eg-ypt. Here
also inflammation of the lung-s was predominant."
" Here too the breath of the sick spread a deadly
contagion."
It is more than probable that all infectious matter
obtains an entrance to the system throug-h the lung-s.
Inspiring- the air containing- the pestilential semina
is, indeed, the only plausible explanation of infection ;
for thoug-h the skin is indubitably an absorbing-
* '' Substances presented to the gastro-intestinal sur-
faces, are mixed up with various secretions, mucus, saliva,
gastric juice, bile, pancreatic liquor, and special exudations
from the peculiar glands of each successive section, while
aerial poisons, unmixed and unfettered, are apphed at once
to a surface on which, behind scarcely a shadow of a film,
circulates the blood prepared, by the habitual action of
the respiratory function, to absorb almost every vapour,
and every odour, which may not be too irritating to pass
the gates of the glottis," — Mitchell on Fevers.
t Hecker on the '' Black Death."
M
162
surface^ and capable of taking- up and conveying to
the blood any noxious matter applied to it^ yet it is
far more probable that the lung-s would effect this
process with g-reater rapidity. Then the stomachy
the only other absorbing- surface to which extraneous
matter can be applied^ is not likely to be the part
where the elements of disease would obtain an
entrance to the sj^stem^ for many facts prove^ that
infectious matter may be swallowed without any
injurious consequences^ unless in a very concentrated
state. Instances are not easily found of diseased
matter having- been swallowed^ except where diseased
veg-etables have formed under some combination
of circumstances^ a portion of diet.*
Many facts are on record which prove the power-
ful effect of diseased g-rain when made into bread^
and taken for any leng-th time as a principal
article of food. The history of Erg-ot of Rye is too
fresh in the memor}^ of most people to require more
than an allusion here. The stomach had no power
over the secale^ its poisonous properties were retained^
after having- been submitted to the dig-estive process^
as was evidenced by the abortions and g-ang-renes it
occasioned.
But diseased wheat is also capable of inducing-
* The stomach in some cases is no doubt the medium
by which some diseases are contracted. It is well known,
that in many places the water induces diarrhoea, tlie per-
manent residents, however, may not suffer, but all new
comers are more or less affected by drinking it.
163
gangrene^ and it is more than probable^ that many
diseases mig-ht be traced to the use of infected grain
of various kinds. An interesting- account of a
family who lived at Wattisham^ near Stowmarket,
in Suffolk, and all of whom suffered more or less
from living- on bread made of smutty wheat, may be
found in the Philosophical Transactions. The
mother of this family and five of the children, con-
sisting- of three g-irls and two bo^s, all suffered from
g-ang-rene of the extremities ; the father lost the
nails from his hands, and had ulceration of two of
his fing-ers.* Dr. WooUaston wrote thus in a letter
on this case : '^' The corn with which they made
their bread was certainly very bad : it Avas wheat
that had been cut in a rainy season, and had lain
on the g'round till many of the g-rains were black
and totally decayed, but many other poor families
in the same villag^e made use of the same corn
without receiving- any injury from it. One man lost
the use of his arm for some time, and still imagines
himself that he was afflicted with the same disorder
as Downing-'s family." It is not unlikely this
was the case, for numbness and loss of power was
one of the well marked characters of the disease.
What other afflictions may be due to diseased
vegetation and adulterated articles of food, and what
loss of life may accrue from cheap and adulterated
* " Similar effects have been experienced from the use
of mouldy provisions." — Dr» Lindleys Vegetable Kingdom,
M 2
164
drug^ and chemicals is hardly yet dreamt of.*" The
systematic practice of adulteration of almost every
article of diet which comes to table has become a
serious question for the leg-islature to consider.
Take only the article of milk^ upon which the young-
children of larg-e towns and cities^ make their chief
meals^ with the addition of bread. How much milk
comes into London from the country^ how much
is obtained from stall and grain-fed cows in the
metropolis^ and how much is said to be consumed^
would be an interesting" calculation. It is pretty
well known that a mixture is sold by which a retailer
q{ milk may increase his supply by one-third or one-
half. It was discovered in Paris that the brains of
animals^ when prepared in a particular manner,
formed, when mixed with a certain proportion of
milk and water, a very fine and deceptive cream ;
in that city this system was carried on to a con-
siderable extent. I could not help alluding* to these
facts while speaking* of diseased g-rain, for who shall
say to what extent a miller in a larg-e wslj of busi-
ness, may be able to '^ work in," as it is called, a
considerable amount of smutty corn in the manu-
facture of flour ? Now, as diseased grain is known
* "Untold numbers die of the diseases produced by
scanty and unwholesome food.'' — Sonthey,
A large^ nay, a most extensive adulteration of flour with
plaster of Paris was detected not many years since The
flour was supplied by a contractor for the manufacture of
biscuits for the navy.
