BY THE HON. A. NORTON. 105 



in the fresh air are much less prone to disease than those who 

 live in the impure atmosphere of the towns and spend their days 

 in shops and offices. Let us admit all this ; but, Avith respect to 

 the impurity of the atmosphere, this may bring about an un- 

 healthy condition which makes persons an easier prey to disease 

 of whatever kind ; but, thanks to Pasteur and others who have 

 followed up his discoveries, we know now that the living germ, 

 the causa caaisans, of disease must be present before the disease, 

 whatever may be its nature, can be originated. It is not because 

 the atmosphere of crowded cities is merely unhealthy, it is not 

 because some persons may perchance use the unboiled milk, or 

 insufficiently cooked flesh of tuberculous animals that so many 

 of them are attacked by tuberculosis. It is because the bacilli 

 are abundant and find their way without such instrumentality 

 into the mouths of their victims, that so many develop tuber- 

 culosis. May we not also attribute its frequency in a very con- 

 siderable measure to heredity, or at least to telegony, as Weis- 

 mann calls it, i.e., infection of the germ — notwithstanding the 

 disputations of scientists on this subject ? Leaving out of con- 

 sideration the strong arguments in favour of the transmission of 

 disease from parent to child, which have been brought forward by 

 learned and profound thinkers ; setting aside, too, the evidence of 

 family diseases — diseases which appear in particular families 

 from one generation to another — can we overlook the fact that 

 one loathsome disease is certainly passed down from vicious 

 parents to their innocent but unfortunate offspring '? Or, again, 

 are we justified in refusing to believe in heredity or germ 

 infection, when Pasteur has shown that the germ is contained 

 in the eggs of moths aft'ected by the disease called '-pebrine," 

 and develops in the silkworms which are hatched from those 

 eggs ? The evidences in support of the heredity of disease are 

 at least too strong to be lightly discarded, and I think I should 

 be amply justified were I to press this as an argument to show 

 that ingestion by the means already referred to is not the 

 greatest danger with which poor mortals are threatened. I 

 intend, however, to look for other sources of infection, the great 

 danger of which cannot be disputed. 



At one time it was customary in all countries in Europe to 

 allow phthisical patients in hospitals to occupy the same wards 



