24 Proceedimjs. 



oiily name one. Our investigation lias shown several of our 

 most fatal diseases to be the product of living organisms. We 

 well know that for their existence all living organisms require 

 certain conditions, and in the absence of these conditions 

 they perish. We should therefore seek to find out what 

 circumstances of climate, temperature, diet, or medication 

 are inimical or fatal to the particular organism we are in 

 danger of — say that of typhoid, consumption, or anthrax, for 

 instance. We should also be careful, in our attempts to 

 protect ourselves or others from these morbid agents, to guard 

 against trusting to everything which goes by the name of 

 disinfectant. Many of these are only deodorizers, and have 

 no power to destroy the germs of disease. Indeed 1 think it 

 would be well to discontinue the use of the word disinfectant, 

 and to speak of deodorizers and germicides as two separate 

 things, which they really are. 



The most available and at the same time the most effectual 

 germicide is heat, if properly applied ; and should the return 

 of cholera or any other serious epidemic render it necessary, 

 there can be no difficulty in arranging gas appliances in such 

 a way that the food and drink of every household may be 

 effectually sterilised, that is, deprived of all the living disease- 

 producing germs that may be in it. 



The mention of this sterilising of our food induces me to 

 add one word more on the analysis of our waters. Heretofore 

 our analysts have confined their reports to the salts and gases 

 in the water ; but for sanitary purposes it is far more im- 

 portant to investigate by the microscope and by the process 

 of culture the living germs present in the water. I under- 

 stand this is now done at an institution in Berlin, and I trust 

 it will not be long ere it is done in this country ; and if it is, 

 we shall soon learn to discriminate between those germs which 

 are hurtful and those which are harmless, and this knowledge 

 may lead to the prevention of many cases of sickness and 

 death. 



In reply to Mr. A. C. Sterry, Dr. Bossey said that diseases 

 may be divided into three classes : — (1) Those that exhaust 

 themselves after a time ; (2) those that become more virulent 

 after each attack; (3) intermediate. 



