/24 Kansas Academy of Science. 



organisms. He had overthrown the doctrine of spontaneous generation 

 as then understood. We should add, parenthetically, that Jenner had 

 done an important act in discovering or applying properly the principle 

 of smallpox Vaccination. He had done this in 1798. But w^e v^^ill leave 

 this, granting that much credit is due Jenner for it. From the observa- 

 tions of Pasteur mentioned there followed Lister's work which, when 

 the Kansas Academy of Science was established, was largely in process 

 of growth and demonstration. In 1867 he published a record of eleven 

 cases of compound fracture treated antiseptically. We see then that 

 this society is as old as antiseptic surgery. It follows that some of the 

 fundamental facts of the science were known. However, the great mass 

 of the discoveries of fact, and the invention and improvement in tech- 

 nique, were made well along in this period, and no small part has been 

 accomplished within the last two decades. 



We wish now to note another peculiar thing, and it is this: Man has 

 often learned and made use of many practical facts when he had but 

 a very imperfect knowledge of the fundamental principles in the case. 

 We have referred to vaccination. This was practiced in England in 

 the eighteenth century and probably long before this in China, but it 

 was little understood. Jenner elaborated upon it, but it is not even 

 now certain as to the real facts in the case. Man early learned also 

 to be careful in the disposal of excreta, and with the bodies of dead 

 animals. He was somewhat careful with his drinking water. He 

 avoided the sick to some extent. He was even suspicious of the well 

 from the point of view of his health. It has long been considered a 

 deadly insult for one to spit upon another. Especially was it so re- 

 garded for one to do this in the other's face. It is reasonable to suppose 

 that this may have come about from a slowly developed intuition of the 

 possibility of contagion in such cases. Most boys have been cautioned 

 not to lie around sluggish streams in the heat of the summer, and most 

 of us have been told of the dangers of night air. 



We should not wonder at these vague notions, especially when we con- 

 sider the great difficulty of knowing and understanding organisms as 

 small as many germs. Pasteur accomplished his early work by the aid 

 of the compound microscope. There are even now many difficulties in 

 the way of one who would study bacteria. 



But to take up the main thread again. In 1876 Koch proved that 

 anthrax in cattle is caused by a specific germ — Bacterium anthracis. 

 He also advanced his rules of procedure in determining the cause of 

 any germ disease. These are "Koch's laws": (1) The germ must be 

 found present in the typical disease. (2) It must be isolated and grown 

 in pure culture. (3) It must produce when introduced in pure culture 

 into the body of the normal animal or plant the typical disease. (4) 

 It must again be isolated from the diseased organism. These laws have 

 been rather closely observed, and show with what care science advances 

 before pronouncing any dictum. 



But to follow these laws is easier said than done. It is often not 

 easy to isolate an unknown germ. It is very difficult even to find them 

 sometimes, and it is quite probable that some are still invisible. Paul 



