SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XI. No. 257 



hospital and the sick-room, and as to general sanitary measures, 

 which will enable us to stamp out many of our most dreaded dis- 

 eases. How suggestive to remember the experience of Professor 

 Koch and his associates ! While at Alexandria, although surrounded 

 by the cholera epidemic, they had no difficulty in avoiding the disease 

 by the adherence to certain precautions which a knowledge of the 

 germ nature of cholera had taught them ; but upon return to Ger- 

 many, and being thus many hundreds of miles from the disease, 

 one of them acquired the disease by a careless handling of the 

 cholera germs which they had brought with them. What better 

 proof could there be of the value of knowledge of the facts ? By 

 study of bacteria we are beginning to understand-why one disease is 

 contagious and another not contagious, or why a third disease may 

 be sometimes contagious and at other times not at all so. We are 

 learning what are the sure and what the worthless methods of dis- 

 infection. Thus the mysteries connected with infectious diseases 

 are disappearing. 



It is not of very much value to know the simple fact that a par- 

 ticular disease is parasitic in its nature, unless this is made the basis 

 of further intelligent observation. Nor does it help us any, as Dr. 

 Hunt recently pointed out in this journal, to be able to distinguish 

 the specific germ producing any disease if we end our observations 

 with this discovery. It is of great value, however, to know the 

 habits of the microbe and the conditions in which it can live, and 

 these facts can only be discovered by the study of the microbe it- 

 self. This is the share which the biological laboratory must have 

 in the matter. It is of course necessary to study the disease itself, 

 and the conditions under which it propagates itself, with vigor; 

 to study the origin of epidemics, their spread and decline ; but this 

 can only be done intelligently when we understand the nature of 

 the organism producing it. When we know the habits of a 

 microbe, — whether it lives in acid or alkali solutions, whether in 

 filth or cleanliness, whether best in heat or cold, etc., — then we 

 ■can successfully ask questions concerning the conditions in which 

 the disease develops ; then we can discover the history of the or- 

 ganism from the time it leaves the body of the sick person until it 

 gets into a second individual and again produces its disease ; then 

 we can learn what conditions favor and what hinder the disease ; 

 then we can discover how to prevent this transferrence, how to kill 

 the microbe in its passage ; and then we shall have gone far toward 

 ridding the race of our vigorous epidemic diseases. Sanitary 

 measures need no longer be blind methods applied tentatively, but 

 may proceed directly at the root of the disease from a knowledge 

 of its cause. Sanitary science must indeed be founded upon the 

 knowledge of the nature and habits of microbes. 



Advance along these various lines of preventive medicine has 

 been rapid in the last few years, and is becoming more and more 

 so, and chiefly through the study of facts discovered in connection 

 with the growth and distribution of microbes. Although many 

 questions still remain unanswered, the knowledge of the parasitic 

 nature of infectious diseases is enabling doctors and scientists to- 

 gether to ask intelligent questions concerning such diseases, and to 

 search for their answers in the right direction. Until this knowl- 

 edge had appeared, such questions and researches could only be 

 made at random. In short, the knowledge collected concernino- 

 the parasitic nature of disease and the habits of the specific 

 microbes is giving us hundreds of ways of fighting the diseases out- 

 side of the body, even though it has yet not been very fruitful in 

 directing our physicians how to treat the disease when it has once 

 vigorously attacked the body. 



The importance of a general understanding of the facts con- 

 nected with the discoveries in this direction cannot be overrated. 

 Who is there, old or young, who would not be benefited by a knowl- 

 edge of the source and cause of infectious diseases? Who is 

 there who is not better prepared for life by a knowledge of what is 

 meant by cleanliness, and why it is so desirable, particularly in 

 time of epidemics, to keep our surroundings perfectly clean ? 

 Ought not every one understand as far as possible where the in- 

 fectious organisms are likely to be, and how they may be avoided? 

