322 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[June 1, 1883. 



of storm-myths and sun-myths of the Aryan racp, the 

 battle Iictwppn Iiulra and \'ritra, Oiiim/.d and Ahriiiian, 

 Thoraiid Midgard, lIiTculrs and Cacus, Apolloand Pytlion, 

 and St. Cujorge and the Dragon. It is witli the physical 

 origin and, for us, deep tlicological significance of these, 

 that the succeeding paper will deal. 



PLEASANT HOURS WITH THE 

 MICROSCOPE. 



Bv Henry J. Slack, F.G.S., F.R.M.S. 



THERE is now a general consent amongst the leading 

 experiuK'nters in medical science that consumption 

 and a whole group of tubercular diseases are caused by the 

 action of the minute organism noticed by Koch, and 

 named BaciUus tithercuhsus. Former articles upon micro- 

 ferments aflbrd some information concerning the class of 

 bodies to which the haciUus belongs. Bacteria and bacilli 

 are minute straight rods, of a beaded character, stationary, 

 or witli a vacillating motion, while analogous spiral objects 

 {spinUa), often very much larger, corkscrew their way with 

 considerable rapidity. Bacteria have long been suspected 

 of connection with various diseases, and the action of some 

 traced, but it is only recently that the Bacillus tuber- 

 culostis has been discovered. It can only be well seen 

 when prepared by a skilful operator, and then the highest 

 powers can only show it like very small cuttings 

 of fine thread, which are resolvable into rows of a 

 few beads when the illumination is carefully managed. 

 A slide now under view was prepared from the sputa 

 of a consumpti\e patient, staining it, with an aniline dye, 

 a purple tint ; removing that tint from the organic debris 

 and leaving it in the bacilli, which hold it with greater 

 stability. A power 300 x shows no structure at all, but 

 one of about 1,000 indicates beads more or less plainly as 

 the illumination is suitable, and the object uninjured by 

 the process of mounting. Three, or four, or five beads 

 (occasionally a few more) either in an invisible tube, or 

 simply in linear contact, make objects which, so magnified, 

 seem from an eighth to a third of an inch long, and many 

 millions of them would scarcely have enough weight to be 

 represented in figures that could convey any meaning if 

 stated in fractions of a grain. Dr. Burney Yeo reckons 

 these bacilli as from a quarter to half a blood corpuscle in 

 length, and the human corpuscle to which he refers is 

 found to be from 1-3,200" to l-S.-'SOO" in diameter. They 

 vary in size, but are always minute. He tells us that in 

 some rods oval spherules have been noticed. The tempera- 

 ture of the human body is advantageous for their growth, 

 aud probably a single bead of inconcei\'ably small weight 

 may suflice to start a rapidly-growing colony. 



Doctors find the mischief done by these organisms to 

 begin with an infiammatory accumulation of cells produc- 

 ing little nodules in the organ attacked. As their action 

 increases, lumps of cheesy matter are formed at the ex- 

 pense of the tissues, and in violent cases the process of 

 destruction is fearfully rapid. It has been ascertained that 

 tubercular disease can be communicated by inoculating 

 animals with this bacillus. Breathing air emitted from 

 the lungs of afiected persons seems, under some circum- 

 .stances, capable of producing the disease ; but, probably, 

 in all such cases, there is something in the system of the 

 party attacked which specially favours the growth of the 

 deleterious organism. Dr. Yeo mentions many cases in 

 which husbands and wives, living and sleeping together, 

 have not transmitted the infection of consumption ; but in 



otlier instances this has probably occurred ; and one man, 

 mentioned by Dr. Webber, is believed to have infected four 

 wives in succession, and then he himself died of consump- 

 tion, after giving up a seafaring life. The nurses and 

 servants of the Brompton Hospital have been very free 

 from tubercular disease ; and when, at one time, the 

 patients suffered from defective ventilation, there was no 

 increase of consumptive attacks, but a large crop of 

 erysipelas. 



Py.x'mia is now ascribed to micrococci, or little spherules, 

 septicemia to bacilli, relapsing fever to spirilla, and ery- 

 sipelas is also traced to a micrococcus. It appears that 

 this disease sometimes affords relief from other complaints, 

 and Fehleisen grew its organism artificially, and then 

 inoculated seven selected patients, producing erysipelas. 

 The British Medical Journal says, in reference to these 

 experiments on human beings, that they " were perfectly 

 justifiable" (?), and states that one case of lupus (a horrible 

 skin disease) was completely cured. 



The question arises, are the bacilli which produce 

 different diseases different species of organisms, rigidly 

 reproducable in the line of hereditary descent, with uni- 

 formity of properties 1 Sometimes, of two objects that 

 look alike, one can be distinguished by its more readily 

 taking and holding a particular dye ; sometimes the 

 identity, or difference, of species is assumed on account of 

 the properties manifested. Pasteur's experiments with 

 the organisms producing splenic and some other diseases 

 show that, by growing them under different conditions, 

 their infectiousness can be attenuated to any extent ; and 

 if we look to the larger fungi, we find them wholesome or 

 poisonous, according to the circumstances of their develop- 

 ment, climate, soil, shelter of trees, or in open spaces. 



A small spherule, or a little rod, may or may not be 

 capable of development into other forms, and this can 

 only be found out by elaborate investigations. With 

 many of the lower organisms it by no means follows that 

 because many generations may be grown like their parents, 

 another type, so far as appearance goes, may not occur 

 under fresh conditions, either of external circumstance or 

 internal state. Mr. Dallinger's researches into the life- 

 history of certain monads abundantly prove that such 

 changes do occur. Spirillum at one period becomes less 

 twisted, and finally straight, according to Messrs. Geddes 

 and Ewart, and a great variety of bodies are developed 

 from round or oval spores, not distinguishable from each 

 other except by watching their development. Many 

 spores can pass through the digestive organs of animals 

 without injury. 



Dr. Matthews found spirillum developing from its spores 

 when he broke up a little excrement of a goat in distilled 

 water ; and sewage matter is a too well-known nidus of 

 disease-causing organisms. One of the most i-emarkable 

 statements in reference to the minuteness of the quantity 

 of matter capable of generating disease was made to the 

 Royal Microscopical Society in May, 1882, by Mr. G. F. 

 Dowdeswell, who said, in the case of the bacteria called 

 after its discoverer, Davaine, that the blood of rabbits 

 containing it "is usually infective up to the millionth and 

 the hundred millionth part of a drop ; sometimes even in 

 smaller quantities, obtained by successive dilutions." 



The subjoined figures will help the beginner in recog- 

 nising some of the organisms mentioned. Figs. I and 2 

 represent bacillus tubercHlosiis magnified about 500 times 

 and about 1,000, the latter being in beads. Fig. 3 is a 

 common form in the scum of infusions ; 4, a spirillum 

 considerably magnified. These objects vary in size. and 1) 

 are other forms ; .5, a long bacterium form ; 7 and 8, spores 

 and micrococci. It is only by long practice that any one can 



