110 
POPULAR SCIENCE NEWS. 
[July, 1S90. 
hydric sulphide, — while the other elements 
rapidly pass thiough a series of changes con- 
tinually tending to the formation of simpler 
compounds, until finally the bulk of the egg 
is transformed into the carbonic dioxide and 
water from which it originally came, the 
small amounts of sulphur, phosphorus, nitro- 
gen, and other elements being also reduced 
to their simplest inorganic terms. And what 
is the cause of this difference ? Something, 
^whether matter or energy, we know not 
what, — conditioned upon the existence of a 
little microscopical cell, which is, apparently, 
no different from any otheri and refuses to 
yield up its secret to the most powerful 
microscope, or the most delicate chemical 
reagents. 
A similar condition is found in the vegetable 
world. The little "germ" present in every 
seed contains something which sets up and 
sustains in action the chemical ch;mges which 
build up the tree from water, carbonic diox- 
ide, nitrogen, and a few mineral salts of the 
soil. When the time arrives that this myste- 
rious sustaining force is withdrawn, the reac- 
tions are at once reversed, and the cellulose 
and other organic compounds of the plant 
slowly but surely return to their original 
water and carbonic dioxide, — perchance to 
again pass- through the same cycle of trans- 
formations. From the smallest amoeba, — 
which, as far as we can tell, is only a bit 
of albumen endowed with the power of mo- 
tion, — to man himself, everything possessed 
of what we call life, is ruled and preserved 
by this mysterious principle which differen- 
tiates living from dead matter. 
That our bodies are not ourselves is beyond 
question, but just what relation the chemical 
compounds of which we are formed bear to 
our consciousness, or ego, and in what respect 
one is dependent upon the other, no one can 
say. The brain of a Hottentot has, as far as 
we know, the same chemical composition as 
that of a Newton or Faraday ; but the vital 
force which governs its actions must be dif- 
ferent, either in its nature or in its mode 
of action. Nor can we say with certainty 
that the vital force resides in the brain at all. 
Portions of the brain may be removed, and 
life still remains. Only when the nerve- 
centres which govern important bodily func- 
tions — such as the aetion of the heart or 
lungs — are destroyed, is the protecting influ- 
ence withdrawn and the elements of the body 
permitted to return to their more stable com- 
binations. 
We cannot say from direct experimental 
evidence that the vital force is indestructible. 
Whether an amoeba or a philosopher die, 
both revert to the same forms of matter, and 
we know no more of the future destiny of the 
force which has conditioned their lives than 
we know about its nature. But we know 
that life has certainly existed from the earliest 
geological ages ; and, if we speculate — as we 
may legitimately do — upon the identity of the 
force which builds up the living being, and 
that which builds up the inorganic crystal, 
perhaps from the commencement of the ex- 
istence of matter. Every manifestation of its 
action in living beings tends to bring about 
its constant reproduction and transmission to 
successive generations ; after a plant or ani- 
mal has reproduced its kind, or passed beyond 
the period when such reproduction is possi-. 
ble, the vital force is gradually withdrawn, 
and what we- call death takes place. And 
more than this : the constant tendency of this 
vital principle seems to be towards the pro- 
duction of more complex and highly organ- 
ized and differentiated forms of life, each 
generation, on the whole, slightly surpassing 
its predecessors. In this sense, at least, life 
may certainly be said to be immortal and 
progressive ; and as the vitality which now 
animates our bodies must have had an exist- 
ence for an almost infinite number of previous 
generations, so it is not illogical to infer that, 
after the vital principle ceases to govern the 
matter which now composes them, it may 
still exist and manifest itself in other ways, in 
which our individuality or consciousness may 
be retained and even extended and ampli- 
fied in the same chain of progress which, 
according to the best modern thought, has 
developed the most wonderful of Nature's 
products, Man, from the lowly ascidian of the 
primaival seas. 
-»*v- 
I Specially Compiled for Popular Science Netvs.\ 
MONTHLY SUMMARY OF MEDICAL 
PROGRESS. 
by maurice d. clarke, m. d. 
What Can and Should be Done to Limit the 
Prevalence of Tuberculosis in Man. — This 
comparatively new question, which is very far from 
solution, formed the subject of a discussion at a 
rtcent meeting of the Association of American 
Physicians, the principal paper being contributed 
by Dr. Edward O. Shakespeare, of Philadelphia. 