 Indeed, is not this subject one of the many which we are beginning 

 to recognize as desirable in our public-school teaching ? Physiolo- 

 gy is taught now in our schools by law, but what branch of physi- 

 ology can be of more value to the public than a few principles con- 



nected with infectious diseases, and the means of keeping contagion 

 away from our doors ? If physiology is to be taught in the schools, 

 would it not be well to include in it some such principles of vital 

 importance, instead of compelling the student to learn the names of 

 the bones in the body ? At present the public gets informed in 

 such matters only through the uncertain medium of the press, 

 which contains as much false science as true ; and as a result it is 

 almost impossible rigidly to enforce sanitary measures. It is need- 

 less to say that the public schools have not yet taken up the sub- 

 ject. Our colleges, too, ouglit to see that every student knows 

 something of this matter. A few of them already realize the fact, 

 and have made a beginning in this line. Our training-schools for 

 nurses ought certainly to put much force upon this subject and 

 the practical precautions connected with it. But, after all, we must 

 look primarily to our medical schools for teaching in this direction. 

 Doctors will always be regarded as authorities in matters connected 

 with health, in spite of nurses or the sayings of scientists ; and it is 

 through them that the public must receive its education. The 

 medical schools must therefore lead in this matter. It is true that 

 medical schools aim to teach chiefly how to cure disease, and as 

 yet the germ theory has not materially aided in this direction. It 

 is of course difficult to find time, in the already crowded course, to 

 introduce any new subject not directly related to the cure of 

 disease. But bacteriology is a subject too important to be neglected : 

 it readily forms a part of pathology, and most schools do find time 

 for a treatment of this subject. Our medical schools are now push- 

 ing on in this direction. Two or three years ago the theory was 

 dismissed with a word, even in our best schools ; and that word 

 was frequently one of ridicule. Now many of the leading medical 

 schools pay considerable attention to the subject. Several of them 

 have among their faculty special bacteriological students who give 

 instruction in this Hne. A few have well-equipped bacteriological 

 laboratories, and others are looking in the same direction. To 

 what extent the subject is treated in the medical schools of the 

 country in general, or in the training-schools for nurses, cannot be 

 stated at present. Inquiries are being set on foot in this regard, 

 the results of which will appear in some future numbers of this 

 journal. H. W. CONN. 



AIVIERICAN SOCIETY OF NATURALISTS. 



The annual meeting of the American Society of Naturalists was 

 held in the Peabody Museum, New Haven, on Dec. 27 and the two 

 following days. The object of the society is to help instructors in 

 the natural sciences by discussing the methods of research and of 

 instruction. Leaving to the other scientific associations the func- 

 tion of presenting and discussing results, this society, composed of 

 professors and specialists, devotes itself to the publication of new 

 methods, improved apparatus, and aids to science-teaching, all of 

 which are apt to be scattered through various periodicals, and thus 

 fail to secure that general adoption which a practical demonstration 

 of their usefulness would bring about. The work of the society 

 falls into two sections, — biology and geology, — and a day of each 

 meeting is devoted to each of these topics, while the third day is 

 given over to a general discussion upon some attractive subject. 

 The society, though in existence only for a ver>' few years, has a 

 large membership, including in its list many of the eminent leaders 

 of science in this country and in Canada. The attendance at the 

 recent meeting was quite large, and the proceedings both interest- 

 ing and profitable. 



The proceedings were opened by the address of the president. 

 Dr. Harrison Allen of Philadelphia. His subject was ' The Incon- 

 stant in Biology,' and was devoted to the discussion of variations 

 in animal structure not easily referable to any law, but to which 

 careful study would attach considerable significance. In particular, 

 he called attention to the prevalence of hairy parts and of color- 

 spots in animals that had to a greater or less extent deviated from 

 their normal type. If, for e-xample, a variety broke from the pre- 

 vailing color of its kind, the original color would be retained at 

 certain very definite spots : these are found at the tip of the tail, 

 another around the eyes, a third on the skin covering the dorsal 

 column, and elsewhere. The peculiar constancy of these places of 



