hours in examining the great Tartar mosque faces dripped with perspiration as they strugand making ceremonious calls upon mullas gled and maneuvered in the scorching sunand Tartar officials. He then asked us if we shine, but neither of them seemed to be able would not like to see a Tartar and Kirghis to find an opening in the other's guard or to wrestling match. We replied, of course, in the af- get any decided advantage. At last, however, firmative, and were at once driven in his droshky the Tartar backed away suddenly, pulling the to an open sandy common at the eastern end Kirghis violently towards him; and as the latof the city, where we found a great crowd as- ter stepped forward to recover his balance, he sembled and where the wrestling had already was dexterously tripped by a powerful side-blow begun. The dense throng of spectators- of the Tartar's leg and foot. The trip did not mostly Kirghis and Tartars—was arranged throw him to the ground, but it did throw him in concentric circles around an open space off his guard; and before he could recover twenty-five or thirty feet in diameter. The in- himself, the Tartar broke the sash and shoulner circle was formed by two or three lines of der hold, rushed in fiercely, caught him around men, squatting on their heels; then came the body, and, with a hip-lock and a trementhree or four lines of standing men, and be- dous heave, threw him over his head. The hind the latter was a close circle of horsemen unfortunate Kirghis fell with such violence sitting in their saddles, and representing the that the blood streamed from his nose and gallery. The chief of police made a way for mouth and he seemed partly stunned; but us through the crowd to the inner circle, where he was able to get up without assistance and we took orchestra seats in the sand under a walked in a dazed way to his corner, amidst a blazing sun and in a cloud of fine dust raised roar of shouts and triumphant cries from the by the wrestlers. The crowd, as we soon dis- Tartar side. covered, was divided into two hostile camps, consisting respectively of Kirghis and Tartars. Ours was the Kirghis side, and opposite us were the Tartars. There were four masters of ceremonies, who were dressed in long green "khalats" and carried rattan wands. The two Tartar officials would select a champion in their corner, throw a sash over his head, pull him out into the arena, and then challenge the Kirghis officials to match him. The latter would soon find a man about equal to the Tartar champion in size and weight, and then the two contestants would prepare for the struggle. The first bout after we arrived was between a good-looking, smooth-faced young Kirghis, who wore a blue skull-cap and a red sash, and an athletic, heavily built Tartar, in a yellow skull-cap and a green sash. They eyed each other warily for a moment, and then clinched fiercely, each grasping with one hand his adversary's sash, while he endeavored with the other to get an advantageous hold of wrist, arm, or shoulder. Their heads were pressed closely together, their bodies were bent almost into right angles at their waists, and their feet were kept well back to avoid trips. Presently both secured sash and shoulder holds, and in a bent position backed each other around the arena, the Kirghis watching for an opportunity to trip and the Tartar striving to close in. The veins stood out like whip-cords on their foreheads and necks, and their swarthy As the excitement increased new champions offered themselves, and in a moment two more contestants were locked in a desperate struggle, amidst a babel of exclamations, suggestions, taunts, and yells of encouragement or defiance from their respective supporters. The hot air was filled with a dusty haze of fine sand, which was extremely irritating to the eyes; our faces and hands burned as if they were being slowly blistered by the torrid sunshine; and the odors of horses, of perspiration, and of greasy old sheepskins, from the closely packed mass of animals and men about us, became so overpowering that we could scarcely breathe; but there was so much excitement and novelty in the scene, that we managed to hold out through twelve or fifteen bouts. Two police officers were present to maintain order and prevent fights, but their interference was not needed. The wrestling was invariably good-humored, and the vanquished retired without any manifestations of ill-feeling, and often with laughter at their own discomfiture. The Kirghis were generally overmatched. The Tartars, although perhaps no stronger, were quicker and more dexterous than their nomadic adversaries, and won on an average two falls out of every three. About 50'clock, although the wrestling still continued, we made our way out of the crowd and returned to the hotel, to bathe our burning faces and, if possible, get cool. George Kennan. VOL. XXXVI.- 53. DISEASE GERMS, AND HOW TO COMBAT THEM.* T the very confines of organic nature, the lowliest of the low among plants, comes a series of minute and simply formed bodies called bacteria. From them we receive great benefits, and from them also proceed some of our greatest evils. They are the active agents in producing that circulation of matter so essential to the continuance of organic life, since by the decompositions they effect the earth is freed from the dead matter which would otherwise encumber it, while the matter itself is turned into the great reservoir from which all life draws. In addition to this, recent experiments make it doubtful whether our seeds could germinate without their aid; and yet, it must be confessed that, as a class, they are not in good repute. They spoil our meats in warm weather, turn sour our milk, and vex the housewife by exciting revolt among her choicest preserves; and we are now in possession of facts which prove that some among them actually cause disease of an infectious nature. This is no longer inferential, but proved for at least half a dozen diseases; and the proof is positive and absolute in that number of cases, while in many others we need but a few more facts that