266 MEDICINAL EFFECTS. 



splenic fever, the bacilli of typhoid fever and the spirulum 

 of Asiatic cholera, all of which and many other forms of 

 micro-organisms were greatly influenced in their life and 

 growth by exposure to the coffee infusions, some being 

 far more susceptible than others, however, the bacillus 

 prodigiosus and proieus vulgaris being entirely destroyed 

 only after an exposure of four days in a lO per cent, 

 infusion, while in a 30 per cent, infusion they were all 

 destroyed in one day. The spore of erysipelas was totally 

 destroyed after an exposure of one day in a 10 per cent, 

 infusion, the germ of splenic fever dying in from one to 

 three hours in a 20 to 30 per cent, infusion ; while the 

 typhoid bacilli v^^x^ completely destroyed in a 5 percent, 

 infusion after an exposure of three days and in a 30 per 

 cent, infusion in from one to two days. While the microbe 

 of Asiatic cholera was easily destroyed in a i per cent, 

 infusion after only seven hours' exposure ^ in a 5 per cent, 

 infusion after four hours and in a jo per cent, infusion 

 after two hours; the cholera spirulum being by far 

 the most susceptible of the numerous organisms used 

 in the experiments, next to which was the anthrax 

 bacilli, except the young forms or spores of the latter 

 germs, which perish only in from three to four weeks' 

 exposure. These latter results speak volumes for 

 " coffee as a germicide " for anthrax or splenic fever, 

 as the spores of this disease are by no means easy to 

 scotch or kill, and after these revelations coffee adminis- 

 tered internally or hypodermically in some new form or 

 combination of forms, may be eventually used as a remedy 

 for all germ-produced diseases. It must be borne in mind 

 by the student or chemist, however, that the antiseptic 

 effects of coffee do not depend on its Caffeine so much as 

 on its Caffeone or essential oil developed in the roasting 

 of the beans. But aside from these experiments, others 