165
to induce abortion^ it is impossible to tell how small
a portion may in some cases produce the effect ^ we
may therefore say with Thomas of Malmesbury,
" There is no action of man in this life which is not
the beginning* of so long" a chain of consequences^
as that no human providence is high enoug'h to g^ive
us a prospect to the end."*
To return, — associated with these observations
are other facts of considerable weig-ht. Before and
during" pestilences, abortions are more frequent than
in ordinary times ; infectious and contag*ious diseases
induce abortion ; besides this, and independently of
disease, conditions of the atmosphere have been
known to exist when abortion has been an epidemic
affection ; of this Dr. Copland says, ^^ to certain
states of the atmosphere only can be attributed those
frequent abortions sometimes observed which have
even assumed an epidemic? form, and of which
Hippocrates, Fischer, Tessier, Desormeaux, and
others have made mention.'^ With this reference I
will close the subject of comparison between the
affections of the breathing apparatus in animals and
plants, merely alluding- to the probability that under
some conditions of atmosphere, independently of
heat, &c. vegetables without any other assignable
cause will become abortive.
* See Southey's Doctor, vol. ii. interchapter vi. p. 115,
for an illustration of this subject.
1G6
SECTION II.
WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THOSE POISONS WHICH MOST
RESEMBLE THE MORBID POISONS IN THEIR EFFECTS ON
THE BODY?
In the early part of this book^ I considered the
nature of poisons generally, and had occasion to
remark upon the characters which separated poisons
into two distinct classes. Ist^ Those which have
the power of self multiplication ; and 2nd^ Those
destitute of this property.
Of the first we have seen that the poisons of
epidemic diseases multiply both in and out of the
body.
The poisons of infectious diseases, not usually
epidemic, do the same. Those of endemic affections,
such as ague and some fevers, usually become mul-
tiplied out of the body only, but under some circum-
stances, and peculiar atmospheric conditions, they
may be also multiplied within the body. The
amount of these poisons necessary to produce their
specific effects, may be inappreciable. Of the second
class, there are two kinds, those derived from the
organic kingdom and those derived from the inor-
ganic kingdom. Of these, the amount necessary to
produce their specific effects is appreciable and pretty
well known.
But among* those poisons, consisting of organic
107
products^ there is one which seems to hold an inter-
mediate place. This is derived from one of the
Fung"als^ and as it takes this remarkable position as
a link of connexion between the two classes of
poisons^ I may be excused quoting* a passage of
some leng*th upon this ag-ent^ from Dr. Lindley's
Veg-etable Kingdom. " One of the most poisonous
of our fung-i^ is the Amanita muscaria^ so called
from its power of kilKng- flies^ w hen steeped in milk.
Even this is eaten in Kamchatka^ with no other
than intoxicating- effects^ according" to the following-
account by Lang'sdorf, as translated by Greville.
This variety of Amanita muscaria^ is used by the
inhabitants of the north-eastern parts of Asia in the
same manner as wine^ brandy^ arrack^ opium^ &c.
is by other nations." — " The most sing-ular effect of
the amanita is the influence it possesses over the
urine. It is said^ that from time immemorial^ the
inhabitants have known that the fung-us imparts an
intoxicating- quality to that secretion^ which con-
tinues for a considerable time after taking it. For
instance^ a man moderately intoxicated to-day _, will
by the next morning- have slept himself sober^ but
(as is the custom) by taking- a teacup of his urine,
he will be 7nore powerfully intoxicated than he was
the preceding- day. It is, therefore, not uncommon
for confirmed drunkards to preserve their urine, as
a precious liquor against a scarcity of the fungus.
The intoxicating property of the urine is capable of
168
being propagated ; for every one who partakes of it
has his urine similarly affected. Thus with a very
few amanitae^ a party of drunkards may keep up
their debauch for a week/^
This property of the amanita^ at once places it in
a separate category from all other organic poisons^
it has yet to be shewn upon what this intoxicating-
fungus depends for its activity. Whether some
secretion is formed in the tissue of the plant^ or
whether some new arrangement of the particles of
matter or modification of the sporules^ is brought
about by entering the system^ it is impossible to
say. Langsdorf states that the small deep-coloured
specimens of amanita^ and thickly covered with warts,
are said to be more powerful than those of a larger
size and paler colour. As the effect is not produced
until fi-om one to two hours after swallowing the
bolus, and as a pleasant intoxication may be ob-
tained by this agent for a whole day, and from one
dose only, there is a defined line between this and
the ordinary narcotics and stimulants in common
use. That the digestive powers of the stomach have
no influence over the intoxicating properties of the
plant, is manifested in the fact, that the active
principle passes into the urine, not only not deterio-
rated but apparently increased, for, as we have seen,
a teacup of the urine from a man, intoxicated by
taking the amanita into his stomach, will cause him
to be more powerfully intoxicated than by the
169
orig-inal dose. We have^ therefore, but two con-
jectures left for consideration, either the original
intoxicating principle is excreted from the system
in a condensed form, in which case its indestructi-
bility by dig-estion, makes it approach the ordinary
org-anic poisons, or there must be an increase of the
toxic agent, in which case we must suppose a
reproductive process having taken place in the
system. " There is," says Dr. Mitchell, " in the
wild regions of our western country, a disease called
the inilk sickness^ the trembles^ the tires^ the slows,
the stiffs-Joints, the pulling fever, ^cP The animals
affected with this disease, " stray irregularly, appa-
rently without motive 5'' they lose their power of
attention, and finally tremble, stagger, and die.
