492 
[December 21, 1872. 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL ANI) 
TRANSACTIONS. 
utility as a means of preventing the putrefactive decom¬ 
position of organic substances. These disinfectants are 
properly termed antiseptics. They do not altogether 
prevent animal and vegetable matters from decay ; hut 
they greatly retard that process, and then decomposition 
without sensible putrescence only takes place. It is 
well then to put into our sewers and other places con¬ 
taining effete organic matter such substances as bleach- 
ing powder, which destroy the fetid products of too 
rapid decay, or such compounds as carbolic or chromic 
. acid, which prevent these hurtful products from being 
formed, except in almost infinitesimal quantities. 
The application of disinfectants for the purpose of 
destroying the actual contagion of certain diseases is the 
most important use to which these substances are ap¬ 
plied. And here the question arises—what is the 
physical nature of contagion ? If we have not some 
clear conception relative to this point, it is evident that 
• our use of disinfectants is merely empirical. 
What is it that we try to destroy when we generate 
chlorine gas in a room which has been tenanted by a 
■small-pox patient ? Is it a gas, or a vapour, or an ab¬ 
normal condition of one or more of the ordinary consti¬ 
tuents of the atmosphere P If the cause of the disease 
lies in an abnormal condition of the atmosphere—in the 
■ occurrence of a “ pandemic wave ” in that fluid, the dis- 
iniection of the air of a particular room, would be use¬ 
less, because, where ordinary ventilation is adopted, the 
purely gaseous contents of an apartment are wholly 
renewed many times in an hour. What, therefore, 
would be.the use disinfecting a room if the atmosphere, 
on entering it, be already tainted! There are many 
physicians who believe that epidemic diseases are caused 
by am abnormal condition of the atmosphere ; but even 
those, or at least the majority of them, admit that they 
may be propagated directly from the sick to the healthy. 
Who can deny that the matter taken from a small-pox 
pustule will produce small-pox, if introduced into the 
blood of a healthy man ? It is clear that in this case a 
palpable agent produces the disease, and the observation 
of mankind during countless ages has incontrovertibly 
established the fact that some diseases are communicated 
from individual to individual. If cholera, small-pox, 
rinderpest, and other zymotic and epizootic diseases are 
caused by abnormal atmospheric conditions, why is it 
that they speed along the highways of commerce, that 
they spread most rapidly as the density of population 
increases, and that they prevail most in those places 
where least attention is paid to the removal of organic 
fUth ? Ii the amount of carbonic acid in the atmo¬ 
sphere were increased from its normal proportion of 4 
parts in 10,000 parts of atmospheric air to 4 parts in 
100, serious disease would be the result; but it would 
afflict all classes alike, and would ravage the country 
regions equally with the urban districts. 
A careful examination of acknowledged facts relative 
to nearly all the more important epidemic diseases fully 
j ustifies the belief that each is produced by the introduc¬ 
tion of a matenes morbi, or germ, or virus, or some pal¬ 
pable substance from the bodies of the sick into those of 
the healthy; and by that way alone. This view of the 
mode of propagation of zymotic diseases is, perhaps, 
most conclusively proved by admitted facts in relation 
to two contagious diseases—namely, scabies , or common 
itch, and syphilis. Is either of those diseases ever pro¬ 
duced by atmospheric causes ? Who would be believed 
it he stated that he caught syphilis from the air ? True, 
we have not isolated the actual poison of syphilis; but 
we know that an extremely minute quantity of a liquid, 
containing solid particles, ’includes this poison ; and it is 
further clearly established that sporadic cases of syphilis 
do not occur in our time. With respect to common itch, 
it was proved long ago that the disease was produced by 
-a.small insect,.and that it was propagated from indi¬ 
vidual to individual. If all the acari scabiei and their 
ova now in existence were destroyed, there would be an 
end to the itch for ever. Huxley, who is by no means 
an ultra vitalist, admits that there is no evidence of 
spontaneous generation occurring in our time. 
The itch is a good example for the purpose of illus¬ 
trating the nature of contagion. The materies morbi is 
easily seen ; it is an entity, it possesses reproductive 
powers, begetting its own kind, and it is never found 
except in the bodies of higher animals. The non-conta- 
gionists must admit that at least in the case of this 
disease the theory of the contagionists is proved to de¬ 
monstration, and simply because the virus of the disease 
is so large as to be almost seen by the unassisted eye. 
The weight of evidence and of opinion too, in the 
case, at least, of epidemiologists, is in favour of the germ 
theory of zymotic disease, but most important problems 
relative to the intimate nature of the different contagia 
and to their co-relation, are still to be determined. In 
general the contagious matter appears to be excessively 
minute. Chauveau (‘Comptes Rendus,’) October 19th, 
1868, diluted the liquid taken from the pustules of sheep- 
pox with 10,000 parts of water, and found that it still 
retained its power of producing small-pox in the sheep. 
Vaccine matter from man may be diluted with ten times 
its weight of water without losing its contagious pro¬ 
perty to a sensible extent, but if diluted with 500 parts, 
it becomes perfectly inactive. Hence it is evident that 
the contagious liquid of sheep-pox is many times more 
powerful than vaccine, probably because it contains a 
larger number of the actual particles, or germs that pro¬ 
duce disease. These germs have been carefully sought 
for by such eminent pathologists and microscopists as 
Bechamp, Estor, Cohn, Nageli, Hallier, Chauveau, San¬ 
derson, De Barry, Thome, Ivlob, Hoppe-Seyler, and 
Lionel Beale. On the whole, the results of the investi¬ 
gations of these inquirers have not been barren. It is 
shown that vaccine contains, in suspension, minute quan¬ 
tities of two kinds of solid particles— leucocytes (which 
resemble pus corpuscles), and smaller particles not ex¬ 
ceeding the of an inch in diameter. The leu¬ 
cocytes may be easily separated from the other particles 
and the serum ; and they are found to be perfectly in¬ 
active. The vaccine property must, therefore, reside 
either in the small particles or the clear serum. By 
means of the diffusion apparatus, Burdon-Sanderson and 
Chauveau have succeeded in obtaining the serum free 
from the small particles, but failed to produce vaccinia 
with it either in man or in the ox. These important 
and accurately conducted experiments prove that the 
actual cause of cow-pock, and inferentially of other 
kinds of small-pox, is a minute solid and insoluble body. 
In liquids containing decomposing organic matter we 
usually find large numbers of minute living beings in a 
state of great activity. Some are spheroidal, others re¬ 
semble knotted rods. The former are termed monads: 
micrococci , or microspores ; the latter are called bacteria , 
zooglcea , vibriones , etc. The micrococci are each about 
of an inch in diameter; they move about with 
great rapidity, and multiply by cell division. When 
they elongate into roots, they acquire a peculiar vibra¬ 
tory movement, which has led them to be termed vibri¬ 
ones. Bechamp and Sanderson include under the gene¬ 
ric name, mycrozyme, both the spheroid particles and the 
rod-like bodies, into which they are developed. No 
doubt there are numerous varieties of microzymes, but 
the minuteness of these infusorial animals renders it 
extremely difficult to discriminate between the different 
species. 
Hallier regards the bacterium, notwithstanding its 
activity, as a plant. He asserts that the micrococci or 
their germinal matter exist in all contagious liquids. 
It is remarkable that Sanderson did not detect either 
mycrozymes or their germinal matter in ordinary pus, 
whereas in pvaemic pus he found swarms of these 
objects. 
It has been strongly urged as an argument against 
the germ theory of disease that it fails to account for 
