ATOR I LA,
~~
THE MARBLEHEAD FIRE.
THE ENTIRE BUSINESS PORTION OF
THE TOWN DESTROYED.
TUE ORIGIN OF THE FIRE UNKNOWN
-THE LOSS ESTIMATED AT
MARBLEHEAD, Mass., Dec, 20.—
This town was visited by a conflagra-
tion last night that deveured the entire
business portion of the town-—about
12 acres, The fire was first discovered
m the housefurnishing store of D. R.
H. Powers, on Pleasant street, at about
10 o'clock, The direct cause of the
fire is not known, The first warning
was announced by a loud explosion of
naphtha in the ¢ store. The
alarm was quickly rung in and
immediately followed by a second
and third. When the firemen reached
the burning building iv fell with a
mighty crash. It was a wooden struc
ture and was rapidly consumed. The
firemen dad their best to hold the flames
in check, but their efforts amounted to
nothing. The bulldings surrounding
the structures were nothing but mers
shells, and it seemed as If everywhere
a spark fell a fire started. In 15 min-
utes from the time the first alarm was
rung in the entire business portion was
a sea of flame. The fire raged fiercely,
and the two companies were wholly of
no avail to fill the task they were called
upon to perform. Assistance wassum-
moned from Lynn, Salem and Swamp-
scott, and these towns quickly re-
sponded,
The entire shoe manufactureing
district, the principal business of the
town, was burned to the ground, Fully
60 buildings were consumed, The
flames spread with sutch rapidity that
scarcely anything was saved. The
tenants residing in the dwelling houses |
were completely cleaned ont, an? asthey |
stood watching their homes consume
they presented a pitiable sight. The
fire, alter demolishing the building in
which it started, swept directly across
to Rechabite Hall, which is totally
burned. From there it swept over to
W. B. Brown's house, which marked
the limit of the fire on the western
side. The wind was, most fortunately,
light, but the roaring mass of flame
swept over to F. W. & J. W. Mon-
roe’s shoe store, on the opposite side of
Pleasant street, The bulldiug was a
wooden structure, four stories high,
and was soon burned to the ground.
In the midst the shoe factory of
Charles Reed, to the west, caught ind
was burned to the ground. The pro-
unable to rise, I rolled over the best
way I could and rell into the river, and
then swam 200 yards,’”
Mr, Carroll is badly burned. He was
taken to the hosp ia). Mr. Carroll
says that the last lady passengers that
were on the boat coming down likely
got off at Baton Rouge, The passen-
gers that were aboard at the time of
the accident were Captain P. G. Mont-
gomery and Mr, Harpln, of the Board
of Underwriters, a drover and his son,
who were saved,
Mr. J. W. Hanley, chief engineer of
the boat, arrived at the office of the
company owning the boat this morn-
ing. His face is badly burned. He
says that the fire started in the cotton
just aft the boiler a little before 12
o'clock last night. The second engi«
neer was on watch, and Immediately
blew an alarm, but so fast did the
flames spread that In three minutes the
boat was ablaze from stern to stem.
He jumped overboad on the shore side
and reached the bank, and turning
around saw Captain Holmes struggling
in the water and made every effort to
rescue him.
Captain Holmes, Chief Clerk Samuel
Powell, Carpenter John Croften and
Robert Smith, steersman of the crew,
are known to be lost, James Given,
sailor; James O'Neill, deck hand, and
Mr. Hanley further said: *‘I think
that from the crew of the Hanna and
that of the Josie W., who were passen-
gers, the loss of lives 1s from 20 to 23,
The beat, when burned, was lying at
the bank at Plaquemine, and the people
of that town treated us with great |
kindness and furnished us liberally |
with food and clothing.” i
——— A ——— i
i
THE TROUBLE AT LAMAR, MISS.
LAMAR, Miss, Dee, 27th.~—The re-
ports of race trouble in this village
have been greatly exaggerated. There
has been considerable excitement here, |
bat, barring one knock down. no one
bas been injured. Yesterday a drunken
negro insulted a white man, and was
promptly knocked down and severely
punished, i
Other negroes in the town became |
demonstrative, and several whites be-
coming alarmed telegraphed to Mem-
phis for Winchester ries, The re-
port that trouble was expected here
was circulated in neighboring towns, |
began flocking Into
Lamar until the little village looked
like an armed camp.