'^ When other animals — men, dogs, cats, poultry,
crows, buzzards, and hogs, drink the milk or eat the
flesh of a diseased cow, they suffer in a somewhat
similar manner." This disease is attributed by Dr.
Mitchell to the animals having grazed on pasture
contaminated with mildew, and the resemblance to
the effects of the amanita, together with the per-
sistence of the specific principle within the fluids
and tissues of the body, render it more than pro-
bable that to some fungoid growth, is due the
peculiar toxic effects here noticed. Further : '' The
animals made sick by the beef of the first one, have
been in their turn the cause of a like affection in
others ; so that three or four have thus fallen vic-
tims successively." De Graaf states, that butter
170
made from the milk of diseased cows^ tlioug-h heated
until it caug-ht fire^ did not lose its deleterious pro-
perties. The urine of diseased animals^ collected
and reduced by evaporation^ produced the charac-
teristic s^^mptoms. All these facts point to some
peculiarity in the properties of matter not yet
investigated or at least not explained. If we may
assume that reproduction is here an element of the
persistence and apparent multiplication of active
matter^ I know only of one instance to compare
with it. A gentleman about to deliver a lecture on
the properties of arsenic^ and its history g-enerally,
made two solutions of a given quantity of arsenious
acid^ in the following manner. He took a certain
amount of distilled water^ and the same of filtered
Thames water^ and made his solutions of arsenic
by separate boiling-s^ he then as soon as possible
placed the liquids in identical bottles, carefully pre-
pared for their reception. In the one which con-
tained the arsenic boiled in river water^ the
hyg-rocrocis is now g'rowing*^ while that boiled in
distilled water remains perfectly limpid and free
from any veg-etable production. There can scarcely
be a doubt^ that the filtration of river water was
not sufficiently purif3dng- to remove the minute
spores of some lower forms of veg-etation^ which not
only live in arsenic but have resisted the temperature
employed in boiling- an arsenical solution to satu-
ration.
As to the first class^ or truly reproductive and
171
morbid poisons, the most heterog'enous ideas have
from all time existed. I have introduced the notice
of the above poisons^ viz. the Amanita^ and that
which engenders the milk sickness, to compare the
results of the morbid poisons on the human body
with them^ and also to associate them with the
effects of diseased grain. From the Amanita and
that other fung-oid matter which is said to produce
the milk sickness, there appears to be a purely toxic
action on the system, but in the instance of diseased
grain, a blood disease, ending in gangrene, or a
specific and peculiar action of the generative organs
is the consequence, and w^here the latter occurs, the
poison usually expends itself on these parts, either
by inducing abortion, or augmenting the catamenial
secretion.
Now, the morbid poisons, if studied only in their
results^ shew that there is a combination of these two
actions. There is usually, in the first place, a toxic
or poisonous action, and secondly, a deteriorating* or
decomposing action on the blood, by which there is
a tendency to low or asthenic inflammation and gan-
grene. It matters not what form of fever we take
as an illustration, whether intermittent, pestilential,
or exanthematous, either will serve the purpose of
shewing how completely the effects of vegetable
organic poisons resemble those which for the sake
of distinction (I suppose) have been denominated
Morbid Poisons.
Take an attack from the paludal poison. It is
172
usually ushered in with head-ache^ weariness^ pains
in the limbs^ and thirsty with other symptoms ; all
these are indicative of a poisonous agent in the
blood : then come the full phenomena of the disease
at a long-er or shorter interval^ and tending* ulti-
mately to destroy some organ of the body. The
mind suffers dming* the course of the attack^ and
delirium occasionally happens. In severe cases of
this disease^ which were more frequent formerly
than now^ coma^ delirium^ and frenzy were observed
at the commencement of the attack^ and a tendency
to rapid disorg*anization of one or several of the
viscera.
If we take the effects of poison of Erysipelas^ of
Scarlet Fever^ or Plag'ue^ in each we find at the on-
set more or less g*eneral derang-ement of the system^
usually with cerebral disturbance and disordered
action of all the dynamic forces of the body^ which
clearly indicate the action of a poison j then^ unless
some favourable symptoms arise^ the blood exhibits
a steady advance towards disorg'anization^ and spha-
celation of one or more tissues or parts of the body
ensues. In Erysipelas the force of the diseased
action is expended on the skin^ and subcutaneous
cellular tissue ^ in Scarlet Fever the fauces ulcerate,
and slough and the parotids suppurate ', in the
Plague there is a general tendency to putrefaction^
and the formation of glandular abscesses with
sphacelas. Without going any further into this
mattery for my present intention is merely to draw
173
notice to certain facts^ let me now ask, whether or
not, do the poisons of the Ergot, the Uredo, and
the Amanita, exhibit more analog-y in their action
on the nervous system, the blood and the tissues,
than any other poisonous agents with which we are
acquainted ? If the whole range of the lower fungi
could be examined in reference to their operation on
the blood, as decomposers of organic compounds, — if
experiments could be made, by which the properties
of fungoid matter could be detected, I would ven-
ture to say the whole of the phenomena of these
diseases could be readily comprehended and their
intricacies unravelled.
