368 



NA TURE 



[Feb. 17, 1887 



"Dr. Goltlscheider at a meeting on Apiil 9 of the Physii)- 

 logical Society of Berlin discussed the action of menthol on tlie 

 sensory nerves ; he therefore concluded that the sensations in 

 some places of cold and in other places of heat, produced by 

 menthol, were purely subjective, and consequent on the direct 

 stimulation o{ Ihc special nerves of Uinpcratun, those usually co;:;- 

 nisanl of cold being far more sensitive to its influence than were 

 those adapted to receive impressions of higher temperatures." — 

 Brit. Med. Jouni., August 21, 1S86. 



Here, then, is strong evidence that the sentient nerve-endings 

 over the surface of the body are graduated to respond to the 

 various rates of energy that may impinge thereon ; and if so, how 

 can it be admitted that the varieties of energy by which these 

 nerve-endings are stimulated must be limited to those already 

 identified ? 



That some such idea has shaped itself in the minds of ob- 

 servers may be gathered from the independent opinions expressed 

 by several of the members of the Cholera Commission of 

 1885. 



I'rof. Aitken sums up his valuable contribution in these 

 words : — 



" Some influence (as yet unknown, and therefore so far 

 mysterious) seems to create in cholera times and places an epi- 

 demic activity. It is probable that this may be due rather to 

 some meteorological condition — some peculiar state of the 

 atmosphere, electrical or other — combined with unwholesome 

 conditions of surroundings, and conditions of life ; a co-existence 

 of physical phenomena rather than anything in the individual. 

 It is well known that electrical conditions such as prevail in a 

 thunderstorm will cause milk to become sour, the formation of 

 the acid being associated with, or due to, the formation of tlie 

 bacterium lactis, and thus confined to very definite areas." 



In the last paragraph lies the key to some of the foregoing 

 mystery. 



The mode in which to use it can be learned from the marvel- 

 lous researches of Pasteur. 



It is obvious that if the cause of sourness be the bacterium, 

 the cause of greater sourness will be the bacterium still, and that 

 the reason for the increased reduction by the bacterium of 

 chemical antecedents to chemical consequents, which produces 

 the additional sourness, must lie in some condition affecting the 

 life of the bacterium too. 



Pasteur has sliown that a fundamental difference exists in the 

 mode of action of the beer and grape ferments when "the in- 

 troduction of the free oxygen of the atmosphere is permitted and 

 when such introduction is prevented." When free o.xygen is 

 admitted, "the ferment shows an activity even more extraordinary 

 than it did in the deep vats ; the life of the ferment is singularly 

 enhanced, but the proportion of the weight of the decomposed 

 sugar to that of the yeast formed is absolutely different in the 

 two cases : while, for example, in the deep vats a kilogramme of 

 ferment sometimes decomposes 70, 80, too, or even 150 kilo- 

 grammes of sugar ; in the shallow troughs I kilogramme of the 

 ferment will be found to correspond to only 5 or 6 kilogrammes of 

 decomposed sugar. In other words, the more free oxygen the 

 yeast ferment consumes the less is its power as a ferment ; the 

 more, on tlie contrary, the life of the ferment is carried on 

 without the presence of free oxygen the greater is its power of 

 decomposing and of fermenting the saccharine matter." 



Here, then, is the clue to the cause of the increased sourness 

 of milk during electrical conditions such as prevail in a thunder- 

 storm. The bacterium lactis evidently finds itself in a situation 

 in which the free oxygen of the atmosphere has, owing to some 

 atomic disturbance in its molecules, become less available as an 

 energy-provider. 



The organism is consequently compelled to revert to the con- 

 dition 0/ the ferment in tie deep fats, and to find in the increased 

 decomposition of the constituents of the milk that energy which 

 is necessary for its existence. 



Further, it is known that electricity does affect the condition 

 of oxygen, that the conversion of its molecules from the di-atomic 

 to the tri-atomic state can be brought about by its influence, and 

 that this latter state has been recognised as ozone. 



If, then, it can be thus proved that the presence or absence of 

 oxygen so materially alters the mode of existence of microscopic 

 organisms, is it not reasonable to accept changes in the lives of 

 the organisms as evidence of the altered condition of oxygen ? and 

 since certain conditions of free energy are thus found to interfere , 

 with the mode of nutrition of the minutest forms of life, can it be 

 doubted that similar forces may exercise a material influence j 



upon the most complex being, who, after all, is but a larger mul- 

 tiple of the original protoplasmic element ? 