i
i
gress of the {lire was checked upon this |
side at that point, but, it swept un-
controlled to the eastward, and the |
flames soon reduced I’aine’s ex- |
press office to a mass of ruins, Thus
it continued. Sheds, fruit stands and |
small tenement houses were consumed |
with rapidity. It seemed as if the |
entire town was doomed, By this time |
help from Salem, Lynn and Swamp- |
scott arrived, and this response put |
pew life into the cheerless workers,
The city was flooded with strangers
from all the surrounding towns. On
Pleasant street the dwelling houses
of Natnan Pitman, Asa Blaney, |
. the Boston and Maine Depot, Cole
Brothers’ shoe factory, the horse
car station, Stacey's drug store, Jona-
than DBourne’s woolen factory, a large
structure, four stories high, and nu.
merous small buildings were reduced
to ashes. On the opposite side Joseph
Lefavre’s dwelling house, H. O. Sym-
ond’s hardware, the Grand Army Hall
and the Fire Department headquar-
ters, a magnificent brick building;
the Rialte block, C. Gregory's
drug store, the Boston branch
grocery store and the dry goods
store of George Graves were destroyed.
On Essex street the flames destroyed
Allerton Hall and the ifnmense wooden
factory of E. H. Woodbury, shoe
manufacturer. Allerton Hall is occu-
pied as a shoe factory by Jonathan |
Orne. The factory of Jacob H., Crop.
ley & Dro.. on Essex street, Peache's
shoe factory and the houses of Dennis |
and Jacob Pine were reduced to smoul- |
déring ruins. On Spring street the fire |
swept on, destroying the residence and |
a factory of William C. Lefavre. Its |
progress was checked at the Sewell |
Grammar School building. Sweeping |
across Spring street, the flames con- {
!
i
}
sumed the handsome dwelling of Dr.
Whittemore. Here the flames changed
their course, and, sweeping on to
Bewell street, completely destroyed
everything in the rear of Pleasant |
street, taking everything clean up
on both sides of the rallroad track.
The residences of Mr. Chamber.
Jin and the late Thomas F. Cross.
man, Paine’s livery stables, Thomas
Rixls fruit stand and numerous small
buildings were burned to the ground,
At 3 o'clock the fire was under control,
though yet burning fivcely, This stolid
old burgh, in June, 1877, was visited
by a fire which swept over nearly the
same distriet. Darn the progress of
the present fire several explosions were
heard. Fully 1000 workmen are
thrown out of employment, The losts
is estimated at $560,000,
A RIVER BOAT BURNED
THE JOHN H. HANNA DELTROYED ON
THE MISSISSIPPI~THIRTY PERISH,
PLAQUEMINE, LA. Dee. 25. —The
bnrning of the steamboat John W.
Hanna, last night near Plaquemine,
was one of the most terrible river dis
asters that has ever happened in South
ern waters,
The lors of life was heavy, nearly 30
persons perishing in tbe flames and in
At the time the fire was
If the negroes meditated an attack |
on the whites the show of force awed
them, and they ma:ie no demonstra
tion. There was greal excitement here
all day, but things have now quieted
down, and the armed men are leaving
town by every train.
FOUR MEN KILLED BY A CAVE-IN.
_—— - §
Dee, 26.—A fatal |
his afternoon on |
Fifteenth street, between Tremont and |
Court place, which resulted in the |
instant death of at least four men and |
mortal wounding of two others. The |
Denver Gas Company had 100 men |
employed in excavating a diteh six feet |
deep along the =ide and underneath |
the track of the cable car line. Sud- |
denly the track for an entire block |
fell upon the men underneath, The |
men were immediately set to work |
removing the fallen track, and four |
dead and two badly wounded have
DENVER,
1
The dead are: Willlam Katri, aged |
50, marned, large family, i
N. M. Wilson, married, large family, |
Joseph Trainers, leaves a widow, ;
Mike Dillon, a single man, about 40 |
years old, i
James McKuen was badly crushed
and cannot recover. i
The excavation was being made for
lessness upon the part of the gas come
pany in neglecting to place proper
supports under the track where the
men were at work.
RAVAGES OF DIPHTHERIA.
ALLEXTOWN, Dee, 27.—~The diph-
theria scourge in the western portion |
of the county continues unabated, the |
seeming to add to its virulence. At
the village of Breiningsvilie the malady |
is very severe, and nearly every family |
A case of extreme sadness |
ease. Last Saturday morning he buried
in oue grave three little sons, aged
3, 6 and 8 years, who had died
within thirty-six hours of each
other. Yesterday morning be lost an.
other son, 13 years old, who was
followed in the afternoon by another |
son 10 years old. It 13 a singular fact
that, of his six sons and two daughters,
all of whom are sick, the mortality is
confined to the former. Daniel
Newmeyer, also a resident}of Breinigs-
ville, lost two children within a few
hours of each other, agiri of 11 last
night, and. a boy of 7 this morning.
