38 RECENT DEVELOPMENTS OF THE 



and fast lines can be drawn in this respect, as the vagaries of 

 contagious diseases are numerous, and they are not altogether 

 amenable to discipline and rules. With some, robust health forms 

 no barrier, as the most robust individuals often give way the 

 most quickly. In other diseases the maintenance of the resistent 

 energy of the body is the most effectual mode of preventive 

 treatment. On the other hand, it is remarkable that such a 

 disease as scarlet fever should be so amenable to the action 

 of antiseptics and disinfectants as it is almost always found to be, 

 inasmuch as one case in a house rarely gives rise to others if 

 proper antiseptic precautions with isolation are carried out with 

 reasonable care. 



As regards the utility of antiseptics and disinfectants, it goes 

 without saying that their great use is on the contagium vivum 

 outside the body. The destruction of the virus is the main 

 object of disinfection, and we have no better illustration of this 

 than in the case of scarlet fever just mentioned, where the poison 

 is given off by the skin, and can easily be destroyed by inunction 

 with any efficient germicide. The destruction of the virus should 

 also be attempted in the case of tuberculosis. It has been abun- 

 dantly proved that the sputum is the means by which the virus 

 may be most easily disseminated. This can be readily destroyed, 

 and the doing so will be a far more efficient course than the cruel 

 and unreasonable one of isolation of the patient — a course which 

 is perfectly unnecessary and useless. 



The further question as to the utility of medicinal disinfectants 

 in modifying the germination and development of the virus after 

 its introduction within the body, is a large question still sub judice ; 

 it is often stated that no germicide can safely be introduced within 

 the body in sufficent quantity to disinfect the whole mass of blood 

 and tissues, but, when we consider what slight influences will 

 affect the germination and growth of bacteria in the test-tube, it 

 is not a Utopian quest to search for a method by which their 

 active increase may be put a stop to after they have been intro- 

 duced, and by which the resistent energy of the body may be 

 allowed to become the superior force, and the virus be ultimately 

 destroyed. 



We are learning, gradually, more and more of the life-history 



