JAN S 1899 
NATURAL SCIENCE 
A Monthly Review of Scientific Progress 
No. 82—Vo.. XIJI—DECEMBER 1898 
NOTES AND COMMENTS 
BuBoNIC PLAGUE IN VIENNA 
THE occurrence of fatal cases of plague in connection with the 
Bacteriological Laboratory at the General Hospital in Vienna has 
attracted much comment from the press, and is not without its 
lessons. It may appear surprising to some that such incidents are 
not of more frequent occurrence. As a matter of fact they are very 
rare, and this for two reasons. The majority of pathogenic organisms 
soon lose much of their virulence when cultivated for any length of 
time outside the body ; some become harmless in a few days, others 
not for weeks or months, while there are bacteria which seem to 
retain their pathogenic powers almost indefinitely. In most cases 
virulence may be restored by suitable passage through the animal 
body. ‘The chief reason, however, for the rarity of accidents lies in 
the routine precautions taken in the laboratory when dealing with 
pathogenic organisms. Such precautions are the first lessons im- 
pressed upon the student; for they are necessary, not only as a 
safeguard to the experimenter, but in order to preserve the cultures 
themselves from contamination. Carelessness shows itself at once 
in impurity arising in the cultures, and although the carelessness 
which leads to this is not necessarily the same carelessness which 
contaminates the worker’s hands, yet both spring from the same 
cause, and one is rarely present without the other. Cultivations are 
carried out on moist media, and micro-organisms growing on such 
media do not escape into the air and do not seem to constitute any 
source of danger by inhalation. In the desiccated condition this is 
not so, but cultures are usually discarded and destroyed before they 
become dried up, and, moreover, drying is fatal to many kinds of 
bacteria. In all laboratories the beginner acquires, or ought to 
acquire, the technique necessary for the protection of himself and 
his cultures by practice upon harmless organisms. Once acquired, 
it becomes in time practically a reflex action, and the fear of infec- 
tion is scarcely present to the mind. 
Nevertheless there will always be reckless persons, and accidents 
will at times occur. Some organisms are especially virulent and 
dangerous to work with, for instance, the bacillus of glanders. Even 
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