Dr. E. M. Mohr, of Alburtis, this
morning, buctied 10 one grave
his two children, two girls,
aged 4 and J years, who both died of
diphtheria on Monday, At Alburtis,
the disease is still prevalent, and dur.
ing the last two weeks the death roll
numbers about 15. Usually the cases
are of short duration, the poison quick-
ly permeating the systems of the little
ones and causing In this city
there have recently been only a few
cases of diphth and the general
health of the place is excellent,
AN IvMpAssinLE Bannien,— Editor
~- What Is that you're writing up?
d
. ell, be sure and ng in someth
2 ng
setting off the dazzling whiteness of
| that sort of
her Xion, and
ro hon, and a that
you Know," Jou oan
Wahut Hing that in this time, »
ay iow ate colored,
A ————
A
inh
nore 10 make him u perfect fish
A TERRIBLE DISASTER
THE STEAMER KATE ADAMS BURNED
ON THE MISSISSIPPI.
rossipLy 36 TO O00 LIVES LOST,
Memrnis, Tenn,, Dee. 23.—The ele-
gant passenger steamer Kate Adams,
running as 8 semi-weekly packet be-
tween Memphis and Arkansas City,
was burned this morning near Coms-
merce, Mississippi, 40 miles south of
this city. Bhe was en route to Mem-
phis, and had about two hundred
people aboard, including her deck and
cabin crew of 80, and 256 cabin and 60
deck pessengers, and 25 colored cabin
passengers,
The fire, which caught in some cotton
near the forward end of the boat, was
discovered about 8 o'clock, The pas.
sengers were at breakfast, and when
the alarm was given they all made a
rush for the forward deck. At the
time the steamer was about 300 yards
from the Mississippi side of the river,
and her bow was at once headed for
the shore. Pilot J. A, Barton was on
watch, and he remained heroically at
his post until she was safely landed,
Harry Best, the second clerk, who was
seated at the table when the alarm was
given, had brought all the ladies and
children forward and assisted them
ashore,
passengers who were saved along with
the while passengers, On the lower
deck, however, a fearful panic seized
the crew and deck passengers. Those
bow were compelled to jump overboard
to save their lives. The stern of the
the river, and an effort was made to
launch the yawl, It was capsized by
the crowd which filled it, and many of
its occupants drowned. They were
men, but there were
THE LOST,
The lost, as far as can be learned,
are as follows: George Corbet, third
the yawl, and was trying to save the
H
Joe Porter, Andrew Rees, Monroe
Jackson, Jim Nelson, Senstor Coleman
Lee Finley, Frank Wells
roustabouts, In addition,
whom were algo
unkhown
were
in
white men,
this list of
They were coming to Mem.
The whites
known.
The burning steamer drifted away,
and floated down the river, her hull
sioking at the head of Peter's Island,
NEWS OF THE WEEK.
— Andrew Ziega,
and Mary Morales were drowned on the
afternoon of the 25th while sailing In
San Francisco Bay, A sudden gust of
wind upset the boat. They all resided
In San Francisco except Miss Morales,
whose home was in Pasadena. Two
young women were drowned at Hills.
ville, near East Brady, Pennsylvania,
on the 25th. They in company with
another girl and two young men, were
crossing the Allegheny river in a skiff,
when iL sank with them.
the party were rescued in au exhausted
condition,
~On a Denver and Rio
freight train, at Cuchua, Colorado, on
the morning of the 224, William kK,
brakeman, were killed In a8 singular
manner. Both men were turning the
brake when the wheel gave way, Borst
was run over by the train and in
stantly killed;
utes,
—Emest Kurtz and his 15-year-old
son were found dead in the woods near
Jacksonport, Wisconsin, on the 21st.
They had gone out early to cut cord
limb fell from a tree which they were
cutting down and killed both.
William Crossley shot and killed
his wife in Syracuse, New York, on
the evening of the 234, and then com
mitted suicide. They had lived apart
fou six mouths of their year of married
fe.