Thus it becomes possible that energy existing in forms other 

 than those of light or heat e.xerts a power which has up to the 

 present been ignored. 



By this reasoning too, based on the altered mode of nutrition 

 of the bacterium lactis during a thunderstorm, much that has 

 been hitherto obscure in the history of the diseases, or blights, of 

 the vegetable world becomes intelligible. 



When it is found that all the bacteria lactis over a considerable 

 area at the same moment change their mode of existence, and, 

 from leading a comparatively sluggish life in the milk substance, 

 suddenly break up almost the whole of that substance at a time 

 when electrical disturbances are present, it is easily conceivable 

 that in the case of potato-blight, which is almost invariably 

 accompanied by obvious atmospheric changes, like conditions may 

 arise ; in fact, that the universally present bacteria, which, under 

 ordinary circumstances, continue to exist without apparent 

 injury to the tuber and leaves with which they are in contact, 

 may, when driven by the stress of altered atmospheric conditions, 

 turn upon the tissues of the plant for nutrition as the bacterium 

 lactis upon the milk. 



If, then, these effects of certain unrecognised forms of energy 

 be established, it will go far to help the elucidation of the 

 mysterious subject of cholera. 



Dr. Bryden, from prolonged study of the cholera statistics of 

 India, arrived at the following conclusions ; "That the disease 

 was endemic in the Soonderbunds, and that its cause was earth- 

 horn and air-borne;" — to repeat the words of Prof. Aitken, 

 "due rather to some meteorological condition, some peculiar 

 state of the atmosphere, toa co-existence of physical phenomena;" 

 and Deputy-Surgeon-General Marston has added ; " Cholera 

 spreads along rivers, but against their current in Bengal. It 

 invariably advances from Bengal proper to the Himalayas, and 

 never the reverse." 



Here, then, are the conclusion^ arrived at by some of the most 

 skilled observers on this subject. 



It is thus admitted that cholera is endemic in the Soonderbunds, 

 and that its track from thence lies in a north-westerly direction ; 

 th.at is, that its home is a surface of 12,000 square miles of 

 decomposing tropical vegetation, and its direction that from 

 whence the Gange; and its tributaries flow. 



From this it may be inferred that its cause is such that it can 

 be carried atmospherically, and that its course is the line of the 

 least resistance. 



Were the cause of cholera solid or liquid, it would doubtless 

 long ere this have been demonstrated. Were it gaseous, it 1 

 must follow the law of the diffusion ot gases. What, then, 

 remains to be sought for over the surface of the Soonderbunds ? 

 Naught but some form of that universal energy which fell as a 

 sunbeam upon the growing plant, but which, when filtered 

 through its sub-tance, is evolved in a less vivid but still a potent 

 form from its decaying structure. 



That such returned energy has the power of incorporating 

 itself with water, till it passes upward as a vapour, every steam- 

 ing dung-heap shows ; and in what prodigious force it can be 

 again eliminated may be understood from the calculation of 

 Prof. Haughton, that the condensation of vapour sufficient 

 to aft'ord one gallon of rainfall gives out sufticient ;^heat to melt 

 45 pounds of cast iron. 



From this may be estimated the enormous output of bottom 

 heat which must day and night pass from a decomposing surface 

 of 12,000 square miles to the vapour-carrying air above. 



To comprehend the distance to which this energy may be 

 transported before doing visible work it is only necessary to 

 consider the Gulf Stream, which is described by Prof. Tail 

 as "a vast convection current whereby the solar heat of the 

 tropics is carried into the North Atlantic ; " and to meagre the 

 work done thereby it needs but to weigh the luxuriant vegeta- 

 tion of the United Kingdom against the frigid barrenness of 

 Labrador. 



If, then, such vast stores of force can be transported from the 

 tropics to England, it cannot be irrational to assert that from the 

 surface of the Soonderbunds, and like places, much of the energy 

 of decomposition must ascend with the rising vapour, and 

 that whether drawn landward by the heated earth-surface, or 

 pushed inward before the advancing monsoon, this vapour must 

 follow the line of least resistance along the course of the river 

 beds. 



Again, when it is remembered how intense are the effects on 