we may be equally assured. Taking a little filtered beef bouillon, clear as crystal to the eye, and showing under the microscope not a trace of life, let us place it in a glass flask and, boiling it repeatedly to destroy any germs it may contain, set it aside in a warm place with the mouth of the flask open. In a few days the liquid previously so limpid becomes very turbid. If we take a drop and magnify it 1000 diameters we shall see that the liquid is crowded with life, and the few ounces of bouillon contain a vaster population than our greatest city can boast. All is incessant activity; the whole field of the microscope is crowded with moving bodies, some shooting rapidly past in straight lines, others moving slowly backward and forward, while others twirl and spin during the whole time of observation. The sight itself is interesting, but the question that springs at once to the mind is still more so. Whence comes all this active life? It was here that the theory of spontaneous generation took its last stand; it was *When not otherwise credited, the drawings were made by the author directly from the microscope. here that it made its most desperate resistance; here also it has been most signally defeated. Has the life sprung from some new arrangement of the complex principles in the broth? No. Science again reiterates the dictum that there can be no life without antecedent life. The broth has been contaminated by air germs, and from a few falling into it has come this prodigal life. Starting from no matter how complex a substance, once kill all the germs it contains and supply it with air freed from germs, and no life will ever appear. Here, then, is a test for the number of germs air or water may contain in seeing how much is required to start life in an infusion perfectly free from germs. On this principle the numbers presently to be stated have been obtained. We must clearly understand, lest we become needlessly alarmed, that the majority of bacterial life, as such, is perfectly harmless to man. Almost every fermentation and putrefaction has a special bacterium inducing it. The ripening of cheese is produced by bacteria and yet is perfectly harmless. What, then, does it signify to count bacteria in air and in water? It is useful simply because where harmless bacteria are found multiplying there we are assured conditions are generally favorable for the increase of harmful varieties too. 1. Bacterium Termo X 1000 Diameters. 2. Hay Bacillus X 1000 D. 3. Same (zoogloca) X 1000 D. 4. Bacterium Termo X 3000 D. (Dallinger.) Returning to our infusions and microscope, let us look more closely at this lowly life. We have shown in Figure 1 the appearance of beef bouillon in which bacteria called "bacterium termo" are growing, while Figures 2 and 3 show a growth of what is called "hay bacillus," since the germs are very abundant in hay; and here, so our readers may not become confused with the different names, we will say that bacteria are divided according to their shape into four classes: the micrococci (the word means little grains) are round, bacteria proper are very short cylinders, bacilli are longer, while the spirillum is shown in Figure 6. The micrococci, of which we show the species inhabiting the mouth in health (Figure 5), are always seen as small spherical bodies about of an inch in diameter. Like all the bacteria, they are little masses of vegetable protoplasm surrounded by a thin cell wall. Their number in the mouth is almost incredible, but to human beings they are perfectly harmless; however, if we inoculate a few drops of saliva under the skin of a rabbit, in about two days it dies and we find its blood crowded with these minute cells. spores forming in the bacilli look sometimes like peas in a pod, and escape through the cell wall. Some of the bacteria are motionless; others seem to possess untiring activity, caused in some cases by flagellata, as shown in Figures 4 and 6. Let us now pass to some of the forms accompanying disease. Those figured are the bacillus anthracis, causing splenic fever, in Figure 8; the comma bacillus, the probable cause of cholera, according to Koch, shown in Figure 9; the spirillum, causing relapsing fever, in Figure 11; while in No. 10 is seen the bacillus tuberculosis of consumption. 6. 5. Micrococci from Mouth x 1000 D. 6. Spirillum Volutans X 500 D. (Cohn.) 00 The bacterium and the bacillus (Figures 1, 2, and 3) resemble one another, the bacterium being shorter, however, while the spirillum is totally different, much larger and twisted, and in the species figured attains a length of of an inch, which makes it a giant among the bacteria. The method by which these little plants multiply deserves notice. The chains formed by the micrococcus (Figure 5) first attract attention, and show a very common method of growth among the bacteria. This is called fission: the cell elongates and then divides, the new cell does likewise, and so a long string is formed, the micrococci under the microscope looking like minute pearls. Sometimes the division takes place in two directions, and we then have what Figure 7 shows very plainly a grouping in squares. The method which interests us most, however, is reproduction by spores, which are to the adult bacilli as seeds to a plant; and as the seed can survive what will kill the plant, so spores withstand degrees of heat, dryness, and disinfection fatal to full-grown bacteria: the 7. Sarcina Ventriculi x rooo D. 8. Bacillus Anthracis x 1000 D. 9. Comma Bacillus (Cholera) x 1000 D. 10. Bacillus of Consumption X 1000 D. It will be asked, How do these minute plants kill? In diseases like splenic fever their rapid multiplication actually fills and plugs the capillaries; in their life processes many of the disease germs evolve poisonous products. The mechanical effect of foreign matter in the blood must not be overlooked; and, as bacteria cannot grow without nutriment, all this must come from the fluids and the tissues of the body. We have spoken of the methods of growth and must now mention its marvelous rapidity. Cohn has seen the hay bacillus