We know that the fungi are poisonous, that at
times and seasons, and under variations of climate,
they vary in their effects, and perhaps lose alto-
gether these properties. We know that the fungi
produce gangrene of the tissues, and disorganization
of the blood ; we know that their spores pervade
the atmosphere, and are ready, under favouring-
conditions, to increase and multiply • we know that
they are ubiquitous, and that those conditions
most favourable to their development, are exactly
such as are proved to foster and engender disease,
and above all, they have been proved to be the ele-
ments of some diseases in man, in animals, and in
plants. Can as much be said of any other known
agents, animate or inanimate, comprised in our cate-
gory ?
It has been said, we do not see after death, —the
174
interlacing* mycilium^ or the sprouting* pileus;
therefore the fung-i are not the ag-ents of disease— it
has been said that carbonic acid and alcohol are
not found as products of diseased action— conse-
quently disease is not a fermentative process. '^ In
all cases/' says Liebig*^ '' where the strictest investi-
g-ation has failed to demonstrate the presence of
org-anic being's in the contagion of a miasm^ or
contag-ious disease^ the hypothesis that such being-s
have cooperated^ or do cooperate in the morbid
process^ must be rejected as totally void of founda-
tion and support." Much as I admire the genius
of this g'reat man^ it is difficult to refrain from
remarking"^ that I doubt if any of his g'reat
discoveries would have been made^ if^ in the first
instance^ hypotheses had not formed the basis of
all his researches. It has been said^ " that casual
conjunctions in chemistry^ gave us most of our
valuable discoveries :" and it is from casual con-
junctions that hypotheses are usually formed^ the
working- out proves either their fallacy or their
truth^ but to say that an hypothesis has no founda-
tion^ until demonstrated to be true^ is rather
knocking- down arg-ument. And who^ let me ask^
has been more prolific of hypotheses than our
continental neig-hbour ? Yet he^ according- to his
mode of reasoning-^ would sweep away all such
words from the vocabularies of philosophers. What
foundation has the chemical hypothesis of disease^
when it fails to explain the most important element
175
of contag-iou^ and infectious diseases : viz. the
reproductive property of their g-erms ?
It is perhaps necessary to say something- in ex-
planation of the sudden deaths arising- from morbid
poisons. They may occur from two causes. One
being- the result of a concentrated amount of poison
g-erms being- inhaled into the lungs^ and acting- as
an ordinary toxic ag-ent ; and the other^ which I
put only hypothetically^ the consequence of the
rapid evolution of g-as in the vessels arising- from a
sudden decomposition of bloody as it passes through
the lung-s. The only authority I have for this
supposition, is the fact that the blood after death,
from pestilential affections, is found to be far
advanced towards decomposition ; that in Paris
last year, two patients were bled while suffering-
fl'om Cholera, and with the small quantity of blood
which floAved, bubbles of air also escaped :* and be-
sides this, it was demonstrated by Mr. Herapath, that
ammonia was ^ven off from Cholera patients, both
by the lung-s and skin. These facts, though they
are not conclusive, nevertheless render it probable
that such an explanation is not entirely out of
reason— especially too, when we know how fatal
are the effects of uncombined air, when it enters the
vessels near to the heart.
* Both these patients died.
176
SECTION III.
WHAT RESULTS DO WE OBTAIN FROM THE EFFECTS OF RE-
MEDIAL AGENTS, IN PROOF OF THE HYPOTHESIS ?
I HAVE here used the word hypothesis^ because^
having- so far advanced in the enquiry^ I trust suf-
ficient has been said to render the term apphcable.
Under the term remedial agents^ I shall include
all those causes, whether natural or artificial, which
tend to neutralize or destroy the germs of infection,
or miasmatic poison, whether this be effected out of
or within the body.
First, then, let us consider the results of drainag-e
and cultivation in removing* the causes of endemic
disease. One well authenticated case is as g-ood as
a thousand. I will take one, which, fi'om its source,
will be received as unexceptionable ; and from its
association with a very learned and amusing- book,
will be accepted as an ag-reeable reminder of the
many pleasant hours spent in the perusal of the
poet Southey's ^^ Doctor .''
