BACTERIOLOGY IN A NUTSHELL. 
Koch’s Circuit 
Not Proven. 
An Air-borne 
Disease. 
A Matter of 
Precaution. 
Smallpox.” He described the germ of small¬ 
pox as a “protozoon,” representing the very 
lowest order of animal life and therefore quite 
different from the vegetable micro-organisms 
common to the majority of communicable dis¬ 
eases. Dr. Councilman is said to have proven 
that his germ will produce smallpox by his ex¬ 
periments on rabbits and monkeys, but as it is 
not produced by cultures Koch’s circuit is not 
traced. 
Smallpox is one of the air-borne diseases and 
enters the system through the respiratory tract 
and may also be introduced through the skin. The 
disease is so readily communicable that all dis¬ 
charges must at once be disinfected or burned. 
The chief factors in the spread of the disease are 
the secretions from the nose and throat and the 
desquamating skin, all of which contain the poi¬ 
son. Flies which alight on the patients spread 
the disease. Patients, must be protected by 
screens about their beds. Great care should be 
observed to prevent particles of peeling skin 
from being carried by the air as floating dust. In 
giving the baths the water should contain a disin¬ 
fectant. Antiseptic washes are used and also in¬ 
unctions of antiseptic ointments or oils to lessen 
the danger from desquamation. Formaldehyde 
vapor is recommended for fumigation after dis¬ 
infection at the close of the case. 
A lecturer* on “Specific Fevers” when speak¬ 
ing in the writer’s presence on the subject of 
smallpox a few years ago, advised a class of 
*Dr. Robert Saunders Henry, lecturer on Specific 
Fevers, Thomas Hospital, Charleston, West Virginia,, 
’98 to ’02.. 
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