It was now generally admitted, the writer stated, 
that tuberculosis was an acute infectious disease due 
to the bacillus tuberculosis of Koch. It was essen- 
tially non-hereditary, though a weak and enfeebled 
system may be inherited, thus rendering a person 
more susceptible to the disease or less able to throw 
it off. In view of the admitted inefficiency of all 
present modes of treatment of actual cases of tuber- 
culosis, effective prophylactic measures are infinitely 
more important to the general public, and should 
also be to the physician, than the most skilful thera- 
peutic measures, in real efforts to limit markedly 
the enormous mortality due to tuberculosis. Since 
analysis of the fullest records bearing upon the 
relation of family history to the causation of tuber- 
culosis could possibly account, througli liereditary 
predisposition, for little more than one-fourth of the 
cases, the most perfect measures conceivable for the 
lessening of that influence cannot be rationally 
compared in importance to those which are essen- 
tially based upon the destruction of an infective 
poison which is virulent enough to produce the 
disease, not alone in this comparative few who may 
be born with hereditary predisposition, but also 
to cause tuberculosis in the majority who succumb, 
notwithstanding the absence of an hereditary weak- 
ness. While the discovery of this bacillus has 
little advanced the treatment and cure of tuberculo- 
sis, it has revealed most important principles upon 
which to base efficient means of preventing the 
spread of the disease. In the prevention of tuber- 
culosis the following principles formed the basis 
of an efficient system: (i) With regard to those 
already diseased, effective preventive measures 
should look to the rapid destruction of the tubercle 
bacilli in the excretions and secretions of the 
affected, and by little as possible prolonged close 
association of the well with the sick. (2) With 
regard to those liable to become infected, nothing 
which may contain the living tubercle bacillus 
should be permitted to enter the digestive appa- 
ratus. Rigid inspection of meat and milk is a 
necessity. (3) Tuberculous subjects should not be 
admitted to hospital wards in which those with 
other diseases, especially of the lungs, are confined. 
In general hospitals, consumptives should be as- 
signed to special consumptive wards. (4) Special 
hospitals for the treatment of consumption should 
be established. 
Dr. Trudeau, of Saranac Lake, spoke of the 
decrease of the number of cases in England result- 
ing from proper separation of consumptive patients 
and the care of the sputum. 
Dr. Johnson, of Chicago, speaking with reference 
to the practice of sending patients with consump- 
tion to certain western localities, said he preferred 
sending them to some place where they were practi- 
cally isolated from others suffering from the same 
aflection, and to some desert spot where vegetation 
was scanty, and the conditions for increase in 
bacillary growth unfavorable. 
Dr. Ernst, of Boston, related the circumstances 
of a case which had lately come to his notice, 
showing how rooms might become infected, and be 
the cause of extending the disease to others, in 
whom family and personal history were perfect. 
An early diagnosis of tuberculosis could be made 
only by finding the characteristic bacilli on micro- 
scopic examination. The treatment is more favor- 
able if an early diagnosis is made. 
Dr. Bridge, of Chicago, said that in a few weeks 
signs could generally be found in the chest, but that 
the time for treatment that would avail, was in the 
interval before physical signs could be found, and 
hence the importance of a microscopic examination 
of the sputum. 
Olive Oil and Gall-Stones. — The old treat- 
ment of biliary calculi with large doses of olive oil, 
which had lapsed into partial desuetude, has been 
brought into fresh prominence within a few years, 
though its value is still in doubt. In an article 
which Dr. Seigfried Rosenberg read at a meeting 
of the Medical Society of Berlin, the writer reports 
three cases successfully treated by this method. 
Including his own, he finds recorded in the medical 
journals twenty-one cases in which the oil treat- 
ment has been tried; in nineteen of these the 
patients were described as much relieved or well at 
the time of their discharge, while in two cases only 
no improvement resulted. 
In considering the modus operandi of this I'emeiiy, 
he takes exception to the theory which assumes that 
the oil in some manner finds its way into the biliary 
passages, where it produces a softening of the gall- 
stones, thus facilitating their passage along the 
duct. He believes that the exhibition of a large 
amount of oil or fat in the stomach and duodenum 
excites a correspondingly large flow of bile, and 
that this flushing of the channels with bile dis- 
lodges the calculi and cures the colic. He argues 
