THE RELATION OF THE LABORATORIAN TO THE PRACTITIONER. 
177 
the enriching of the soil and many changes in the manufacture 
of foods have been established. 
History recites that as long ago as 1762 the causal relation¬ 
ship of disease was inaugurated by a laboratorian named Blensig, 
of Vienna. His theories were not generally accepted and conse¬ 
quently it was not until 1840 that the germ theory of disease 
was proposed by another scientist by the name of Henle, who 
never succeeded satisfactorily in establishing his belief, due to 
the lack of proper methods and to technique. In a few years it 
was the topic for discussion of several writers and numerous 
facts were adduced in its favor. The majority of the medical 
practitioners, however, placed little faith in it. About this time 
there was a theory advanced to meet the argument that certain 
organisms were always present, that said org-anisms were the 
result and not the cause of disease. 
It was practically demonstrated by Davaine in 1863, by inocu¬ 
lation experiments, the causal relationship of a bacillus he found 
in the blood of diseased animals to anthrax. Two years later 
Pasteur proved the cause of a silkworm disease to be due to a 
protozoan parasite. A short time later Koch and Pasteur culti¬ 
vated the anthrax organism in the laboratory and showed beyond 
doubt its relationship to the specific disease. 
Within the next two decades the improved laboratory tech¬ 
nique cleared up the cause of many diseases. The real beginning 
of bacteriologic science began with the discovery of the bacterium 
of tuberculosis by Koch in 1882. The knowledge of protozoa 
as a cause of disease lagged somewhat behind that of bacterial 
infections. 
(Concluded in June Issue.) 
A hog's habit of scratching itself against a post has led to the 
intervention of an automatic disinfector for animals, which are 
sprayed with a fluid as they rub against a supporting column.—- 
(New York World.) 