-~Henry D. Schoonmaker, a young
salesman, shot and fatally wounded
his wife and then killed himself, in
Brookiyn, on the evening of the 224.
was away from home at the time. It
is supposed Schoonmaker was insane,
~Fount Horuer, aged 20, being
crazed by drink, seized a club and
ran amuck through the streets of
Wheeling, West Virginia, on the 25th,
He knocked down and seversly
wounded several people. The last man
he struck, Edward Ames, drew a knife
and killed bis assailant. Aimes was
arrested, but afterwards discharged,
George Kunie was stabbed to death by
George Forl in a quarrel over the di.
vision of a plece of meat in Green-
burg, Penna,, on the 25th, A fight
took place in Carnie, lilinols, on the
ovening of the 24th, between Gullidge,
aged 35 years, and M. E, Edwards,
aged nearly 70, in which the latter was
stabbed to the heart, The quarrel was
about a woman,
~The latest advices from Wabalak,
Mississippi, the scene of the late race
troubles, are to the Slee that tires
negroes have been captured, bu
names have been withheld. From the
prisoners just taken it is learned that
Maury, Cash
hd
1} were
t of December 10,
board at the time and seven are miss.
ing. One theory of the origin of the
fire Is that a lamp in the pilot house
exploded and set fire to the boat, and
another that a demijobn of whisky in
the pilot house was broken, and the
whisky, running through to the boiler,
was ignited,
~A private telegram was received
in Memphis on the evening of the 26th
reporting a negro riot In progress at
Laman, Mississippl, and asking that
some Winchester rifles be sent on the
first train. It was rumored that two
whites and five negroes had been killed,
Laman is 12 miles south of Grand
Junction, Tennessee, on the line of
the lllinols Central Railroad,
~A heavy storm of sleet and wet
snow prevalled on the 26th throughout
Iowa, Northwestern Missouri and part
of Kansas. The storm was accompa-
nied at Cedar Rapids by a high wind,
A cold wave bas appeared in the
extreme Northwest, and notice was
given by the Signal Service at Chicago
on the evening of the 20th of a pros-
pective fall of 15 to 20 degrees in tem-
perature before morning.
- During a Christmas entertainment
at East Prospect, in York county,
Pennsylvania, on the evening of the
25th, the bullding collapsed, and three
hundred persons fell from the second
to the first floor. The stove set fire to
situation, but the vietims were speedily
released, A large number were badly
bruised and cut, but none fatally in-
jured,
| places; Mrs. Valentine Knisely,
| broken; Miss Flora Wallace, leg broken;
| John Hines, seriously burned,
~ AR explosion occurred in the Am-
monia Works in Toronto, Canada,
on the 25th, wrecking the building,
{killing David Bexton and injuring
{ several others. The foreman
i works is missing and supposed to be in
{ the ruins, A freight train on the Mid.
{land Rallroad jumped the track at
{ Line Creek, 20 miles {rom Leadville,
{ Colorado, on the 26th, and T. Harlan
| and Robert Martin, train bands, were
| killed.
| -Willlam Thompson, aged 19 years,
A8 attacked by several young men at
| Upper Black's Eddy,
| Penna, on Christmas
| escorting a young lady
hurch.
i several shois without effect. Aaron
| Wismer, one of his friends, then went
| behind him and tried to disarm him,
{ but Thompson, not Knowing who It
was, fired over his shoulder, the ball
i taking effect in Wismer’s breast and
jindicting a fatal wound, At Ray-
| wick, Kentucky, on Christmas, John
while
from
night,
home
| thtoat, and succeeded in inflicting an
{ ugly wound. W, Parker Fleece look
{ up the dificuilty In Carter's favor and
| armed himself with a shotgun, which
renewed the trouble. Mm. W. P.
Fleece attempted to act as mediator,
| when the discharge from her husband’s
igun struck her in the breast and
| wounded her fatally.
- James Green, a prominent citizen
of Wolcott, New York, cut his wife's
{throat on the 27th and then cut his
iowa. They will both die. Domestic
| Swan, a worthless character, shot and
| killed Win, Myers, a young man living
{acause. A house in the eastern part
| of Rockingham county, Virginia, iu
| which a number of colored people were
{ having a party, was blown up by dyona-
| mite on the evening of the 26th,
(eral of the inmates are reported to
have been fatally injured.
~The capacity of the shoe factories
burned in Marblehead, Massachusetts,
| when running on full time, was 260
icases per day, and the pay roll was
about $21,000 a week, A telegram
from Marblehead says: *‘‘To-day with
| & population of 7500 only about one-
i sixth can find employment. Ald Is
| great suffering will ensue.”
