Bacteria, the smallest of living organisms / by Ferdinand Cohn ; translated by Charles S. Dolley.

  • Ferdinand Cohn
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Bacteria, the smallest of living organisms / by Ferdinand Cohn ; translated by Charles S. Dolley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    litimis SO imicli used by chemists is obtained, together with a' few related pigments, from branching or crusty rock growing, lichens by placing them in water as long as putrefaction contin- ues, till the at first colorless extract takes on a beautiful purple, red or blue color wherever it comes in contact with the air. According to recent investigations, it is probable that litmus also ■ is formed through the life energy of bacteria. They have suc- ceeded by means of bacteria in producing, in»a clear solution containing cream of tartar and acetate of ammonia, a coloring material exactly similar to litmus, which first colors the fluid a clear blue, becoming from day to day deeper and more beautiful. ^ In other investgations the spherical bacteria appear to a certain extent as fabricators of Spanish green, yellow and red coloring materials, which they are able to produce from colorless chemi- cal solutions. At last, in the most recent times, an unexj^ected knowledge of the secret life energies of bacteria has been revealed, through which they rule with demoniacal power over the weal and woe, and even over the life and death of man. Probably with the increase of commerce the visitation of that scourge of God, the epidemic, has grown more frecpient, in the last ten years, on man and animals. It wanders with undetain- able progress from city to city, from land to land, stopping at one place but, a shox't time, then, as if exhausted, disappearing in order to carry on its work in a new locality, and usually after an interval of time, turning back again. Only too often the physi- cian’s skill and knowledge are exercised in vain to wrest the victim from the devastating power of these diseases, or to limit their course by rules of precaution. As various as are the differ- ent forms of disease, yet all epidemics, cholera, pestilence, typhus, diphtheria, variola, scarletina, hospital gangrene, epizobtic, and the like, have certain features in common. These diseases orig- nate nowhere of themselves, neither from internal nor external causes, but are introduced from another place where they have been prevalent, by means of a diseased person or through. material which has been in contact with such: they spread only through contagion. AVhen the infection has taken place, hours or even days may ])ass before the symptoms appear outwardly. After a certain time of incubation, the disease breaks out through j a powerful disturbance of the normal action of all the organs, j
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