THE GERM-THEORY OF DISEASE. 585 



own assistants, has been less conclusive. In Hungary the immunity- 

 obtained by vaccination was not absolute, while the protective vac- 

 cination itself destroyed some fourteen per cent of the herds. 



Yet, though much of the enthusiasm generated by Pasteur's re- 

 searches may proceed further than the facts warrant, he has at least 

 opened a new path which promises to lead to results of the highest 

 importance to mankind. 



The ideal treatment of any parasitic disease would be to admin- 

 ister drugs which have a specific destructive influence upon the para- 

 sites, but spare their host, i. e., the cells of the animal body. But no 

 substance of such virtue is known to us. All so-called antiseptics, i. e., 

 chemicals arresting bacterial life, injure the body as much as if not 

 more than the bacteria. For the latter of all living beings are char- 

 acterized by their resistance to poisons. Some attempts, indeed, have 

 been made to cure bacterial (if not all) diseases by the internal use of 

 carbolic acid, but they display such innocent naivete as not to merit 

 serious consideration. More promising than this search after a new 

 philosopher's stone is the hope of arresting bacterial invasion of the 

 human body by rendering the conditions unsuitable for the develop- 

 ment of the germs, and thus affording the organism a better chance to 

 struggle with them. Let me illustrate this by an instance described 

 by Pasteur. The chicken is almost proof against splenic fever. This 

 protection Pasteur attributes to the high normal temperature of that 

 animal, viz., 42 Cent. At that degree of warmth the anthrax-ba- 

 cillus can yet develop, but it is enfeebled. The cells of the bird's 

 body, thriving best at their own temperature, can hence overcome the 

 enfeebled invader. Reduction of the animal's temperature, however, 

 by i means of cold baths, makes it succumb to the disease, though 

 recovery will occur if the normal temperature be restored in due time. 

 In the treatment of human diseases, we have not yet realized any 

 practice of that nature, but research in that direction is steadily con- 

 tinuing. 



The most direct outcome of the germ-theory, as far as immediate 

 benefits are concerned, is our ability to act more intelligently in limit- 

 ing the spread of contagious diseases. Knowing the nature of the 

 poison emanated by such patients, and studying the mode of its dis- 

 tribution through nature, we can prevent it from reaching others, and 

 thus spare them the personal struggle with the parasite. In no in- 

 stance has the benefit derived from a knowledge of the germ-theory 

 been more brilliantly exemplified than in the principles of antiseptic 

 surgery inaugurated by Lister. This benefactor of mankind recog- 

 nized that the great disturbing influence in the healing of wounds is 

 the admission of germs. It had been well known, prior to his day, 

 that wounds heal kindly if undisturbed, and that the fever and other 

 dangers to life are an accidental, not an inevitable, consequence of 

 wounds. But Lister was the first to point out that these accidents 



