1871. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



193 



communicate to it the disease ; while during 

 the same walk, another may be taken in the 

 arms and suffer no detriment. There is a 

 small class of persons who can never be 

 brought under the influence of kine-pox virus, 

 and such are usually greatly distressed in con- 

 sequence of this idiosyncrasy of organization. 

 There is but little occasion for anxiety, how- 

 ever, for such will usually escape the more 

 severe disease of small-pox, if exposed to in- 

 fection. In our view, those who are most 

 readily and severely influenced by vaccine vi- 

 rus are the persons who will be most likely to 

 contract varioloid, when brouglit in contact 

 with the germs of small-pox ; so that the feel- 

 ing of safety cherished by such is not well 

 founded. There are individuals and families 

 in every community who are continually suffei*- 

 ing from every form of malaria, poison, and 

 contagion known to medical men, and cer- 

 tainly they are deserving of sympathy. Per- 

 sonal cleanliness and the strict observance of 

 all hygienic laws are of no avail with thou- 

 sands in warding off these disturbing agencies ; 

 they are the victims of an organization sus- 

 ceptible to the malign influences of poisons 

 and contagions which hirk constantly in the 

 atmosphere, and even in food and drinks. 



We know but little regarding the exact na- 

 ture of the germs which are capable of im- 

 planting disease in the system. That they 

 have substance and form, no one can doubt. 

 As distinct atoms or particles of matter, they 

 are inconceivably small, and capable of being 

 buoyed up or supported in air, and carried 

 from place to place through its agency. In a 

 barn containing animals suffering from pleuro- 

 pneumonia, or from the epizootic aphtha, we 

 must suppose the atmosphere to be loaded 

 with the infinitesimal particles. If our eyes 

 could be opened so that we could see the par- 

 ticles as we see snow-flakes in the winter, what 

 a fearful spectacle would be presented ! The 

 disgusting, poisonous atoms would be seen fly- 

 ing in all directions and resting upon every- 

 thing ; upon the clothing of those in charge 

 of the animals, upon the hay, upon the ma- 

 nure, floors, scaffolds, and upon the backs of 

 any dogs, cats or birds which might be pres- 

 ent. A perfect shower of infectious spores 

 would be seen to prevail, and probably we 

 should no longer wonder how the poison is 

 carried so rapicily from one jjoint to another. 

 It is probable that when one or more of these 

 germs are taken into the system through the 

 organs of respiration, a kind of fermentation 

 is set up in the blood, analogous, perhaps, to 

 that which occvu's in vegetable substances dur- 

 ing the vinous or acetic change. 



In studying disease, or any of the changes 

 which occur in the animal organization, we 

 must constantly bear in mind that the body is 

 simply a piece of chemical apparatus, and 

 that all the movements or changes that occur 

 are simply chemical reactions of one form or 

 another. The disease srerms themselves are 



chemical substances ; and the difference in 

 chemical composition gives rise to the differ- 

 ent forms of blood poison which manifest 

 themselves as scarlet fever, measles, typhus, 

 &c., in human kind, and pleuro-pneumonia, 

 hoof and mouth disease, &c., in animals. 



There is reason to suppose that scarlet fever, 

 measles, and typhus ferments resemble albu- 

 men in complexity, and like albumen they may 

 be altered in composition and action by heat, 

 j alcohol, and other agents. Small pox ferment 

 is of a different kind, and is remarkable for 

 the small quantity of substance which produces 

 such extraordinary changes. An atom so 

 small that a microscope of the highest power 

 is incapable of defining it, enters the system 

 tlirough the lungs, and passes on into the 

 blood, and from thence into every texture, 

 nei-ve, and secretion. In a few days the chem- 

 ical actions of oxidation and nutrition through- 

 out the whole body are completely altered, 

 and the little particle of matter has reproduced 

 itself infinitely. Pustules appear over the 

 whole skin surface, each one loaded with an 

 infinite number of germs identical in nature 

 with the original particle which set in motion 

 the train of disorganizing forces. There is 

 general peroxidation going on ; there is inflam- 

 mation of tlie ears, the eyes, the mucous mem- 

 branes, the joints, the serous membranes ; ev- 

 erywhere there is great chemical disturbance. 

 This is small ]i ox, and the terribly disgusting, 

 wretched condition of the bodily functions is 

 due to the introduction of a particle so infini- 

 tesimally small that no optical instrument can 

 discern, and no balance can weigh it. 



The poisonous germs producing intermittent 

 fever, ov fever and ague, from whatever source 

 they may arise, are probably of a highly com- 

 plex and nitrogenous nature, and are capable 

 of being dried and carried gi-eat distances by 

 the wind. They enter by the mouth with the 

 dust, pass into the blood, and soon produce a 

 kind of fermentation, which results in high 

 fever preceded by a chill. After this is over, 

 the poison is spent in part ; but during the re- 

 mission of from one to three days, suflicient is 

 reproduced to go through the same action 

 again. This remarkable poison, producing 

 intermittent chill and fever, will work on, un- 

 less utterly destroyed by medication, until the 

 victim is so far weakened as to falter and die. 

 The ague ferment is totally unlike that produc- 

 ing small pox and measles, for by the action 

 of the latter the textures of the body are so 

 changed that they are incapable of going 

 through the same process again ; but one can 

 have ague a dozen or more times in the course 

 of his life. It is indeed a great mercy that 

 some of our worst zymotic or infectious dis-^ 

 eases can attack us but once. 



We might as well expect to learn the na- 

 ture of soul or spirit, as to expect to obtain 

 any precise knowledge of the chemical differ- 

 ences in the germ poisons which affect men 

 and animals. How can we ever know any- 



