Diseases of the lungs (of a specific not tuberculous nature) : acute bronchitis; infectious pneumonia; gangrene, syphilis, cancer and hydatid of the lungs / by Germain Sée ; translated by E.P. Hurd ; with appendices by Geo. M. Sternberg, Dujardin Beaumetz.

  • Sée, Germain, 1818-1896.
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diseases of the lungs (of a specific not tuberculous nature) : acute bronchitis; infectious pneumonia; gangrene, syphilis, cancer and hydatid of the lungs / by Germain Sée ; translated by E.P. Hurd ; with appendices by Geo. M. Sternberg, Dujardin Beaumetz. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    302 by germs, this milk being brought from farms where the epidemic was prevailing, and simultaneously affecting a great number of persons who made use of it, thus transporting the disease from the infected territory to the city. Pettenkofer has accused potable water of being the. bearer of the typhoid contagium. [Is not tlie fact fresh in our memories of the terrible epidemic of typhoid fever which this very year 1885 ra^ed in Plymouth, Penn., where a mountain stream which'fed the reservoir from which the city was supplied with water, was polluted by the dejections of a typhoid fever patient, a great part of a three months accumulation of dejecta being suddenly, during a thaw, swept into the running stream* the consequence was an outbreak of typhoid among citizens making use of this mountain water, resulting in over 1,200 cases of sickness andlnore than 100 deaths.—Tr.] A practical lesson from facts on record, proving the transmission of contagious diseases by drinking water and even by milk (here Peuch/s cases of the communication of tuberculosis from the cow to man through the milk are in point), is to boil the water or other suspected liquid before using it. It is true, however, that some disease germs resist long boiling. If the virulent and zymotic diseases are caused by microscopic organ- isms, it is a laudable endeavor to try to destroy the latter in the organism if they cannot be reached before tlieir introduction. Among the agents given with antiseptic intent, Hamlet (Rev. Sc., No. 11, Sept. 10th, 1881) has found hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbonic acid, marsh gas, sulphu- retted hydrogen without action on the development of microbes. The substances which have arrested the life of these little organisms are: oxy- genated water, carbon disulphide, binoxide of nitrogen and chlorine. These conclusions harmonize with those of Pasteur, who lessened the viru- lent property of the microbes by the action of the oxygen of the air, and with those of Cliappuis, who destroyed the germs by ozone. Potassa, soda, ammonia, bisulphide of potassium, oxalic and benzoic acids, iodide and bromide of potassium, hyposulphite of sodium, tannin and methyl alcohol (5 per cent.) are almost without effect. The alums, ferrous sulphate, the chlorides of magnesium, iron and aluminum, camphor, salic}dio acid, chloroform and phenol (3 per cent.) arrest the multiplication of microbes, but do not destroy them completely. According to Laborde and Bochefoutaine, salicylic acid in the proportion of one part to a thousand, prevents all development of the bacteria; mixed with food and drink it is an excellent antagonist of fermentation, and in- offensive even when given in a stronger solution. # Bacchi (Acad, des Sciences, 1879) takes a couple of healthy frogs; he injects under their skin a little blood from the heart of a frog dead from septicaemia. One or two days after, it is remarked that these frogs are very feeble; there is cutaneous hyperaesthesia, their blood globules begin to be deformed, and in'their blood is found a considerable number of bac- teria animated with active movements. At this moment, under the skin of one of them is injected a small quantity of a solution of phenate of soda; soon afterwards it is observed that in this frog the bacteria, before wriggling in a lively manner, have become motionless, then they disappear altogether; at the same time the globules regain little by little their normal form and at the end of several days the animal recovers its usual health. The other frog, which was not treated by the phenate of sodium, soon dies, presenting all the symptoms of septicaemia. Dr. White, who believes that yellow fever is the result of a microbe.