in infusions at blood heat divide every twenty minutes. We have calculated this rate for twenty-four hours, and have found that at the end of the first day there would be as the descendants of a single bacillus 4,722,366,482,869,645,213,696 individuals; and though we can pack a trillion (1,000,000,000,000) in a cubic inch, this number would fill about 2,500,000 cubic feet. This is clearly not what they do, but simply what they are capable of for a short time when temperature and food supply are favorable. Since the multiplication of bacteria is so favored by warmth, the summer season requires special sanitary precautions; but plants need soil as well as warmth, and the soil which best fosters these is an accumulation of vegetable or animal refuse. The longer such garbage is kept, the better for their growth and the worse for the neighborhood. In summer, therefore, it is of the first importance that garbage should be removed daily. A great step would be gained if garbage could be burned as soon as made; and as this is almost impossible in its wet state, we notice with pleasure an invention by which it is dried and then burnt, a water seal, it is claimed, preventing the escape of all odors in either operation. This is certainly a desideratum in country places with no garbage collection, where from this cause the immediate surroundings of a house often nullify the benefits of the otherwise pure air. Miquel has found that air at Montsouris (outside of Paris) contains, as an average, 1092 microbes, while in a Paris street there are in a cubic meter (35 cubic feet) 9750. The upper air in a city is, however, much purer than that of the streets. Thus Miquel found on top of the Pantheon but 364 germs to the meter, which is thus freer than country air near the ground. But if street air is so full of germs, what can be said of the houses? In Miquel's own house each cubic meter contained in summer 49,800, while in winter there were 84,500. This increase in winter over summer is due to the much smaller ventilation allowed. In free air, country or city, the germs are three to four times more numerous in summer than in winter. These figures help us to appreciate the necessity for thorough ventilation, especially in cases of infectious disease. Tightly closing the room to prevent the contagion from spreading will but add to its concentration and greatly increase the danger to the attendants. Doors and windows opening into halls or other rooms are wisely closed, but those communicating with outside air should be opened as widely as possible, and if the patient is in an upper room, much of the danger of infection is avoided. It would seem best, where hospitals are built in a thickly inhabited section of the city, to take the air supply used in ventilation, especially of the surgical wards, from a superior level by means of a tall chimney. With such air, and with walls of glazed brick instead of absorbent plaster, unfavorable results after operations, already so reduced in number by antiseptic methods, would be still further diminished. That sunshine is a germicide as well as a tonic has but recently been proved: if we take two flasks containing the bacillus anthracis with spores, and keep one in the direct sunshine for a long time, while the other exposed to the same heat is kept from the sun, we find the sun-exposed spores have lost their virulence, while the others remain active. Is there need to further press so patent a lesson? As bacteria grow best in the presence of considerable moisture, we may expect to encounter them in greater abundance in water than in air. Rain water contains 60,000 to a quart, the Vanne four times as many, while the polluted Seine from 5,000,000 to 12,000,000. Our readers will wish to know if sewage itself can be worse; but this, when fresh, contains 75,000,000 to a quart, and, allowed to stagnate, would soon show itself a hundred times as bad, since it contains an abundant food supply for the microbes. The necessity, therefore, for rapid and complete removal of all bodies entering the sewer becomes apparent: this is best effected by having the sewer of comparatively small size (which will admit of frequent flushing), of sufficient pitch, and as smooth as possible within. It is in putrefaction that the danger to health resides. Fresh sewage cannot to any great extent pollute the air, since the germs have no way of reaching the atmosphere; but in putrefying, bubbles of gas rise and produce each its little spray. These small particles of water, carrying the germs of the sewage, evaporate, and leave their germs floating. This it is which makes sewer gas a carrier of disease. While sewers should be properly ventilated, the practice of leaving the end of a large sewer directly open to the wind, as is often done, permits during gales considerable back pressure, which is a grave source of peril. The minute size of the bacteria renders it very difficult to effect by mechanical means the purification of waters containing them. While strongly insisting upon the use of the purest water attainable, necessity may forbid a choice and compel the use of a doubtful supply. Two methods are then open for improvement- filtration and boiling. No disease-producing bacteria or spore can withstand a boiling temperature for an hour, so that it is advisable to boil all doubtful water. To the question whether filtration, which is much more convenient than boiling, and which also avoids the flat taste, will not purify, I would answer both yes and no. Yes, if done rightly; no, as generally effected. Figure 12 shows filter paper and bacteria submitted to the same magnification. The folly of using a small filter of some loose material to purify a large stream of water is at once apparent; it may stop off sand or straws, but not disease germs. A filter close grained enough properly to purify must be of good size to supply a family with drinking-water. Tiles of unglazed porous porcelain give by filtration water free from germs, but for an adequate quantity a good size must be used. Animal charcoal was formerly in good repute, |