SANITARY BEL ATI OX S OF THE SOIL. 471 



We can not, indeed, answer, with the results of experiment and 

 microscopical investigation, questions respecting the infectious diseases 

 with the specific germs of which we are not acquainted, but we may 

 be guided in the matter by other facts. Naegelli says : " Contagion- 

 fungi can keep up their peculiar activity in water only for a short 

 time. The purer it is the less food they find in it ; they are very soon 

 l'emoved by exhaustion in clear spring-water ; and, even in water that 

 contains food for them and where they can multiply fast, degeneration 

 quickly sets in, and they are changed into common ferments." 



Inasmuch as we are not acquainted with the germs of typhus and 

 cholera except through their infectious operation, w T e can not, so long 

 as we use at the same time the air and the w r ater of the infected place, 

 decide whether the epidemic germ is imparted to us by the water or 

 by the air. If only one of the elements could be used while the other 

 could be entirely excluded, we might anticipate a time when investi- 

 gation should bring us to a decision on the subject. Many cases are 

 now known where cholera and typhus have run their course without 

 any part of the local water having been used as drinking-water, but 

 not a single case where the local air was excluded wmile the local 

 water was used. A severe epidemic of typhus that prevailed in the 

 city of Basle last fall and winter enforced the lesson that not even 

 the purest water, brought from far away in the Jura, could afford 

 protection against those diseases. With this fact the probability, in 

 cases w T here the epidemic influence can be ascribed to both the air and 

 the water, that it exists in the water, falls to a minimum. We may 

 then ask, Why might not the infection in these cases have been 

 brought out from the soil by the air ? It is not my intention to argue 

 here, where discussion is not possible, against the drinking-water the- 

 ory ; I only call attention to the fact that the most convincing proof 

 of it is wanting. My disbelief in it, however, does not prevent my 

 desiring pure and abundant water for all dwelling-places of man, for 

 we need it, not only as a means of protection against typhus and 

 cholera, but for the daily use of sick and well ; not only for the sake 

 of cleanliness and for food, but also as a luxury. 



The examination of the fungoids has brought out many facts of 

 great hygienic importance, among them some that concern organic 

 life in the soil. I acknowledge the fact gratefully, but can not ab- 

 stain from indicating a few points which show the necessity of being 

 guarded in practical hygiene against too hasty conclusions. Mycology 

 would assume more than belongs to it, if it should imagine that hy- 

 giene was first placed on a scientific foundation or that it first reached 

 a scientific standing when the cultivation of bacteria was begun, or 

 that it had nothing more to do in the future than to look into the mi- 

 croscope and work with the steaming-pot and wadding-stoppei - . The 

 professional hygienist has still much else to do ; but if he keeps him- 

 self familiar with the results of the investigation of the germs, then 