'' Doncaster is built upon a peninsula, or ridg-e
of land, about a mile across, having- a gentle slope
from east to west, and bounded on the west by the
river ; this ridg-e is composed of three strata ', to wit,
of the alluvial soil deposited by the river in former
177
ag'es^ and of limestone on the north and west ; and
of sandstone to the south and east. To the south of
this neck of land, lies a tract called Potteric Carr^
which is much below the level of the river, and was
a morass^ or rang*e of fens when our Doctor first
took up his abode in Doncaster. This tract extends
about four miles in leng*th^ and nearly three in
breadth^ and the security which it afforded ag-ainst
an attack on that side^ while the river protected the
peninsula by its semicircular bend on the other,
was evidently one reason why the Romans fixed
upon the site of Doncaster for a station. In
Brockett's Glossary of North Country words, Carr
is interpreted to mean ' flat marshy land/ ' a pool
or lake / but the etymolog-y of the word is yet to be
discovered.
'' These fens were drained and enclosed pursuant
to an Act of Parliament, which was obtained for that
purpose in the year 17 06. Three principal drains
were then cut, fourteen feet wide, and about four
miles long", into which the water was conducted
from every part of the Carr southward, to the little
river Torne, at Rossing'ton Bridg^e, whence it flows
into the Trent. Before these draining-s, the g^round
was liable to frequent inundations j and about the
centre there was a decoy for wild ducks ^ there is
still a deep water there of considerable extent, in
which very larg-e pike and eels are found. The soil,
which was so bog'gy at first that horses were lost in
attempting- to drink at the drains, has been brought
N
178
into good cultivation^ (as all such g-round may be)
to the g'reat improvement of the district; for till
this improvement was effected^ intermittent fevers
and sore throats were j^revalent there, and they have
ceased from the time the land was drained. The
most unhealthy season now^ is the spring*^ when
cold winds^ from the north and north-east^ usually
prevail during- some six weeks 5 at other times Don-
caster is considered to he a healthy place. It has
been observed that when endemic (?) diseases arrive
there^ they uniformly come from the south; and
that the state of the weather may be foretold from a
knowledg"e of what it has been at a g'iven time in
London^ making* an allowance of about three days^
for the chance of winds. Here^ as in all places
which lie upon a g'reat and frequented road^ the
transmission of disease has been greatly facilitated
by the increase of travelling".^^
I feel certain of being* excused for transcribing*
this long* passag-e from Southey. It would have
been impossible to convey its whole meaning* with-
out giving* it entire. The continuation of the
chapter is no less instructive and applicable to our
subject^ though more particularly so to an extension
of the enquiry. The sore throats and intermittents^
from which Doncaster has been freed^ by the drainage
of Potteric Carr^ informs us at once that decom-
posing matter is the material by which the poison
of fever is vivified and sustained^ the wet and boggy
state of the soil is just the condition^ when no
drainage exists^ to bring into activity the germs of
179
disease^ which otherwise would lie latent. So satis-
fied and acquainted are we with the elements
necessary for the production of fever^ that we mig-ht
as certainly brin^ about an endemic intermittent
by forming- an artificial bog-^ as we could be sure of
g-rowing* mushrooms by making' a bed in the manner
laid down by g-ardeners for this purpose. Dr.
Lindley also says^ ^' the Polyporus fomentarius has
been artificially produced in Germany^ but merely
by placing' w^ood in a favourable situation, and keep-
ing- it well moistened. Five or six crops were
obtained in the year.''
Let warmth, moisture, darkness, and decaying
matter be given, and inanimate disintegrated par-
ticles will soon be converted into definite forms and
combinations instinct ^vdth life. It is by the unseen
forms of living- being-s, that the atmosphere is pre-
served from becoming- charg-ed with deadly g-ases ;
they take the first rank in the great scheme of
animated being's, the plant first, and then the animal.
^^ Let the earth bring- forth grass/' ^^ Let there be
lights in the firmament." ^^ Let the waters bring forth
the moving creature, and fowl that may fly," and
^^Let the earth bring forth the cattle, the creeping
thing, and the beast." This is the order of crea-
tion, of living things, and the earth was prepared by
vegetation for the animal world. The work of conver-
sion is accomplished by vegetation ; and this is con-
sumed for the construction of higher organizations.
The laws which govern and control the universe;
N 2
180
are as definite and as wonderful among- invisible
atoms^ as those which regulate the enormous masses
floating* in space 3 and the time will come when the
advancing" intellect of man will measure and weig-h
the morbid poisons^ as he measures and weighs the
stars. Why should the laws of Epidemics be less
understood; than the laws which govern the course
of comets ? The aspirations of man have led him to
penetrate the heavens^ which charm and inspire
him y he studies rather the more violent disturbing
elements of nature^ the thunder-cloud and the fire
of heaven^ than the silent pestilence which steals
over the earth. I cannot conceive it possible that
the Intellects^ which are occupied in procuring means
for the Majesty of this empire to issue her mandates
with the velocity of a spirit to the nethermost parts
of the earth; should be incapable of solving so deeply
interesting a mystery as the causes and nature of
pestilential diseases. It would seem that man pre-
fers to issue a mandate of destruction many thousand
miles distant; than to disarm the pestilence at his
door. It is barely a century since Galvani observed
the twitchings in the muscles of a frog^s leg; and the
batter}^; still named after hini; has already become
an agent of instantaneous communication between
places many miles distant. But how many centuries
have passed away; each one succeeding the other;
with its millions of victims to epidemics? And
where are the remedies for the evils ? Drainage and
cleanliness; with all their advantages; were better
understood and more fully carried out by the ancient
181
Homans than by ourselves ^ there are monuments^
thoug-h crumbling- to decay^ to tell us of the vast en-
terprise of these people and of the value they set upon
a healthy and vig-orous constitution^ and how well
they understood the means of Avarding* oft' disease.
