August i, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



65 



bacteria were found, five of which (B. mycoides, liquefaciens, 

 luteus, sarcina lutea, and aurantiaca) are already known. As the 

 ordinary dwelling-place of the Bacillus mycoides is the earth, we 

 are confronted with the fact that microbes of terrestrial origin 

 may be carried up into the air, and thus rain, snow, and hail may 

 be the direct means of conveying infection. 



Mechanism of Respiration in the New-Born. 



Dohen, from a study of this subject at the clinic of Konigsberg, 

 reaches the following conclusions, as we learn from The Brooklyn 

 Medical Journal: 1. The respiration of the new-born is thoracic. 

 ■3. The elevation of the thorax begins at the summit, and descends 

 progressively. 3. The tidal air averages 35 cubic centimetres, 

 and reaches a maximum of 130. 4. The exchange of air is feeble 

 in the first days after birth; at the end of the first week is a third 

 larger than the first day. 5. Generally at the first inspiration the 

 lungs are not filled with air, the alveoli unfolding only on the 

 second day (a fact of medico-legal importance). 6. The respiratory 

 •curves of the new-bom present no stationary points. 



The Art of Medicine vs. the Science. 



What Emerson said of the poet is applicable in its degree to the 

 true physician: " As the eyes of Lynceus were said to see through 

 the earth, so the poet turns the world to glass, and shows us all 

 things in their right series and procession: for through that better 

 perception he stands one step nearer to things, and sees the flow- 

 ing or metamorphosis. . . . The poet alone knows astronomy, 

 chemistry, vegetation, and animation; for he does not stop at these 

 facts, but employs them as signs." It is not enough for the physi- 

 cian to know anatomy, physiology, chemistry, and pharmacology : 

 he must not stop at knowing these, but must put them into the 

 alembic of his brain, and transmute them into medical science. 

 It is stated in the British Medical Journal that Professor Huxley 

 said that it would be simply manslaughter for a doctor to treat 

 his patients on the raw and undigested principles of physiology. 

 Medicine must therefore never be looked upon as a mere science, 

 because it is much more than that, it is wisdom sublimated from 

 many sciences; and this is why the Gulls, the Jenners, and the 

 Clarks can never be as common as the mere scientists who work 

 by rule and scale. When Coleridge was accused of plagiarizing, 

 in his "Hymn to Chamouni," from the poem of Frederica Brun 

 on the same subject, it was easily explained, that, though he bad 

 taken her framework and used certain of her ideas, he had done 

 so simply to glorify and endow them with life. With her they 

 were dead phrases: Coleridge created the " Hymn to Chamouni" 

 out of them. Just in proportion as the physician can create 

 diagnosis and treatment for the cases which come before him as 

 living and as various as the patients which are the subjects of the 

 different diseases, just by so much is he a true physician. The 

 inferior mind may see the same things as the superior, but the 

 latter alone " sees their flowing and metamorphosis." This is why 

 patients would go and talk to Sir William Gull, and derive benefit 

 from the conversation, though they came away with no prescrip- 

 tion, and took no drugs from his hands. The vulgar mind cannot 

 understand the reason of this, and the hard scientist smiles a little 

 superiorly at the idea. 



Heredity of Tuberculosis in Comparison with its Propagation. 



Attention is called, in the Lancet of June 14, to a pamphlet on 

 the above subject by Dr. A. Haupt, in which it is stated that 

 among the 1,500 inhabitants of Soden there are 101 who let lodg- 

 ings. In most of the bouses the wives, with sisters or daughters, 

 serve and tend the tuberculous patients who come for treatment. 

 In many houses servant-girls from the neighboring villages, hired 

 for the summer, help, making the patients' beds, cleaning their 

 rooms, beating the carpets, removing the sputum. These occupa- 

 tions, so closely connected with the danger of infection, are, among 

 others, the tasks of these persons; and it must be added that they 

 prefer the severest cases, because, as more help is required, the 

 remuneration is higher. In winter the members of the landlords' 

 families occupy the rooms in which generally the most severely 

 affected patients have lain, — the rooms on the ground floor. 

