Variola, vaccination, varicella, cholera, erysipelas, whooping cough, hay fever / by H. Immermann [and others] ; edited with additions by John W. Moore ; authorized translation from the German, under the editorial supervision of Alfred Stengel.

  • Immermann, H.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Variola, vaccination, varicella, cholera, erysipelas, whooping cough, hay fever / by H. Immermann [and others] ; edited with additions by John W. Moore ; authorized translation from the German, under the editorial supervision of Alfred Stengel. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    2.—Simon: “Berliner klin. Wochenschr.,” 1872, Nr. 11.—Curschmann; 1. c., 2. Aufl., S. 356 ff.—Schaper: “Militararztliche Zeitschr.,” 1872, S. 53 f.—Zuelzer: “Centralblattfiir die med.Wissenschaften,” 1874, S. 82.—L. Pfeiffer:“ Handbuch der speciellen Therapie,” edited by Penzoldt and Stintzing, Bd. i, S. 227 (1894).—L. Voigt: “Sammlung klinischer Vortrago,” edited by v. Bergmann, Erb, and v. Win- ckel, Neue Folge Nr. 112 (1895). PARASITOLOGY OF THE SMALLPOX VIRUS. Our scientific observations on the virus of smallpox long since re- sulted in the idea of a contagium vivum (or animatum). The corre- sponding teaching of the etiology of infectious diseases in general (and especially of the contagious diseases) is far older than its actual proof in individual cases by modern bacteriologic methods. This idea owes its birth especially to variola, which, hi.storically considered, is of essential and fundamental importance for the whole theory of contagium vivum and its later generalization. The exj)eriment of inoculation made over and over again, showing that a minimal amount of the contents of a smallpox efflorescence is generally sufficient to produce a whole new case of smallpox, as well as that a whole epidemic of variola may easily arise from a single case, admits of no other explanation than that the cause of smallpox has in a high degree the power to reproduce itself, and, according to experience, rejjroduction (or proliferation) is a power inherent in living beings. The view that the origin of smallpox must be connected with a living being, not, indeed, visible to the unaided eye (bec*ause too small), but existent and endowed with pathogenic proper- ties, appeared not only the most plausible, but even the only possible cxj)lanatiou. It was, indeed, for variola first among all infectious dis- ea.ses that the theory was made and of which from the beginning it was postulated. V'ith the actual discovery of a specific pathogenic micro-organism for a number of other infectious diseases (anthrax, relapsing fever, etc.) in the ju'esent age of bacteriologic triumphs, the hypothesis of the exist- ence of a micro-organism of variola as the cause of the disease had attained tlie highest degree of probability ; it was now important to find in the contents of the variola pocks or in the blood of the variola ])atient a living organism peculiar to it and especially characteristic of it. Earlier attempts with this in view had not been lacking, for the oldest dates back into the eighteenth century. But they, on account of the poverty of the methods, had, of course, no result. More and better H'sults were to be expected from the new and developing technic in bacteriologic fields, and, on the ba.sis of historic reverence, the task of seeking a cause for variola seemed alluring. Indeed, during the last ii—3