Cultivation and drainag-e are now fully understood
to be the basis by which a healthy condition of air
is to be obtained^ next to that^ cleanliness and venti-
lation ; if either be neglected a sickly^ mouldy^ and
unwholesome contamination of atmosphere ensues ;
the odour of a bog* is proverbially mouldy^ and so is
that of an ill-ventilated house or cellar ^ dryness^ or
the fresh pleasant scent of clean water^ are the
antag-onists of these , the aromatic odours of vegfeta-
tion are opponents of putrefaction^ and consequently
of the development of the lower forms of life. All
empyreumatic matters prevent mouldiness and de-
composition; and odours arrest and prevent the
g-rowth of mouldiness. The oil of birch^ with which
the Russia leather is impreg-nated^ and which g-ives
it so pleasant an odour^ effectually prevents mouldi-
ness^ and consequently decay.
Lindley says^ ^^ It is a most remarkable circum-
stance^ and one which deserves particular enquiry ,
that the g-rowth of the minute fungi^ which con-
stitute what is called mouldiness^ is effectually
prevented by any kind of perfume."* Cedar has
* " A good part of the clove trees which grew so plen-
tiftdly in the island of Ternate, being feUed at the sohcita-
tion of the Dutch, in order to heighten the price of that
182
been used^ from time immemorial^ for a like purpose 5
and I doubt not the recommendation of Virgil^
before quoted^ in reference to the burning* of cedar,
was founded on some practical utility of this kind,
though its modus operandi was unknown to him.
Allied to these is a curious circumstance, and worthy
attention. I copy the following* from an old work
on Pestilences. '' It is remarkable that when the
Plague raged in London, Bucklersbury, which stood
in the very heart of the city, was free from that dis-
temper 5 the reason given for it is, that it was chiefly
inhabited by diniggists and apothecaries, the scent
of whose drugs kept away the infection, which were
so unnatural to the pestilential insects, that they
were killed or driven away by the strong smell of
some sorts of them.'^ " The smell of rue^ and the
smoke of tobacco, were prescribed as remedies
against the infection ^ but especially tar and pitch
barrels, which it was imagined preserved Limehouse,
and some of the dock-yards from infection.''*
Pitch and tar dealers are everywhere spoken of
as being remarkably exempt from infectious diseases.
Cold infusion of tar was used in our colonies as
9* prophylactic against the Small Pox. Bishop
fruit, such a change ensned in the air, as shewed the salw
tary effect of the effluvia of clove trees and their blossoms ;
the whole island, soon after they were cut down, hecoming
exceeding sichly.*^
* The observation is originally taken from the City
Remembrancer, 133. \
183
Berkeley was induced to try it when this disease
rag-ed in his neig-hbourhood. The trial fully
answered expectation— for all those who took tar-
water^ either escaped the disease^ or had it very
slig'htly.
Tan yards and places in the immediate vicinity^
are said to be free from pestilences. The tanners
of Bermondsey are said to have escaped the Plag-ue
of London^ and one person only died in Gutter
Lane^ where was a tan yard. The tanners of Rome
are also stated to have been free from Plag-ue.
Dr. McLean refers to the exemption of tanners at
Cairo. Tannin is prejudicial to most vegetables^ —
but Dr. Lindley says it is not always so to ftmgi.
^^ A species of Rhizomorpha is often developed in
tan pits." I should imagine that neither plants
nor insects would be found very abundantly^ where
tannin prevails ; yet we find that the g-all-nut is
formed for the protection of an insect from injury
by weather^ and as a temporary means of sus-
tenance.
The custom of fiimig-ating with odoriferous sub-
stanceS; does not therefore appear upon this view of
the matter to be destitute of importance ; indeed^
the universal practice stamps it at once, as an effi-
cacious remedy for the purposes of disinfection.
The introduction of chlorine fumig-ation, seems to
have superseded, in a great measure, the use of
frag-rant herbs and woods y and it is questionable
whether the substitution be altogether desirable or
184
advantageous. Many scents may be agreeably
and usefully employed, with much less chance of
anno3^ance to the patient, and considerably less
injury to articles of furniture, &c.
