The Campaign Against Microbes

quality, an elementary book should display greater clearness, method, and precision.

Science occupies too large a place in life for us not to respond to the taste of the public, which desires to know its beauty and utility. On the other hand, there is room for a certain amount of scepticism as to how much science it is possible to communicate to minds (even the best) unfamiliar with laboratory research. What is to be done? Excessive simplification and unnecessary detail must alike be avoided. To popularize is to select. The rule is in the technical portion to pass over all that is devoid of educational value; to explain what is essential in terms which professional scientists would not repudiate; to present science as liberal and humane; to aim at something higher than the immediate interest of curiosity, and to offer to those whom their occupations keep at a distance from scientific work sound ideas as to the place and power of man in Nature. To popularize science would be labour in vain if, besides its instructive value, such work did not possess the merit of contributing to the general progress. by cultivating the mind.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PREFACE

CANCER

...

I.—Anatomical definition, 2.—Benign and malignant tumours;

Metastases, 3.-Principal anatomical theories; what these

do not explain, 4-5.

Ideas as to endemicity and contagion, 6.-General statistical

data, 7.—Local observations and cancer geography, 7.——

Cancer houses, 8.

Experimental investigations, 9.-Cancer in mice, 10.—

Indefinite propagation of the tumours by inoculation, 11.

Character of these inoculations; distinction between an

inoculation and a graft, 13.

Analogies between cancers and certain infectious diseases;

the so-called invisible microbes, 15.-Intracellular virus;

symbioses between parasites and cells, 16.-Idea of the

infecting cell, 17.-More or less complicated modes of

transmission, 17.

The campaign against cancer in different countries; societies,

research funds, special hospitals, laboratories, 19.

II. Critical examination of the facts upon which are based
beliefs as to the endemicity and contagiousness of cancer.

Is cancer on the increase? round figures, 21.-Local

statistics, 23.-Influence of age, sex, social condition, and

profession, 23-24.

The data from cancer geography, 27.--Cancer countries;

influence of the soil, referable to the action of humidity,

28.-Cancer towns; Luckau, &c., 28.

Conclusions from foregoing statements, 29.-Cancer houses,

30.-The Sanitary Bureau in Paris, 30.—Various examples,

more or less recent, 31.-Domestic hygiene against

cancer, 33.

Endemicity and contagion, 34.-Conjugal cancer; cases,

34.—Is cancer contagious? 36. No evidence in favour of

heredity; miasmatic diseases, 38.

iii.

CANCER-continued.

Experimental investigations: the two theories by which

these have been inspired and directed; inoculations and

grafts, 40.-Perennial nature of the cancer cell, 41.-

Analogies between cancer cells and germinative cells, 41.

Endemicity of mouse cancer; cancer cages, 43.—Concept

of the recipient cell, 46.-Rôle of external and internal

parasites, 47.

Treatment attempts at serum-therapy, 48.—Attempts at

anti-cancerous vaccination, 49.-Principles of treatment

by X-rays, 50.-General hygiene: hygiene of the dwelling,

and of diet, 51.—Sewage and uncooked vegetables, 52.

...

THE PROBLEM OF TUBERCULOSIS

I.-Present state of investigations upon treatment of tuber-

culosis differences between a vaccine and a serum, 53,

54.--Characteristics of the tubercle bacillus : tuberculosis

a chronic disease, 56.—Tuberculosis attacks the organism's

means of defence, 57.

Toxin of the tubercle bacillus, or tuberculin; its discovery

by Koch, 57.-Mode of action of the toxin, 58.—Differ-

ences between tuberculin and the toxins of diphtheria and

tetanus, 58.—Tuberculin poisonous only to an animal

already suffering from tubercle, 58.-No counter-poison

yet produced; the anti-tuberculous serums, 59.—Explana-

tion of alleged favourable results from the latter in certain

cases, 60.-Pseudo-immunity of organisms which become

used to tuberculin, 61.

The fatty, waxy envelope of the tubercle bacillus, 61.-The

latter an acido-resistant microbe, 62.-Failure to obtain a

vaccine from tubercle bacilli, 63.

Three classes of tuberculosis and tubercle bacilli-those of

mammals, birds, and cold-blooded animals, 64.—Attempts

at transforming these different kinds, 65.

Principle underlying von Behring's bovo-vaccination: experi-

ments and observations to determine whether the human

bacillus is pathogenic to cattle, 67.-Clinical observations

bearing on the question whether the bovine bacillus is

pathogenic to man, 68.—Von Behring's bovo-vaccination,

or vaccination of cattle with human bacilli, 70-71.-Early

results, 71.-Conversely, can human beings be vaccinated

with the bovine bacillus? Experiments upon human

beings and monkeys, 72-73.

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THE PROBLEM OF TUBERCULOSIS-continued.

Origin of human tuberculosis: question raised anew by von

Behring, 75.-Old experiments proving that the tubercle

bacillus enters the system through the respiratory

passages; tuberculosis by inhalation, 75.-Facts and

experiments showing that the bacillus may reach the lung

by way of the intestine: tuberculosis by ingestion, 76.—

The intestine in young animals, 77.-Corroborative evi-

dence from experiments on pulmonary anthracosis, 78.—

Attempts at vaccination by way of the alimentary canal, 80.

Natural resistance of man to tuberculosis, 82.

II. Further results from a year's research on the two great

questions-vaccination of cattle, and channels of penetra-

tion of the tubercle bacillus, 83.

Result of the experiment at Melun much less favourable

conclusions, 84.—Similar experiments in other countries—

United States, Italy, Belgium, Germany, and Argentina,

84-85.-Experiments on a large scale upon herds, 87.

Fresh investigations upon pulmonary anthracosis, 88.-Diffi-

culties in conducting these experiments, 89.—Passage of

various microbes, under different conditions, through the

mucous membrane of the digestive tract, 90.-Tubercu-

losis is contracted by ingestion as well as by inhalation,

91-92.—Attempts to vaccinate cattle by the digestive

channel, 93.

Resistance of the system to tuberculosis: action of the

phagocytes of the souslik and gerbil, 94.-Digestion of

human tubercle bacilli by the beehive mite (Galleria

melonella), 95.-Hygiene and tuberculosis, 96.

TETANUS

Various forms of tetanus, 98-99.-Old observations; opinions

of army doctors, 102.-Influence of the soil and variations

in temperature, 102-103.-First experiments, 104.

Experimental investigations on tetanus; discovery of the

bacillus, 105.-Pure cultures of the bacillus, 106.-Spores,

106.-Presence of the bacillus in the soil and manure-

heaps; role of the horse in the propagation of tetanus,

107.

Tetanus a toxic disease, 108.--Experiments by Kitasato,

and Vaillard and Vincent, 108.-Diphtheritic and tetanic
toxin, 109.—Extraordinary activity of the latter, 110.—Sen-
sibility of different species of animals, 111.-Experimental
reproduction of the disease in its various forms by means
of tetanic toxin, 111.-Mode of absorption of the toxin, 113.

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TETANUS-continued.