723 
The Germ Theory and its 
f December, 
That the number of complete undoubted recoveries is ex- 
ceedingly small no one will deny ; so small, indeed, as to 
permit a doubt whether in such cases the disease had been 
rightly diagnosed. 
Now till lately the cause of this havoc, though much dis- 
cussed, was unknown. Popular tradition in some districts 
pronounced consumption “ catching,” but the notion was 
generally treated as an old wives’ fable. Curiously this view 
seems to have been most generally entertained on the coasts 
of the Mediterranean, and especially in Southern Italy. 
A favourite delusion has been to conned! consumption 
with climate. It was supposed to be endemic in England, 
and any warmer climate free from extreme temperatures 
was recommended. Hence consumptive patients, in the be- 
ginning of their sufferings, were sent off to the Undercliff 
of the Isle of Wight, to places on the south coast of Devon, 
to Cannes, Nice, Algiers, Naples, Madeira, Australia, or the 
Cape. In the same way American consumptives repaired 
to Florida or the West Indies. But the fatal truth by de- 
grees came out that consumption prevails alike in hot and 
cold regions, on the sea-level or on lofty table-lands, in dry 
or in moist air. In Australia phthisis is substantially as 
fatal as in England, and carries off more of the black abo- 
rigines than does any other malady. Consumption, in short, 
is not derived from “ taking cold,” though, where existing, 
it may be aggravated by a cold. 
Nor can it be said that in-door sedentary occupations and 
over-crowding are in themselves the cause of the mischief. 
Neither yet can it be deficient food or insufficient clothing. 
That in the absence of any knowledge as to the cause of 
the disease no rational system of treatment could be devised 
needs no proof. So matters stood ; consumption being most 
emphatically the opprobrium medicince. 
The author of the little work before us seems to have been 
the first who threw light upon the question. In a pamphlet 
published in July, 1876, entitled “ The Histo-Chemistry and 
Pathology of Tubercle,” he asserts the parasitic origin of 
phthisis. He puts the question, “ How would specific 
Micrococci operate as the proximate cause of the equally 
specific morbid process of general tuberculosis ?” In answer 
to his question he wrote — “ I therefore venture to think they 
will probably be found to operate as the exciting, efficient, or, 
better ; proximate cause — the materies morbi of tubercle.” 
He minutely explains the mode of adlion of the parasitic 
germ in producing that aggregation of cells forming a 
tubercle, which is first grey and then yellow. He says : — 
