~PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 725 
information was received with wonderfully little cavil or dis- 
pute. Of course, there are some who even now talk of the 
non-contagiousness of phthisis, and sneer at the imputed 
wickedness of the typhoid germ ; but these are entirely out- 
side the Schools, and their opinions are based on in- 
sufficiently-weighed and misread evidence. The germ 
theory and the specific nature of these microscopical 
organisms is the discovery, not of last century alone, but of 
all time, and has so revolutionised the medicine of to-day as 
almost to stultify the knowledge of the past as to the nature 
of infective diseases. 
Magnificent has been the advance along this line. With 
the study of the morphology and natural history of germs, 
the successful application in the matter of treatment has not, 
perhaps, kept the same pace. Something has been effected ; 
there may be a great deal in tetanus and diphtheria; and 
good results seem to have accrued from serum injection in 
typhoid fever. Yet, it cannot be exactly said that these 
diseases have been mastered. They have been, to a certain 
extent, rendered amenable to control by poisoning their 
bacilli with their own excreta. 
Triumphs have been achieved, too, in dealing with hydro- 
phobia by attenuating the virus, and there seems to be some 
evidence that occasionally septicemia is influenced in the 
same way as antitoxin acts in diphtheria; but I doubt if 
much more has been accomplished. Typhoid fever is nearly 
as resistant to treatment as ever; its mortality is as high, 
and its records are as deplorable, as they were before bacteri- 
ology was heard of. If any improvement has taken place, 
it is very slight, and it may be considered to have been ac- 
complished rather by hygienic arrangements than by the in- 
tervention of the physician. I doubt if we shall ever do 
much in the direct treatment of fevers, and our hopes lie 
rather in prevention than in the likelihood of ever being able 
to meet infective and contagious disorders with medicinal 
remedies. Typhoid, and its kindred diseases, have their 
purpose, like everything else. Fevers may seem a curse 
when their inroads come home to us, and leave the hearth 
desolate ; but where would our drains be without, and what 
an immeasurable distance would then separate the rich from 
the poor. 
Sanitation has probably done more to link classes to- 
gether than even improved education has been able to ac- 
complish. Imperfect hygienic surroundings mean sickness 
and poverty, the two great factors in the causation of crime. 
When I hear a complaint of the costliness of such-and-such 
a drainage scheme, I often say to myself, “ Well, it will be 
