158 THE GERM THEORY OF DISEASE. 



interesting as it would be, but must content ourselves with 

 one writer, Dr. Miller, now of Berlin. 



Dr. Miller's experiments bear the stamp of being more 

 carefully performed than any that have previously come to 

 our knowledge. This was to have been expected, from the 

 fact that they are the latest, giving the experimenter the 

 advantage of all that has gone before; and for the reason 

 that he is very favorably placed for such work, being in the 

 midst of the best experimenters of the world. Therefore his 

 work is looked to with unusual interest. 



We need not, however, notice any but his last series of 

 articles, that which is now appearing. We cannot, of course, 

 criticise Dr. M/s work now, for we have not heard him 

 through ; but enough has appeared to show very clearly 

 what the result will be. 



Dr. M. begins this series of articles with this sentence: 

 " During the last two years I have stated at different times 

 and places, as the result of many experiments, that 'the first 

 stages of dental caries consist in a decalcification of the tissues 

 of the teeth by acids, which are, for the greater part, generated 

 in the mouth by fermentation. 7 The object of the investiga- 

 tions described in this and the following papers, is to deter- 

 mine this ferment, and the conditions essential to its action." 



We see from this, that Dr. Miller begins just where Dr. 

 Magitot left off sixteen years ago. The discussion of the 

 subject during these years has given us no additional facts, as 

 to the essential nature of these phenomena ; but the advance 

 of thought in reference to the general subject of such investi- 

 gations has been such that no man would now repeat Dr. 

 Magitot's course of experimentation with the same end in 

 view. 



I will give a very brief synopsis of Dr. M.'s course. And 

 while I do so, I wish you to keep in mind the object he has in 



