288 ROMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS. 



malarious gases are regarded as a myth, and inter- 

 mittent and malarious fevers are attributed to various 

 microbes. The marsh fever, or malaria, which is so 

 common in Sicily, and in the campagna of Rome, 

 has been ascribed to a Bacillus, which is abundantly 

 found in the blood of patients during the period of 

 attack. " In the strata of air which float above mala- 

 rious ground in summer, this microbe is so common 

 that it is found in abundance in the sweat of the 

 forehead and hands." The disease known as recur- 

 rent fever, or relapsing typhus, and known in India 

 as jungle fever, was discovered to be due to microbes 

 in 1868. The parasite is thread-like, twisted into 

 numerous spirals, and animated by very lively move- 

 ments. Some authorities doubted this disease being 

 the result of microbes, until the experiments of 1880. 

 A monkey was successfully inoculated with the dis- 

 ease at Bombay, and after five days the spirals were 

 found in the animal's blood. Yellow fever has not 

 as yet been exhaustively studied in the countries in 

 which it prevails, but it is suspected from certain 

 symptoms and phenomena that further research will 

 confirm the parasitic nature of the disease. No two 

 diseases excite more dread than typhoid and typhus 

 fever, and in the former of these the presence of 

 special microbes was observed first in 1871, and 

 since confirmed and more exactly described. The 

 bacillus has been observed in the spleen, lymphatic 

 glands, and intestines. It appears, in the form of 

 short rods with rounded ends, in the glands which 

 cover the mucous membrane. Many other bacteria 

 occur in the intestines when the disease approaches 



