The formation of poisons by micro-organisms : a biological study of the germ theory of disease / by G.V. Black.

Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The formation of poisons by micro-organisms : a biological study of the germ theory of disease / by G.V. Black. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    a transformation of the oxamide, which is decomposed into oxalic acid and ammonia. As much oxalic acid exists after the decomposition as was added, and still possesses its original power; and more oxamide will be decomposed in the same way, if added. This may be kept up continuously, and any amount of the oxamide decomposed, by a very minute por- tion of the oxalic acid. Quite a number of similar chemical decompositions are known, and while they cannot be considered as bodies in a state of decomposition, as Liebig claimed the excitors of fermentation were, the processes had long been considered as very closely related. Now as these processes were admitted by all to be purely chemical, no process should be considered vital until it was definitely proven. This required that each one of these be investigated on its own merits and proven independent of all others. In this work the theory has, perhaps, suffered as much from its over-zealous followers, who hastily published untenable views, arrived at by hasty and ill-digested experiments, as from its opponents. SCITROEDER. Schroeder was, perhaps, the first to make a new and sub- stantial point that has stood the test of adverse criticism. As we have stated, Schwan had demonstrated that decomposition would not occur in sterilized fluids upon the introduction of air that had been heated or passed through sulphuric acid. This, as a demonstration of the existence of life, was appa- rently demolished by Liebig, who claimed that the heat, or the acid either, was sufficient to destroy the molecular motion upon which, as he claimed, the power of ferments depended. Now Schroeder, in 1854, admitted air filtered through cotton batting, with the idea that this would catch any solid par- ticles iu the shape of spores or germs. His experiment was a