Febeuaey 5, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



205 



the year if he had not used the Electro- 

 poise. Assuming that this certificate is 

 genuine, it answers very well to illustrate 

 the fact that educated men, who have not 

 been trained in the methods of scientific in- 

 vestigation, often arrive at conclusions en- 

 tirely unjustified by the evidence before 

 them by the dangerous use of the post hoc 

 ergo propter hoc method of argument. 



The fact that a considerable proportion 

 of those who are sick from various acute or 

 chronic ailments recover after a time, inde- 

 pendently of the use of medicinal agents or 

 methods of treatment, taken in connection 

 with this tendency to ascribe recovery to 

 the treatment employed, makes it an easy 

 matter to obtain certificates of cure for any 

 nostrum which an unprincipled money- 

 seeker may see fit to offer to a credulous 

 public. If ten in a thousand of those who 

 have used the alleged remedy believe them- 

 selves to have been benefited, their certifi- 

 cates will answer all purposes of exploita- 

 tion and the 990 will not be heard from by 

 the general public. 



As was to have been expected, the X-ray 

 has already been made a source of revenue 

 by more than one pseudo- scientist. The 

 following account of the modtis operandi of 

 its supposed therapeutic action has recently 

 been published in the newspapers : 



" After the Crook es tube is excited by the coil the 

 magnetic lines of force are projected down in the 

 same manner as they pass off from a magnet, and 

 traversing the intervening space, pass through the 

 body down to the floor, and back to the coil and tube 

 again, completing the circuit. 



"The X-ray is electrostatic in character and of a 

 very high potential. With every discharge from the 

 Crookes tube oxygen is liberated in the body, as well 

 as the surrounding atmosphere, which, combining 

 with nascent oxygen, forms ozone. 



" It is due to the electrolysis produced in the body 

 that we are able to destroy the bacilli in contagious 

 disease, ozone being the most powerful germicide 

 known." 



We remark, first, that we do not fully un- 

 derstand why ' the magnetic lines of force ' 



are reflected back by the floor, ' completing 

 the circuit.' Inasmuch as the X-rays pass 

 through wood, this mysterious action of the 

 floor appears to call for some further expla- 

 nation. 



We will pass by the ingenious explana- 

 tion of the formation of ozone, as a result 

 of the action of the X-ray, to call attention 

 to the mistaken statement that ozone is 

 'the most powerful germicide known.' 



Upon this point I take the liberty of 

 quoting from the Manual of Bacteriology : 



"The experiments of Frankel show that 

 the aerobic bacteria grow abundantly in the 

 presence of pure oxygen, and some species 

 even more so than in ordinary air. 



" Ozone — It was formerly supposed that 

 ozone would prove to be a most valuable 

 agent for disinfecting purposes, but recent 

 experiments show that it is not so active a 

 germicide as was anticipated, and that from 

 a practical point of view it has compara- 

 tively little value. 



" Lukaschewitsch found that one gramme 

 in the space of a cubic metre failed to kill 

 anthrax spores in twenty-four hours. The 

 cholera spirillum in a moist state was killed 

 in this time by the same amount, but fifteen 

 hours' exposure failed to destroy it. Ozone 

 for these experiments was developed by 

 means of electricity. 



" Wyssokowicz found that the presence 

 of ozone in a culture medium restrained the 

 development of the anthrax bacillus, the 

 bacillus of typhoid fever, and others tested, 

 but concludes that this is rather due to the 

 oxidation of bases contained in the nutrient 

 medium than to a direct action upon the 

 pathogenic bacteria. 



" Sonntag, in his carefully conducted ex- 

 periments, in which a current of ozonized 

 air was made to pass over silk threads to 

 which were attached anthrax spores, had an 

 entirely negative result. The anthrax ba- 

 cillus from the spleen of a mouse, and free 

 from spores, was then tested, also with a 