{ =-Post-oflice Inspector Kidder was
| notified on the 27th, that the post-office
evening of the 204, of the money
order fund. The amount is not stated,
| There 1s no clue to the rotbers, The
post-office at Sunbury, Penna, was
robbed on the evening of the 27th.
The thieves got 70 cents, Theoflice at
Northumberland was also entered and
24 cents secured.
~A sleet and snow storm in Kansas
City, Missouri, on the 27th, causasd con-
siderable damage to the wires of the elec.
tric light and telephone companies,
The wires in many parts of the city
were down and the poles breken,—
Snow fell in lows, Wisconsin and Da-
kota on the 26th. Railroads In the
vicinity of Waverly, Iowa, were badly
blocked, but trains were running.
-- White Caps in Hopedale. Ohio, gave
Dr. Jolin Parknill, a leading physician,
a terrible trashing on Christmas night,
His errand boy had been intoxicated
and the White Caps accused Parkhill
of druggiog him,
~BMichael O'Gara, ged 13 years,
killed his 11-year-old brother. while
hunting near Flemingsburg, Kentucky,
on the 26th, In attempting to shoot a
rabbit Michael tripped and fell, the
contents of both barrels being lodged
in his brother's head. Michael! Keat-
ting, a messenger in the War Depart.
went in Washington, fell over the
balusters on the fourth floor of the
building on the 27th, and was killed,
The fall was about 80 reet., Kealting
was intoxicated at the time,
~A passenger train on the Montana
Central Ballroad was derailed on the
morning of the 27th by an open switch,
A fOreman named Morse was killed,
and one passenger was anjured. The
snapping of its rod by frost caused the
switch to open,
A coal train ran into
train
Ratiroad, near Will
on the Pine Creek
on the morning of
and soveral cars were wrecked
and two men were
DEATH PENALTIE?,
Capital Punishment in Olden Times,
The term ‘“‘capital punishment,”
meaning a fatal operation upon that
most vital part of the human frame,
the head, is now no misnomer, but the
time was when the death penalty was
by no means directed at the head alone,
Death by stoning was, in all probability,
the earliest method of punishing crimes,
the Jews and other oriental nations be-
ing especially given to this form of su-
preme penalty, From the extremely
comprehensive code of capital offenses
which appeared in the Mosaic code, it
is to be concluded that a death by ston-
ing was a very common occurrence,
and that the “young men of the con-
gregation’ to whom were intrusted the
duties of executioner, must have be-
come quite expert in their office, It is
quite possible, however, that personal
retaliation antedated punishment by
the community, and that the eye of eye,
tooth for tooth and life for life doctrine
was rigorously carried out, For the
instantaneous dispatch of an offender
the Jews used the swords, but stoning
continued to be the set form of capital
tian era. Then crucifixion took its
place, a form of death penalty borrow-
ed from the Latin conquerors.
Assyrians were
| kept in suspense, and it is a woman,
| Semiramis, who has the doubtful honor
| of being the first to employ it. The or-
dinary method of inflicting it was by
| nailing the victim to a cross, where he
twas left until dead. Occasionally,
| however, a cheerful innovation was in-
| troduced by setting the cross on fire be-
{ fore the vicllm’s death, or by letting
| wild beasts devour him in his defense-
i less position, Both
jaws of the wild beasts’ fangs were re-
ally merciful reliefs, for cases are on
record In which the victim lingered in
agony for eighteen and twenty days.
women as well as on men, and such un-
atrocities were practiced
under the guise of just punistunent that
| the cross was abolished by Coustantine
{the Great about A, D
speakable
ye
« S10,
DIFFERENT ROMAN
Though the NMomans were greatly
given to crucifying, it can scarcely be
said that they had any one national
form of capital punishment. They
acted largely after the mikado’s plan of
letting the pumishment fit the crime.
Christians were burned,
| by beasts, drowned in
rivers and vivisected,
ders, on the otl
METHODS,
quagmires and
Political offen-
other hand, were thrown
from the Tarpelan rock. This was a
lofty and precipitous promontory on
one side of the Capitolines hill, Rune
away slaves when recaptured were
turned adrift into the deserts or woods
overrun by wild animals, or else bound
to a rock and left to starve, It
customary for a while in Rome to per-
mit capital offenders to select the man-
ner by which they would meet death and
be allowed to inflict the penalty
themselves, This custom
ed in Greece, and when Socrates was
condemned to death for spreading dis
belief in the national religion he chosa
' to die by drinking hemlock,
One of the most cruel and ususual of
punishments was thal which the Ro-
i mans in the latter days of the republic
meted out to those who murderad either
of their parents, Luke Owen I'ike, M
A., author of the “History of Crime in
| England.” in referring to this
{ Inent, says:
“*Not in the amphitheatre, not at the
stake, not on the cross was the parricide
{to perish. A sack was to be his wind-
| ing sheet; in that he was to be sewn up
alive and venomous serpents with him.
