444 GERM THEORY OF DISEASE. 



GOLDTHWAITE, GEORGE. 



others, for instance, have discovered that a 

 septiferous fluid can not be deprived of its vir- 

 uleiit properties by either filtering, boiling, 

 evaporation, or combination with acids in the 

 form of salts. As no life could survive such 

 operations, it must be inferred that the toxic 

 agent is not the zoophytes themselves, but a 

 specific poison produced by them by a process 

 of fermentation in the putrescent fluid. 



Professors Klebs of Prague and Tommasi of 

 Rome spent several weeks in the spring season 

 in the Agro Romano, a part of the Roman Cam- 

 pagna, notorious for the prevalence of marsh 

 or intermittent fever, in investigating into the 

 physical cause or specific poison of this dis- 

 ease. This they believe that they have dis- 

 covered in a minute fungus which abounds in 

 the soil and the lower strata of the air in that 

 region. This microscopic fungus is a bacillus, 

 growing in rod-shaped forms. It consists of 

 numerous movable, shining spores of elongated 

 oval form. They cultivated the germs artifi- 

 cially in different kinds of soil. The residual 

 solids of this bacterium, after the soluble mat- 

 ter had been repeatedly filtered and washed 

 out, were capable, when injected under the 

 skin of a dog, of bringing on all the symptoms 

 of the disease in their regular order. To this 

 newly discovered epizootic parasite the name 

 of Bacillus malarice has been given. 



Besides the diseases in which the presence 

 of a characteristic microscopic parasite has 

 been actually observed, the number of which 

 is already considerable, as has been seen, and 

 those in which there are strong indications of 

 a similar origin, and those others which by 

 analogy may be ascribed to such a cause, there 

 is a tendency to attribute to morbific bacteria 

 certain diseases which are not classed as epi- 

 demic, as contagious, nor scarcely as endemic, 

 so great a hold has the germ theory lately ac- 

 quired upon scientific minds. In Germany it 

 is now held, on almost purely theoretical 

 grounds, that tuberculosis is caused by a spe- 

 cific bacterial germ. Even Professor Klebs of 

 Prague, who stands high as a medical author- 

 ity, is committed to this theory. The effects 

 of a novel cure for phthisis, which is produc- 

 ing an unusual stir in German medical circles, 

 are ascribed to its destroying the living germs. 

 The new remedy is sodium benzoate. The 

 method of taking it is described as follows : 

 Natrium benzoicum (sodium benzoate) 1 per 

 mille of the bodily weight, diluted to a solu- 

 tion of 5 per cent. is inhaled twice a day, in 

 the morning and evening, by means of a Sie- 

 gel's pulverizator (an atomizing inhaler), for 

 seven weeks uninterruptedly. The appetite, 

 which is said to be soon excited by this treat- 

 ment, should be fully satisfied by a meat diet, 

 plenty of fresh air taken, and all enervating 

 influences avoided. The proportion of the salt 

 to be inhaled T7 Yij- of the bodily weight of 

 the patient at each inhalation, or about 2J 

 ounces for a person weighing 140 pounds is 

 strictly adhered to : the inhaler must be care- 



fully adjusted to permit such a large amount 

 to enter the air-passages ; and still a portion 

 will escape, so that the patient should remain 

 in the room an hour at least after each inhala- 

 tion. This treatment is said to have produced 

 remarkable cures in the hospital at Innspruck 

 and elsewhere. It might be expected to pre- 

 vent the formation of pus in the morbid cavi- 

 ties ; but it is said to attack the true seat of 

 the disease, and put an end to the tuberculizing 

 process and this, as is boldly held, by de- 

 stroying the characteristic bacteria to which 

 the degeneration of the tissue is solely due. 

 Rabbits confined in an atmosphere of these 

 benzoic vapors can not be infected with tuber- 

 culosis, although the disease can otherwise be 

 readily induced in these animals. The benzo- 

 ate of soda is extremely irritating to the air- 

 passages, and many patients would find diffi- 

 culty in breathing such large quantities of the 

 fumes. 



GODON", SYLVANUS W., a naval officer, 

 born in Pennsylvania, died in France, May 20, 

 1879. He entered the navy as a midshipman 

 in 1819, and reached the rank of lieutenant 

 in 1836. In 1847 he took part in the siege of 

 Vera Cruz as an officer of the bomb-brig Vesu- 

 vius. After the breaking out of the civil war 

 in 1861 he was commissioned as captain, and 

 took command of the sloop of war Powhatan, 

 one of the vessels employed in Du Pont's ex- 

 pedition to Port Royal. In 1863 he was pro- 

 moted to be commodore, and commanded the 

 steamer Susquehanna and the fourth division 

 of Admiral Porter's squadron at the two bat- 

 tles of Fort Fisher, December, 1864, and Jun- 

 uary, 1865. Commissioned as rear-admiral 

 July 25, 1866, he commanded the South Atlan- 

 tic squadron on the coast of Brazil during that 

 year and 1867. From 1868 to 1870 he was 

 commandant at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and 

 was subsequently placed on the retired list. 



GOLDTHWAITE, GEORGE, a jurist and 

 Senator, born in Boston, Massachusetts, De- 

 cember 10, 1809, died at Montgomery, Ala- 

 bama, March 18, 1879. He received his early 

 education iu Boston, at a grammar-school then 

 attended by Charles Sumner, R. C. Winthrop, 

 and George S. Hillard. In his fourteenth year 

 he was appointed a cadet at West Point, and 

 was there at the time when ex-President Davis, 

 Generals Lee and Joe Johnston, and Bishop 

 Polk were students in the Academy. In 1826 

 he left West Point and went to Montgomery, 

 where he began the study of law in the office 

 of his brother, and was admitted to the bar in 

 his eighteenth year. He located at Monticello, 

 Pike County, where he'remained many years. 

 He then returned to Montgomery, where he 

 practiced with increasing reputation till De- 

 cember, 1843, when he was elected to the 

 Circuit Court bench. He held this post till 

 January, 1852, when he was elected a Justice 

 of the Supreme Court. By the resignation of 

 Judge Chilton in January, 1856, Judge Gold- 

 thwaite became Chief Justice, a dignity he 



