Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 39.djvu/42

32 temperature does in these cases chemical products, special to certain animals, can also bring about in others. This is well proved by the influence of various culture media on the growth of microorganisms. The presence of chemical compounds of well-known nature, even in very small quantities, has been shown by a great many observers to influence much the mode of growth of bacteria. It has even been proved that bouillon obtained from the muscular tissue of various animals, notwithstanding the absence of any very definite active chemical compound causing marked difference, gave cultivation media more or less suitable for the growth of certain organisms. I will only mention out of a large number of other observations the very recent experiments of Hippolyte Martin on the Bacillus tuberculosis. This observer found that animals can be classified roughly in the following way, according to the ease with which the bacillus grows in bouillon made with their tissues: herring, oyster, mussel, monkey, horse, calf, rabbit, birds, dog, cat, rat. It would be difficult in the present state of our knowledge to ascribe these differences to the presence of any definite compound, yet it can not be doubted that they are due to certain physico-chemical properties. We have thus distinct evidence of marked differences between animals of different classes, orders, and species; and, if we admit the truth of the doctrine of evolution, we must admit that such differences are in great part the result of the influence of external circumstances. We might infer from this that differences between animals of the same species, but of different races, families, sex, or age, are likewise the result of similar influences; we have, however, better evidences than these in support of the view that either extreme liability or immunity to disease may be acquired. Indeed, I shall be able to show you that it is the gradual development of that knowledge which has prepared man for the reception of Pasteur's discoveries, and of their recent momentous extension by Koch.

Refractory State resulting from a First Attack of Certain Fevers.—It was very early recognized that after a first attack of many infectious fevers, such as small-pox, measles, typhus fever, etc., a second attack seldom occurred. This fact seems to have been observed more specially in connection with small-pox, or at any rate to have led to practical application first in connection with that disease. We learn that the inducement of a first attack of small-pox was an antique practice in Africa, Persia, and China, and that the method of inoculation was brought from there to Constantinople in 1673, and from that town to England by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. The idea was evidently to produce a mild attack of the disease in individuals placed under circumstances most favorable to recovery in order to induce immunity. The practice, although open to serious objections, must have had