Book Description

Excerpt from Wood's Medical and Surgical Monographs, Vol. 9: Consisting of Original Treatises and Reproductions, in English, of Book and Monographs Selected From the Latest Literature of Foreign Countries, With All Illustration, Etc The important question as to what constitutes immunity can be answered only through bacteriology, and although we are not yet ready with a solution, it still grows plainer that we have to do with chemism rather than with a strife between cells and organisms, between parasites which endeavor to penetrate the body on the one side and phagocytes on the other, which take its defence upon themselves and devour the bacilli. Investigation has provided a large amount of material in a short time about the biology of micro-organisms, and much of this is important in medicine, such as the occurrence of per sistent forms in the case of many bacteria anthrax and tetanus - which have the form of_ spores and an unparalleled power of resistance to high temperature and chemical agents. Also the numerous experiments on the effect of heat, cold, dry ing, chemicals, light, etc., on bacteria which are not pathogenic and spore-producing have given us many facts of use in pro phylaxis. The influence of light is especially important. For years we have known that direct sunbeams would kill germs quickly, and I have found that tubercle bacilli live but a few minutes or hours in sunlight, according to the thickness of the exposed layer; but even dispersed daylight has the same in fluence, though it is slower, for cultures placed near a window die in five to seven days. For the etiology of infectious disease it is important that bacteria increase only in dampness, and cannot rise of themselves from a moist place into the air. Thus it is only mingled with dust that they are carried by air currents, and only those which live a long time in a dry state. But they never multiply in the air, as was formerly supposed. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.