 Between 1855 and 1888, 48 of the 233 members of such famihes 



died, 10 of them of tuberculosis. In 6 of these 10 cases, heredity 

 was demonstrable, and the remaining 4 were due to colds and 

 external causes. Of the 415 servant-girls, 17 died, 5 of them of 

 tiiberculosis, also demonstrably due to other causes than infection. 

 Within 30 years, then, among 653 persons, most of whom were 

 for several summers with and in attendance on the patients, there 

 were 15 deaths from tuberculosis, none caused by infection. The 

 same proportion prevails among other persons in close contact 

 with consumptive patients, attendants, washerwomen, etc. As 

 to the general mortality of Soden, the following data are interest- 

 ing: 76 persons died during the last three years, 10 aged from 80 

 to 85, 11 from 70 to 80, 9 from 60 to 70. Of these 76 deaths, 7 

 were due to tuberculosis, including 3 cases of tuberculosis menin- 

 gitis in children, and 1 of tuberculosis of the bones, also in a child. 

 Of the 4 other cases, only 1 was that of a person who came in 

 contact with patients, and this was a case of alcoholism, ending 

 in phthisis. 



The Transmission of Typhoid-Fever by the Air. 



Dr. Bordas, as we learn from a contemporary medical journal, 

 has instituted experiments to determine the relation between the 

 humidity of the atmosphere and the transmission of the typhoid 

 bacillus. A current of dry air completely devoid of germs was 

 conducted through a vessel containing a beef-broth culture of the 

 bacillus, and into a second vessel containing sterilized beef-broth. 

 The second vessel remained sterile. The result was the same 

 when a dry atmospheric current was passed over pumice-stone 

 saturated with a culture of the typhoid bacillus. When moist 

 air was passed through the same vessels, a very different result 

 was obtained. The sterile beef-broth culture was found, after 

 the lapse of a quarter of an hour, to be thickly planted with the 

 bacilli. 



In nature this state of humidity is supplied by mist or fog, and 

 statistics show an increase of typhoid-fever in Paris during the 

 months of October, November, December, and January. The 

 most general mode of propagation of typhoid-fever is by the con- 

 tamination of the soil or water, but there are cases in which it is 

 manifested by pulmonary localization The germ may penetrate 

 into the bronchial system, in spite of every means of defence 

 possessed by the organism. Metchnikoff's studies prove that the 

 lungs are a phagocyte battle-ground. In typhoid infection, due 

 primarily to pulmonary lesion^t would seem that the phagocytes 

 of the lungs are ordinarily sufficient to prevent the development 

 of the infectious germ, and that contagion by means of the air can 

 take place only when the macrophagic cells cease to offer an ob- 

 stacle to the invasion of the microbe. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



*** Oon-espondents are requested to be as brief as possible. Tlie writer's name 

 is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



Tlie editor willbe glad to publish any queries consonant laith the character 

 of the journal. 



On request, twenty copies of the number containing his communication will 

 be furnished free to any correspondent. 



Temperature in Storms, and High Areas. 

 It is an axiom, that, in making any special investigation as 

 to the relation of cause and effect, we must separate out all influ- 

 ences tending to confuse and mask the special cause or force 

 which we are studying. We may form an abstract conception 

 beforehand of what effect we may expect to follow a certain 

 cause, but we shall be seriously misled if we allow this hypothesis 

 to take the place of a careful analysis step by step in our investi- 

 gation. For example: suppose we reason, regarding the deposi- 

 tion of dew, that a fleece of wool suspended horizontally six feet 

 above grass ground will collect more dew than one on the ground, 

 because the warm ground will give up its heat rapidly, and pre- 

 vent the lower fleece from cooling as much as the other. If we 

 try the experiment, we shall flnd our reasoning entirely disproved 

 by the facts. We have ignored the fact that the air near the 

 upper fleece is in constant motion, and also that the heat of the 

 earth cannot communicate itself to the tips of the wool fibres. 

 Again: if we wish to find the pressure of the air at Mount Wash- 

 ington, for example, we may reason that since the pressure at 



