134 MICROBES AND THE MICROBE-KILLER. 



bolic acid, corrosive sublimate, and strong alcohol. But- 

 how can the body be saturated with either of them ? 

 One-sixtieth of a grain is a dose of corrosive sublimate, 

 yet, to destroy the cause of a disease, it is necessary to 

 reach throughout all the tissues, and long before that- 

 point were reached the patient would be dead. 



I wish to avoid conveying the impression to even the 

 most unsophisticated reader that I claim any original- 

 ity in attributing disease to the presence of microbes. 

 That view is fully accepted by the medical profession. 

 The difference is that, whereas physicians attribute only 

 a few diseases to this cause, I aver that it is the origin 

 of all. Every year, too, adds to the doctors' list, and 

 zymotic ailments are gradually becoming more nume- 

 rous. Even in diseases like small-pox, whooping cough, 

 and measles, where the special microbe has not been ab- 

 solutely identified in the blood, its existence is admitted. 

 In this way the whole subject has received attention^ 

 and many points of interest and practical value have 

 been obtained. 



Some forms of microbes have the power of producing 

 spores, and these are more capable of resisting anti- 

 septics than are the fully developed germs. Diseases 

 where this form of bacillus exists are consequently 

 more difficult to cure, and it is more than probable that 

 small-pox comes in this category. Experiments insti- 

 tuted by Prof. Koch for the German Imperial Board of 

 Health are among the most important that bear upon 

 the resistance of these organisms, and the effects of va- 

 rious agents. It created no little surprise among phy- 

 sicians when Koch reported that many of the most pop- 

 ular and, as was supposed, the most powerful antiseptics 

 or germicides were, in fact, of no use at all. Carbolic 

 acid restrained their growth, but unless used in very 

 powerful form it was much less efficacious in destroying 

 their vitality. A one-per-cent solution required fifteen 

 days in which to kill them, and then only when they 

 were kept submerged in the fluid the whole time. It 

 is remarkable, too, that when the carbolic acid was 



