PLEURO PNEUMONIA. 391 



culosis or consumption is also similarly caused. The difficulty in studying 

 these forms is increased by the fact that besides being so minute they are 

 transparent, but we are able to make them visible by staining. These facts 

 explain thecommunicabilityof consumption. A single germ if it finds favor- 

 able conditions for development can convey the disease. Exposure or over- 

 exertion may lower the vital powers of man so that they are unequal to 

 resisting the development of the germs. Hydrophobia similarly is a germ 

 disease, but the microbe causing it is so small and transparent as to be exceed- 

 ingly difficult of detection. 



Animals have long been known to be dependent upon plants for life. They 

 can not eat soil. It must first be assimilated for them by plants. It is debated 

 whether these microbes are plants or animals. I think they can hardly be 

 classed with either. They can take nutrition from the organic or the inor- 

 ganic world. Late researches indicate that as animals depeud on plants for 

 development of their food so plants depend on these minute forms for their 

 food from inorganic forms. That nitrification is caused by one of these 

 Schloessing and Miintz have proved. They found that vapor of chloroform 

 would put a stop to nitrification and that the addition of fresh soil developed 

 nitrification again. 



They took soil all right for plants except for lack of these organisms and 

 the plants would not grow. 



Bacterium termo is developed by putting meat in water twenty-four to forty- 

 eight hours, when putrefacti m begins. Bacterium termo is very small, shaped 

 like a dumbbell, and has cilia extending from each end which are the ^^^^Vxnr 

 inch in diameter. It is one of the best friends of man by breaking down 

 used-up tissue and rendering it useful again. 



Pleuro Pneumonia, Anthrax, Glanders, etc., are caused thus. How are they 

 to be prevented? By understanding the habits of and finding what will kill 

 these germs. Some of them may be killed by a proper change in tempera- 

 ture. 



The best authorities say that quarantine is no use against Asiatic cholera. 

 It won't stop it. Perfect sanitary conditions are our best defense. There 

 must be no filthy breeding places for germs; sewers, sinks, barns, must be 

 kept clean. I don't know what remedies can be found. 



As to quarantine, hog cholera, appeared on a farm where no* outside con- 

 tact or proximity to road could be proved, but the owners had got swill from 

 a family which ate pork brought from Chicago. 



So Pleuro Pneumonia can only be fought by killing every suspected ani- 

 mal. What if it costs $500,000? What of it? It must be stamped out if ifc 

 takes every animal we have. No doubt must be permitted to save an animal. 

 We need to study these organisms. 



Peach yellows and pear blight can only be fought by extermination of 

 aifected specimens. 



