280 . BACTERIOLOGY. 



fact that they destroy the parasites, that they 

 bring about an internal disinfection, so to speak. 

 We know, however, that antiseptics and disin- 

 fectants in general are more powerful poisons 

 towards the sensitive body cells than towards 

 parasitic microbes like those that provoke dis- 

 ease. We can speak of a true internal disin- 

 fection, accordingly, only when certain sub- 

 stances bear closer chemical relations to cer- 

 tain parasites than to the cells of the body, 

 when, in a word, they act " specifically." It 

 is, in fact, the opinion of physicians that quin- 

 ine and the salicylicates are " specific " cura- 

 tives. Quinine is supposed, according to Binz, 

 Behring and some others, to destroy or paralyze 

 the " specific " germs of malaria which ensconce 

 themselves in the red blood-corpuscles in the 

 body. This view is based upon the experi- 

 mental demonstration that quinine paralyzes 

 these parasites in a drop of blood ; the other 

 fact, that quinine paralyzes also the susceptible 

 body cells, the white blood corpuscles, is often 

 not sufficiently taken into consideration, and 

 just as little is the fact regarded that in such 

 quantities as are used in these experiments 

 quinine kills other microbes also. Quinine is 

 an excellent disinfectant for bacteria in the 

 vegetative stage and especially for many dif- 

 ferent kinds of pathogenic microbes. In a con- 



