November 8, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



323 



All the symptoms of typhoid-fever and of diphtheria have been 

 thus produced without the presence of any pathogenic microbes. 

 These pure chemical substances have also been successfully used 

 as a vaccine against the corresponding disease, precisely as alcohol 

 is used as a preventive of alcoholic fermentation. 



This was indeed a great modification of the original form of the 

 germ theory, but one which only confirmed its truth. We are now 

 .probably on the eve of another modification equally important and 

 sweeping. I must explain. 



We have seen that ptomaines are alkaloids of albuminoid decom- 

 position generated in the presence and under the guidance of mi- 

 crobian life. Now, there is going on continually in the animal 

 body, as a strictly physiological process, albuminoid decomposition 

 {wasting of the tissues) in the presence and under the guidance of 

 ■cell life. This also, as might be e.xpected, produces poisonous prod- 

 ucts. These products also have been isolated and analyzed, and 

 are found to belong to the same class of chemical bodies as the 

 ptomaines. They are alkaloids of alburninoid decomposition, and 

 are therefore in the highest degree poisonous. They are called 

 leucomaines. If they are not also usually deadly to the animal 

 body, it is only because they are continually being eliminated by 

 appropriate organs. 



But suppose there should be some change in the process of tis- 

 sue-waste, and therefore of the composition of the leucomaines, 

 rendering these more poisonous ; or suppose, what is still more 

 .probable, there be some failure in the function of the organs by 

 which these poisons are normally eliminated : evidently the result 

 would be disease. And not only so, but (mark this) disease 

 similar to those produced by disease germs, except that they 

 would lack the property of contagiousness, because not due to 

 the presence of microbes. Here, then, we would have dis- 

 eases similar to so-called germ diseases produced without 

 germs. Can we point out any such ? Perhaps not yet with any 

 certainty. It is hardly probable that any strongly marked specific 

 and clearly contagious diseases, like small-pox, measles, scarlet- 

 fever, whooping-cough', diphtheria, etc., are ever produced other- 

 wise than by microbes. But it is possible that some of those ob- 

 scure, sporadic, and apparently non-contagious forms of fever 

 which often run so insensibly into each other, and so puzzle the 

 physician to classify, such as some forms of typhoid, malaiial, 

 typho-malarial, continued fever, etc., may be produced in this way. 

 Perhaps, also, countless unclassified, slight fevers and indispositions 

 may come under the same head. 



As thus modified, it seems to me that the last remaining objec- 

 tion to the germ theory is removed. But observe : this modification 

 is an abatement of the arrogance of that theory, — is equivalent to 

 an abandonment of its former claims as a universal theory of the 

 cause of disease. 



We have said that leucomaines are not usually deadly in their 

 •effects on the animal body, only because they are continually elimi- 

 nated by appropriate organs. What organs ? I answer, there 

 may be more than one, but undoubtedly by far the most important 

 is the liver. By careful experiments on animals, Schiff has shown 

 that the liver has the remarkable property of eliminating, or else of 

 ■decomposing and rendering innocuous to a greater or less degree, 

 all kinds of organic alkaloid poisons, but especially alkaloids of 

 albuminoid decomposition produced by wasting of tissues ; i.e., 

 leucomaines. If the vessels of the liver of a dog be ligated so that 

 the venous blood containing these leucomaines cannot pass through 

 ■that organ, the animal quickly falls into deep Isthargy, and in a half- 

 hour dies of blood-poisoning. That death is not the result of mere 

 mutilation, is proved by the fact that a single drop of the blood of 

 a dog dead of ligated liver injected into the veins of a frog will 

 immediately kill the animal if his liver be ligated, but is innocuous 

 if his liver be free {A7-cJtives des Sciences, Iviii. p. 293, 1877). 



