Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
February,  1899.  j 
Editorial. 
95 
domestication  may  claim  a  share  of  our  abode.  We  have  thus  intentional 
domestication  of  things  we  have  seen,  and  unintentional  domestication  of 
things  which  we  did  not  see  until  comparatively  recently. 
In  the  January  issue  of  this  Journal  attention  was  called  to  a  novel  hygienic 
method  in  the  handling  of  bread,  and  also  to  the  statement  that  an  investigator 
had  discovered  what  seemed  to  him  to  be  the  pathogenic  agent  of  influenza. 
The  trend  of  modern  life  is  to  discover  germs  and  to  devise  ways  to  keep  them 
out.  We  have,  as  a  result,  the  movement  of  the  individual  drinking  cup  in 
the  churches  and  elsewhere.  In  the  household  processes  of  sterilization  are 
being  employed  in  preparing  food,  and  our  babies  are  treated  almost  like  the 
young  pigs  of  Nuttall  and  Thierfelder,  and  still  they  die.  The  reason  for  this 
is,  as  was  shown  in  a  recent  issue  of  this  Journal,  that  the  heat  of  summer 
is  an  important  factor  in  the  disturbances  of  children  at  that  time.  In  our  mad 
search  for  discovering  germs  and  harnessing  them,  we  are  forgetting  that  there 
are  other  factors  that  play  an  important  part,  viz.:  climate,  constitution,  etc., 
and  that  inasmuch  as  we  cannot  get  two  organisms  just  alike  we  do  not  know 
what  influence  these  various  other  factors  play.  We  discourse  and  think  seri- 
ously on  the  subject  of  microbes  and  sterilization,  and  like  Pasteur  find  that 
we  are  unconsciously  (by  reason  of  our  very  absorption  in  the  topic)  drinking 
the  very  liquid  in  which  we  have  washed  the  cherries  we  are  eating. 
It  must  be  admitted  that  the  modern  precautions  against  germs  are  doubtless 
of  some  benefit,  but  we  fear  that  the  very  avenues  which  need  protection  to  the 
greatest  extent,  as  the  sterilization  of  money,  and  of  books,  and  of  barber 
shops,  and  of  so  many  of  the  most  important  and  common  media  for  the  circu- 
lation and  distribution  of  disease  are  totally  neglected,  for  practical  reasons. 
We  see  no  reason  why  the  Board  of  Health  should  not  indicate  how  bank-bills 
and  coins  should  be  sterilized  by  every  one  just  as  much  as  the  water  which  he 
drinks— save  that  it  is  not  practicable,  apparently.  We  might  sterilize  all  day 
and  die  from  exhaustion  in  a  very  short  time,  judging  from  the  experience  of 
Nuttall  and  Thierfelder,  who  in  the  course  of  but  eight  days'  investigations  with 
young  guinea  pigs  were  so  exhausted  that  they  killed  the  animals  and  con- 
cluded their  experiments.  Professor  von  Pettenkoper  has  well  said  :  "  Human 
intercourse  can  never  be  made  germ-tight." 
It  is  those  who  understand  least  of  the  nature  of  germs  and  disinfectants 
that  are  most  deluded  by  the  subject.  It  is  said  that  not  long  ago  "  a  gang  of 
coalies  at  Hull  refused  to  discharge  a  cargo  of  coals  until  they  had  been  disin- 
fected." While  Dr.  Koch,  when  he  "  made  his  first  visit  to  the  Hamburg  hos- 
pitals found  everything  prepared  in  the  most  correct  style,  usque  ad  unguem> 
and-  on  his  finishing  with  the  first  ward  was  invited  in  the  usual  manner  to 
wash  his  hands  with  the  most  scientific  soaps,  disinfectants,  etc.  He  declined, 
observing  nonchalantly,  'There  will  be  plenty  of  time  for  that  presently.'  " 
Scientists  know  very  little  about  these  germs  and  their  life  history.  Some 
knowledge  has  been  gained  and  some  advances  are  being  made  in  the  manner 
of  carrying  on  disinfecting  and  treating  disease  supposed  to  be  due  either 
to  the  germs  or  the  products  that  they  produce.  How  little  we  know  is  well 
shown  in  the  immense  amount  of  work  that  has  been  done  on  the  cholera  and 
typhoid  germ  ?  So  that  it  has  come  to  pass  that  we  have  practically  two  classes 
of  persons  who  view  the  subject  of  germs  and  disinfectants  differently.  One 
recognizes  in  the  germ  a  cell,  an  organism,  which,  when  destructive  to  a  being, 
