66o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



trefaction. Moreover, these alkaloids, according to Selmi, are readily 

 decomposed in contact with the air. The ptomaines, then, can not 

 enter into account in establishing a noxious character for cemeteries. 



Assuredly there are miasms. We do not mean by this term those 

 famous entities by which populations have been struck with terror, 

 but those infinitely small, inferior organisms, the microbes^ whose ex- 

 istence can not be disputed after the brilliant investigations of con- 

 temporary micrographs, especially those of M. Pasteur. We have no 

 disposition to ignore the existence of four or five species of microbes, 

 the destructive effects of which appear to be well established, such as 

 the anthrax- bacteria, the septic vibrion, Obermeyer's spirill, the micro- 

 coccus of the hen-cholera, and some other less well-known bacteria. 

 But, without denying that the air may convey infectious germs, and 

 that these may penetrate into the human organism through various 

 channels of absorption, facts which have become almost classical, we 

 still have to examine whether cemeteries, more than other places* give 

 rise to these miasms, these legions of microbes, whose presence in con- 

 siderable numbers in certain places, notably in hospital-wards, is in- 

 contestable. 



A number of well-established facts go to prove that the different 

 germs are destroyed by the combustion of corpses in the earth as soon 

 as putrid fermentation begins. We cite the characteristic fact of the 

 disappearance of the carbuncular virus in the bodies of animals that 

 have died of the plague-sore, from the moment the body begins to 

 putrefy (Pasteur, Collin), a fact which is practically recognized by all 

 the horse-killers, who are aware that infected subjects shortly after 

 death cease to be dangerous to them. A more important fact is that 

 the very exact micrographic researches undertaken by M. Miquel in the 

 cemeteries of Paris have certainly shown that there do not exist in 

 them any centers specially productive of germs of cryptogams. This 

 learned physician has ascertained, contrary to the opinion of many 

 authors, that the vapor of water which arises from the soil, from riv- 

 ers, and from masses in active putrefaction, is always micrographically 

 pure that is, it contains no microbes ; that the gases proceeding 

 from buried matters in decomposition are always free from bacteria ; 

 that even the impure air which is caused to pass over putrefied meats, 

 instead of being charged with microbes, becomes fully purified, on the 

 single condition that the infectious and putrid filter is in a condition 

 of humidity comparable to that of the ground at about a foot below 

 the surface. Finally, none of the numerous species which M. Miquel 

 has isolated and inoculated upon living animals has shown itself ca- 

 pable of determining pathological troubles worth mentioning. After 

 this, we may with perfect security put aside those pretended miasmatic 

 emanations, those mysterious effluvia with which certain hygienists 

 have gratuitously frightened an inexperienced public, and which some 

 speculators have turned to good account for themselves. 



