36 Ciucinnati Society of Natural History. 



its elimination of fluid and solid matters be suspended b}' cold 

 and moisture, or if open sores or wounds exist on it, or on the 

 mucous surface of mouth or throat, if digestion be interfered 

 with by food improper in qualit}^ and (luantity, or if the entire 

 ran_t^e of processes of preparation of food for assimilation be 

 interfered with, poison of a deadly character may develop. 

 A great many chemical poisons have been found in the fluids 

 and tissues of the body ; each organ of the body may con- 

 tribute its quotum, and some of them are, when injected into 

 the body of animals, deadly in their effects ; so-called bilious- 

 ness is explained in this way. The headache, bad taste, dry 

 tongue, pain in the body and limbs, malaise, indifference and 

 inabilitj' to work, and sleepiness, are the results of "ptomaine" 

 poisoning. This word is applied to a class of these agents 

 which chemists ajid bacteriologists have found in our bodies. 

 Taking cold is not simply the result of exposure to winds or 

 sudden alterations of weather, but the ptomaines poi.soning 

 has opened a way for these ".sappers and miners," micro- 

 organisms and their stealthy work. 



If microbes, with their minute anatomical structures and 

 limited lives, can produce such mischief to human ])eings and 

 animals, what may not be expected from the comjilexity of 

 structure and function in a human ])eing when its vital 

 chemistry becomes perverted. It is no wonder that in this 

 new field of animal chemistr}' have been found so man>- com- 

 plex organic poisons that may interpose their deadly effects. 

 An atom of vegetable matter in microbe form, in the process 

 of living and dying, leaves a legacy of virus that can infect 

 ultimately the entire mass of huge animals; like a piece of 

 wood on a railroad track, with the train at high speed, that will 

 precipitate the immen.se mass of wood, iron and flesh into 

 instant wreck. We have no reason to be ])roud in view of 

 such possibilities. 



Predisposition to disease cjualifies the health in (juite a 

 number of instances. It is well known that families show 

 these tendencies, and they dominate their pathological his- 

 tories. The weak organs may be the digestive ones, or it may 

 be the lungs that are abnormally sensitive. These ]iredisp()si- 

 tions show themselves at dilTerent ages, as. for instance, con- 

 suni])li()n between tw(.nt\- and thirtw 'I'hc cliildren of a 



