302 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



the air, must be inconceivably minute ; but when introduced into 

 the stomach by the food, or more commonly by the saliva, they 

 there find material congenial to their germination ; or, on the 

 other hand, destructive matters may be present. In the latter 

 case they are resolved into their ultimate elements, and, entering 

 into new combinations, cease to be noxious, if they originally 

 were so. In the former, a development probably of the most 

 rudimentary form is produced, and this, though germinating iu 

 the stomach, may be as harmless as thousands of its species are, 

 or as poisonous in its degree as its larger brother growing in the 

 field or buzzing in the air. Speedily developed thus far, it now 

 requires other conditions than are to be found in its present habitat, 

 anil it as speedily dies ; but if possessed of noxious properties, it 

 and its fellows M'ho entered with it have, during their short but 

 active existence, succeeded in poisoning the nutrition of the body. 

 — Lancet. 



Dr. Joseph G. Richardson, of Union Springs, N. Y., after 

 numerous examinations of human blood, has arrived at the con- 

 clusion that living organisms in decomposing beef tea, when in- 

 gested, may enter the circulation and increase there ; and bases 

 his belief on experiment made on himself, by microscopical exam- 

 ination of his blood at intervals after taking 4 ounces of beef 

 liquid, which, according to calculation, contained 27,000,000,000 

 of living organisms. He thinks the presumption is strong that 

 other plants" beside those noticed by himself, of a more poisonous 

 nature, may thus enter the circulation, '* and each constitute tlie 

 essence, the real contagium, of some so-called zymotic disease, as, 

 for example, diphtheria and scarlet fever, small-pox and measles, 

 as declared long ago by Prof. Salisbury, of Cleveland, and re- 

 cently by Prof. Hallier, of Jena." — Amer. Jour, of Med. Sciences. 



THE ANTISEPTIC TREATMENT IN SURGERY. 



We know from the researches of Pasteur that the atmosphere 

 contains among its floating particles the spores of minute vegeta- 

 tions and infusoria, in greatest numbers where animal and vege- 

 table life abound, as in crowded cities, under the shade of trees, 

 and in the wards of hospitals. The septic energy of the air is in 

 proportion to the abundance of these minute organisms in it, and 

 is destroyed by exposure of these germs to a heat of about 220" 

 F. The character of the decomposition which occurs in a fer- 

 mentable substance is determined by the nature of the organism 

 which develops it; thus the same saccharine solution will undergo 

 either the vinous or the l)utyric fermentation, according as the 

 yeast plant or another organism is introduced into it. We cannot 

 refuse to believe, therefore, that the listing beings invariably asso- 

 ciated with the various fermentative and putrefactive changes are 

 indeed their causes, and not the oxygen or moisture of the air. 

 These minute organisms are the immediate cause of putrefaction, 

 and putrefaction is regarded as the cause of suppuration. This 

 treatment, as recommended by Mr. Lister and others, does not 