The fumigations of sulphurous acid and chlorine
are, perhaps, more adapted as disinfectants in
uninhabited apartments^— their power to destroy
vegetation, is well known. They have been used,
chiefly, with the idea of neutralizing gaseous exha-
lations, particularly chlorine, as it tends to combine
with hydrogen, to form hydrochloric acid, and then
to unite with ammoniacal matters, forming hydro-
chlorate of ammonia. This, supposing noxious or
pestilential effluvia consisted of the ammoniacal
exudations variously combined, was an exceedingly
eflicacious method of rendering them inert; but
as we feel convinced that no ammoniacal compound
could possibly be the cause of infection, we must
look to the influence these gases possess over other
forms of matter, and as they are so destructive,
even in minute quantities, to vegetable existence, it
is possible that their beneficial effects may be due
to this property. The immediate neighbourhood of
gas works is prejudicial to vegetation, I imagine,
from the amount of sulphurous vapours, and to this
has been attributed the exemption of persons
employed in these works. Many other instances
might be cited of a similar nature.
I have now to speak of medicinal agents, and
here comes a considerable diflicultv.
185
If we mig-ht believe all that has been written on
the sure and certain remedies for the ^^ ills that man
is heir to/' we should be led to acknowledg-e that
both nature and art were prodig-al in antidotes and
specifics. The all-bountiful hand of nature^ I do not
doubt^ has at the same time scattered the seeds of
good and of evil. The fertilizing- showers fall to
irrig-ate the soil^ and produce food and nourishment
to man; here and there is the reeking* morass
" feeding" unnatural veg-etation/' and if man takes
up his abode in its vicinity^ the rains which made it
unhealthy, have also made it highly fertile ; by
labour and cultivation he may convert the mephitic
bog* into a waving corn-field, and the seeds of life
and sustenance be made to supplant the seeds of
death and corruption.
It is generally believed, that where there are
particular and specific diseases, there also may be
found appropriate and specific remedies; the
discoveries of chemistry, it is not improbable, may in
some respects have retarded the progress of natural
medicine. In the early ages of the world, the
^^ healing plant'' must have formed the staple of
medical commerce, for though Tubal Cain* has been
considered as the first surgical instrument maker,
because he was the first artificer in brass and iron,
we have not discovered that chemical compounds
entered hito the composition of physic, till very
* See Hamiltou's History of MedicinCj vol. i. p. 4.
186
many years after his time. To the alchemists we
owe the science of chemistry^ and much of the
physic of the present day may be traced to them.
The multiphcity of ingredients which at one time
entered into the composition of one dose of physic
could only be spoken of under the title of '' legion."
Who shall specify the active and curative ingredient
(if there be one)^ when from five to a hundred may
have been exhibited at the same time ? It has been
the pride of our physicians^ that the pharmacopoeia
has been simplified ) it has not reached its most
simple form yet. That many simple plants have
specific and wonderful power over disease^ is an
indubitable fact^ but I firmly believe that the
laudable^ though mistaken efforts of physicians to
improve their effect by various combinations^ have
been the means of throwing many valuable medicines
into oblivion ; I must also add^ that cheap physic
and adulterations have had no small share too in
the banishment of much valuable physic from
ordinary practice. It has been beheved^ and I think
with much reason^ that a thorough search into the
qualities of plants^ would shew that ^^they are capable
of affording not only great relief, but also effectual
and specific remedies." '' That they are not already
found^ is rather an argument that we have not been
sufficiently inquisitive, than that there are no such
plants endued with these virtues."
Of the result obtained by medical treatment^ in
cases of epidemic or infectious disease^ it is most
187
difficult to speak^ but as my province here is only
to shew that living g-erms are the morbific agents^
I have but to refer to such remedies as have been most
extolled in controlling- these affections. The disin-
fectants have already been mentioned in a cursory
manner. An enumeration only of simple medicines
used during" the late Epidemic^ shall conclude this
work^ as the treatment in former times could not by
any possibility furnish satisfactory information.
Aromatics and frag-rant stimulants have in all
times taken the foremost rank with acids^ such as
vineg-ar^ lime and lemon juice. Mr. Guthrie's adop-
tion of lemon juice in preference to bark^ which he
said made him worse while suffering- from an attack
of fever^ during- the Peninsular campaig-n^ and his
speedy recovery from the disease^ thoug'h not from
its effects^ shews^ when many others can bear equal
testimony to its value^ that such a remedy thoug'h
simple is not to be despised.
But to the late Epidemic. Dr. Stevens' saline
treatment^ appears^ on the whole^ to have been the
most successful. Common salt was used both
medically and dietetically^ and formed the gTeatest
bulk of the medicine employed. Chlorate of potash
and carbonate of soda were added to the medicine.
The nitro-hydrochloric acid was used with success
at St. Thomas's Hospital.
Dr. Copland used chlorate of potash^ bicarb, soda,
hydrochloric, ether, and camphor water.
Dr. Ayre's calomel treatment had as many, if
188
not more^ opponents than advocates. Phosphorus
had several advocates.
Creasote and camphor were lauded by some.
The beneficial operation of all these remedies mig-ht
be explained on the theory here supposed^ that
living" g-erms are the cause of Epidemic disease^ but
the specific action of any one remedy has not yet
had sufiicient attention or trial to enable me to
make any deductions of a satisfactory or conclusive
nature.
