July io, 1890] 



NATURE 



243 



MEASLES AND STRA W-FUNGI. 



The Prevention of Measles. By C. Candler. (Mel- 

 bourne, Victoria. London : Kegan Paul, Trench, | 

 and Co., 1889.) 



■i\T OTWITHSTANDING the amount of labour which '• 

 > ^ Mr. Candler has expended upon this work, and 

 the ingenuity of some of his hypotheses, we cannot but 

 think that his method might almost be taken as an 

 example of how an inquiry of this kind ought not to be 

 conducted. The author starts with an account of the 

 observations of Dr. Salisbury, an American physician, 

 published in 1862, by which he claimed to have esta- 

 blished that a disease called " camp measles," prevalent 

 among American soldiers, was produced by infection 

 with certain fungi derived from musty straw. Salisbury 

 cautiously abstained from positively asserting that the 

 disease was identical with common measles, but said he 

 could see no difference between them ; and that an attack 

 of the former protected from the latter. If the diseases 

 were identical, his explanation applied to common 

 measles. i 



This hypothesis of Dr. Salisbury's was very carefully ! 

 examined by Dr. J. J. Woodward, Dr. Pepper, and others, : 

 who came, by experiment and reasoning, to the con- 

 clusion that Dr. Salisbury had not proved his point; 

 and the theory that straw-fungi are the cause of measles 

 has been generally discredited. 



Mr. Candler thinks that the refutation of Dr. Salis- ' 

 bury's theory was not complete ; and, falling into the not 

 uncommon fallacy that "not absolutely disproved" is 

 equivalent to " proved," he treats it as if it were certainly 

 established, and proceeds to build further hypotheses \ 

 upon it. I 



This we consider to be an inversion of the right method { 

 of procedure in science. Supposing that Salisbury's ' 

 results suggested matter for further inquiry, the proper 

 way to begin would be by testing their soundness. If 

 Mr. Candler had himself repeated, or got some scientific j 

 friend to repeat, Salisbury's experiments with mouldy ' 

 straw derived from a place where measles was rife, he 

 might have obtained results, either positive or negative, 

 of great value ; and would certainly have made a more 

 important contribution to the subject than is contained 

 in the present volume. 



Mr. Candler further extends the straw-fungus theory | 

 by supposing that the fungi become changed into bacteria j 

 in the body ; and, indeed, uses Salisbury's untested i 

 and unrepeated experiments as a proof of one of the 

 most fundamental questions (if it be a question) of bio- 

 logy—namely, the alleged genetic relation of fungi and j 

 bacteria. | 



The author's argument is so characteristic of his book j 

 It we venture to state it formally thus. Salisbury, by ^ 

 acting fungus-dust from mouldy straw into himself and 

 others, produced a disease resembling measles. But all 

 such diseases are produced by " pathophytes," i.e. bacteria. 

 Therefore Salisbury '" caitsed pathophytes to develop from 

 jiuigi" {\ht italics are the author's) "and demonstrated 

 that cardinal point in dispute in regard to the bacteria." 



An easy solution indeed ! if, at least, it were proved 

 that the dust of mouldy straw contained no bacteria 

 In NO. 1080, VOL. 42] 



I 



(though such are pretty certain to be present), and if it 

 were proved also thiat fungi by themselves cannot produce 

 specific diseases (though some such diseases are well 

 known in the lower animals, and are not quite unknown 

 in man). 



But even granting these points, surely the experiment 

 might be repeated at least once before it is made a 

 corner-stone of cryptogamic botany ! 



The dangerous fungus of measles Mr. Candler believes 

 to lurk in damp and mouldy straw palliasses ; and rejecting 

 altogether the idea of contagion, he believes that measles 

 is entirely due to the use of straw bedding imperfectly 

 aired. Towards the end of the book the author begins to 

 tread on firmer ground than at the beginning, for he 

 bases his conclusions on some induction from f^cts. 



In the great epidemic of measles in Victoria in the 

 years 1874-75, he affirms that he could not discover any 

 instance of measles in a dwelling from which damp straw 

 (in the form of bedding) had been excluded, but in every 

 house where measles occurred, the presence of damp 

 straw in the bed-rooms was easily made out. Some 

 curious instances of exemption, especially in the case of 

 public institutions, such as asylums and the like, are 

 quoted, and we seem to be on the verge of a systematic 

 collation of evidence. But the result is disappointing, 

 as the enumeration of instances is altogether inadequate 

 to establish a general law. It is strange that Mr. Candler 

 makes so much of the exemption of lunatic asylums from 

 measles, to account for which he has recourse to elaborate 

 explanations of the use of straw bedding. Surely the 

 exemption of persons shut up in asylums, prisons, &c., 

 from contagious epidemic diseases, is a very familiar 

 fact, and easily explained. Such persons receive few 

 visitors, and what is to the point here, lunatics especially 

 are seldom or never visited by children, who are the 

 chief carriers of the measles-contagium. Nor can we say 

 that the author is more successful in explaining on his 

 theory the great epidemics of measles in Fiji and in 

 Japan. 



Mr. Candler's book is written with much earnestness, 

 not without candour, and contains many curious facts, 

 though it fails to prove its main contention. There is 

 nothing impossible in the supposition that damp straw 

 favours the growth of " microbes " ; and it might con- 

 ceivably be proved by sufficient evidence that this is a 

 favouring or even a necessary condition for the growth 

 of the specific virus of measles. The objection is that 

 the evidence is quite inadequate. Moreover, were such 

 a law established, it would by no means prove that the 

 cause of measles was a fungus, since it might just as well 

 be a bacterium or other living thing. 



In the meantime it cannot do harm and may do much 

 good to draw attention to the insanitary consequences 

 which may follow the use of straw bedding. A straw 

 palliasse unchanged and undisturbed for years is not a 

 desirable article of furniture, and housekeepers will do 

 well to turn such things out of their bed-rooms. For- 

 tunately, in this country they are being rapidly super- 

 seded by steel mattresses ; and on inquiry at the large 

 furnishing h'ouses we find that few palliasses are now 

 sold. We shall sefe whether measles becomes thereby 

 extinct. J. F. P. 