But the question still remains, " How does the liver eliminate 

 these poisons .' " Not directly as such, for they do not appear in 

 the bile. The answer to this weighty question is, I am persuaded, 

 to be found in iny interpretation of the glycogenic function of the 

 liver. In my article on this subject, published in 1S7S {American 

 Journal of Science, xv. p. 99, 1S7S ; also lFes/er?i Lancet for the 

 same year, but I do not remember the number), I maintain that the 

 liver has the power of splitting albuminoids, whether of food or of 



waste tissue, into glycogen (which is iinmediately changed into liver 

 sugar and burned) and a nitrogenous incombustible residue, which 

 is eliminated by the kidneys as urea. Thus leucomaines are ren- 

 dered innocuous, and at the same time utilized as fuel to miintain 

 vital heat and force by the liver. 



But if leucomaines, then also probably ptomaines, produced by 

 microbes may also be disposed of by the liver in the same way, 

 and the patient often saved. If this view be true, then the belief 

 in the pre-eminent importance of the functions of the liver, and the 

 practice based thereon, of clearing the bowels and stimulating the 

 action of the liver in the onset or in the early stages of disease, — 

 a practice reached empirically, and often ridiculed as savoring of 

 routine, — receives ample justification. 



Jos. LeConte. 



INDUSTRIAL NOTES. 

 Storage-Battery Litigation. 



The Electrical Accumulator Company of New York have issued 

 a circular under date of Nov. I, in which they state that the litiga- 

 tion involving a patent monopoly of the secondary-battery industry 

 has been so prolonged, and is so technical, that it is believed a few 

 words of explanation are appropriate, in order to enable the public 

 to have a clear understanding of the situation. 



In March, 1887, suit in equity was commenced in New York by 

 the above-mentioned company, owning the Faure patent, against 

 the Julien Electric Company, designed to stop further infringement 

 of that patent, covering improvements in secondary batteries. 

 During the progress of the suit it became evident that the Faure 

 patent would be sustained, and early in 1888 the Julien Company 

 modified their method of applying the active material to the battery- 

 plates. In March, 1889, Judge Coxe rendered his decision sustain- 

 ing the Faure patent, and holding that it could be construed to 

 cover any secondary battery having the active material applied to 

 a plate or support in the form of a "paint, paste, or cement." The 

 modified method of the Julien Company accordingly came within 

 the scope of the Faure patent. On April it, 1889, an injunction 

 was issued restraining the defendants from further acts of infringe- 

 ment. In June the Julien Company petitioned the court for a re- 

 hearing of the case ; and their factory, which had shut down in 

 April after the injunction was issued, again resumed operations, 

 the method of manufacturing the batteries being again slightly 

 modified ; which second modification, it was claimed, did not in- 

 fringe the Faure patent. Apparently becoming alarmed at the 

 probability that this second modification was also an infringement, 

 the Julien Company devised a third form, and subsequently a 

 fourth form was eitiployed. 



In August a new suit in equity was brought against the New 

 York and Harlem Railroad Company and the Julien Electric Trac- 

 tion Company as co-defendants. These parties were using large 

 numbers of these so-called new forms of battery. Motion was 

 made for a preliminary injunction, and in October Judge Lacombe 

 rendered his decision, which, as will be seen after careful perusal, 

 virtually gave the Electrical Accumulator Company all that they 

 asked or claimed. An injunction was issued on 0;t. 28, operat- 

 ing to stop the use of all of their four modifications as well as the 

 original form. This decision of judge Lacombe has been printed 

 for the information of interested- parties. It is concise, accurate, 

 and clearly defines what Brush is said to have done in anticipation 

 of Faure's patent. 



Quoting from the decision on this point, " What Brush did was 

 to immerse a plate coated with dry material not only into fluid, 

 but into the very fluid m which it was forthwith, and without re- 

 moval therefrom, put to use as a battery plate." It is to be noted, 

 that, under this decision, the manufacture of secondary batteries 

 in any quantity will, if at all possible, be utterly impracticable with- 

 out infringing Faure's patent. 



It has yet to be demonstrated that such form of battery will 

 work outside of the laboratory. It has never been done, although' 

 ten years have elapsed since Brush is said to have made the ex- 

 periment ; while manufacturers, both in this country and Europe, 

 have been studying the problem with the strongest incentives to 

 attain success. 