In the uncertainty which g-enerally prevailed as
to the best method of treating* Cholera patients,
I was induced (for reasons stated in a pamphlet
published last year) to try the efficacy of sulphur,
which had been extolled as a specific. In its effects
I was not disappointed , but as the results are al«
ready before the public, I need not do more than
refer to it among- other remedies.
I did not contemplate even alluding* to this sub-
ject, as it would extend far beyond my intended
limits. This portion of the enquiry would be more
properly carried out by keeping* records of cases,
treated in accordance with the view attempted to be
established, and I have not the slig-htest hesitation
in sa^dng*, that the most ample success would ulti-
mately attend a well directed practice, based upon
the principles inculcated in these pag*es.
189
CONCLUSION.
In making- the foreg-oing* sketchy I have attempted
to put tog-ether some ideas on a subject^ which has
for the last few years been a theme for meditation
in ^leisure hours, viz. What are the causes of Epi-
demic, Endemic, and Infectious Diseases? The
occurrence of Epidemic Cholera last year in this
country, awakened a spirit of enquiry. Where
there is unrest, whatever may be the cause, there
also is disquiet and discontent. When the oracles
of the ag*e were consulted in the emerg-ency, the
discordant answers perplexed and confused the
anxious searcher after truth. In the spring" of last
year, when the enemy was approaching*, unseen
and unheard, and the thousands of unconscious
victims, who are now lying* in their graves, were
faithfully trusting* and fully relying* on the heads
of our profession, and the resources of our art, what
was the state of our defences, and what the
nature or character of our resistance ? One con-
siderable body of men would discharg*e from a
little tube of g'lass, a host of almost invisible g*lo-
bular atoms of sug*ar, said to be as potent and
inscrutably operative as the unseen enemy. These
infinitesimal practitioners assured the people that
they " had powerful means of subduing the disease,^
190
but even they differed among' themselves^ though
they carried out to the fullest extent the doctrine of
their leader^ similia similibus^ which, we may suppose
to refer in this case to the minuteness of the opposing-
armamenta. Without^ however^ ag-reeing* with this
school, I may quote a passage from Dr. Curie,
which is, alas ! too true : ^^ We have shewn, as
they must (allopathists), and many of them do
acknowledge, that they have no fixed basis, no
natural law upon which their treatment rests/'
Who can deny the force of this observation?
Sheltered by a principle, it matters not how falla-
cious, a man is placed as behind a barrier. If
with any reason it could be shewn that the in-
finitesimal doses, could by no possibility effect a
cure in Cholera , if it could be demonstrated by any
line of argument, that a poison, a living poison,
circulates with the blood, or lodges in the tissues,
the homseopathist must fall ; his " electricity and
mineral magnetism,'' and ^^ powerful concentration
of life porcer towards the digestive canal^^ will stand
for what they are worth. That minute doses of
medicine can exert an active influence over the
body is not to be denied, but these must consist of
powerful drugs, as arnica, aconite, and nux vomica,
with others, and it is more than probable, that of
such medicines, an inconceivably small amount may
produce a specific effect upon some portion of the
organic nervous system.
How is it that a dose of nitre or digitalis, '' can
191
convert cheerfulness into low spirits/' or a grain of
red suliDliuret of antimonj^^ " excite warmth and
lively spirits ?''*
Why should indigo dyers become melancholy,
and scarlet dyers choleric ?t We do not know.
But there is one thing* we most certainly do know,
that a poison may be disarmed by an antidote, and
the amount of the latter must be in proportion to
that of the former, and as epidemic and contagious
diseases do most unquestionably depend upon poi^
sons of a specific nature, and of great amount and
activity, an infinitesimal remedy, however it may
claim to direct and control the organic forces,
under slight and ordinary disturbances, can be no
more effectual in destroying the poison of fever, or
small pox, than in neutralizing arsenic or prussic
acid.
The uncertainty which generally prevails as to
the treatment of Epidemic diseases. Fevers, &c. in-
duced me to put together the notions which are
contained in these pages, in the hope of leading to
some definite ideas of the causes of these affections,
and consequently to a more uniform and scientific
mode of treating them.
I have endeavoured to shew that reproduction is
a phenomenon inseparable from morbific matter,
and that in all probability the vegetable kingdom is
the source of the germs.
* Feucbtersleben's Medical Psychology, p. 176, 177-
t Ibid. p. 321.
192
The train of argument adopted is such as ap-
peared to me most natural for such an enquiry^ and
it rests now only with those who are capable of de-
ciding* whether such a course^ though (I am sensibly
aware) not without many faults in conception and
execution^ is calculated to advance the science of
medicine and the interests of mankind.
The real tree of knowledg'e_, possesses in the
spong-ioles of its roots^ an elective property^ by
which truth alone can enter ; nourished and sus-
tained by this^ it sends a fragrant incense and
breathing odour on high_, and dispels the mists
of ignorance and superstition. In natural causes
and reasonable deductions we must seek for instruc-
tion and solid information^ for in over-straining
either nature or art^ deformity and error must
inevitably be the result.
THE END.
NORMAN AND SKEEN, PRINTEnS, MAIDEN LANE, COVENT GARDEN.
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