{ He was to be thrown nto the sea, if
{ the sea was near at hand, and if not,
into ariver, so that the heavens might
{be hidden from him while still alive,
tand the earth deny him 2 grave when
i dead.”
Often, however, in addition to
vipers, there were a dog, a monkey and
a rooster sewed up in the sack with the
victim, who was naked, The sack was
usually of leather,
The oriental ualions
{ been remarkable for
i cruelty of their death
although it is doubtful whether they
have been more cruel than the self styl.
ted highly civilized nations of the west,
| Death has come from slow strangula-
tion from a rope, as was in vogue in
| China, for instance, and at the same
| time from the use of boiling oil, which
was poured on the joints after they
| were dislocated; by mechanical means,
a8 in France and Germany, from flay-
| ing, or stripping the skin off the body,
Was
upon
also obtain
"
ao
thn
Le
have
the
always
{upper of which great weights were
{ placed, as was also in vogue in Eng-
| and at one time.
CRUELTY AIDED BY INGENUITY.
| vise has been resorted to at one time or
other in ancient or medieval days, and
among nations professing {to be civilize
ed, to administer torture and death,
It is true that Japanese offenders have
been executed by the slow passage of a
spear upward through thelr entrails,
and that the Chinese criminals have
been gradually beheaded with a bam-
boo saw, but at the same time that
most barbarous form of inflicting the
death penalty, the boiling in a caldron,
was a European invention,
Decapitation ceased in England in
1745, but it is still performed in France
and some of the German states, in the
first country by the guillotine and in
the second by the sword, the instru.
ment employed in E.gland having been
the broad * Decapitation with the
a capital punishment in
China. The two handed sword was in
use in France before the guillotine was
introduced, while for great crimes the
vietin was broken on the wheel. It ap-
to have come first into use iu
1.
about 1525, introduced It into France,
it was em | for a Uwe also in
fractured by heavy blows from a heavy
iron rod delivered below the knees and
elbows, Fametunes the rod was held
in position mechanically, the limbs of
the prisoner, as he whirled on the wheel,
coming in contact with it, Usually,
however, the rod was held in the hands
of an executioner, who administered
the blows as rapidly as he could wield
it. In France the torture of this mode
of punishment was lessened in many
cases by heavy blows being dealt on the
head and chest of the. victim, so as to
shorten life. These blows were called
coups de grace or strokes of Mercy,
our » -—-
The Microbe and its Work.
Remarkable progress in the study of
the causes of what are commonly called
the preventable diseases has been made
in the last ten years, In so wide a
field almost innumerable proot could be
cited, For example, in seeking
for the cause of any case or
group of cases of typhoid fever attent-
ion 1s at once directed in thesedaysot
the condition of the water or the milk
that had been consumed by the patient
previous to their illness, In all probabii-
{ity a majority of the cases of typhoid
in this city and Brooklyn at this time
| were caused by the use of contaminated
| water or milk while the persons now
{ {ll were in the country, The cause of
the first case in the great epidemic at
Pivmouth, Penuna,, was the contami-
nation of the town's water supply. The
| researches of Power and Klien in Lon-
i don with respect to the causes of scar-
| let fever and the communication of this
| disease from animals to man, dis-
| coveries of Koch and Pasteur, the
{ reports of health officers, and many
{of the methods of modern sanita-
| tion, all serve to call to mind the ad-
vances recently made wientifie
| war against disease,
The “Forum? for
tains a very interesting article by Dr
| Austin Flint, of New York, concern
ing recent discoveries in bacteriology
| and the effect of these discoveries on
medical and surgical practice. Says Dr.
| Flint;
*“The science and practice
cine and surgery are undergoing a reve
i olution of such magnitude and import-
| ance that its limits can hardly be cone
ceived, Looking into the future in the
light of recent discoveries, it does not
seem impossible that a time may come
i when the cause of every infectious dis
be known; when all such dis-
ease will be preventable or easily cur-
| able; when protection can be afforded
against all diseases, scarlet
fever, measles, yellow fever, whooping
cough, &c., in which one atiack secures
immunity from subsequent contagion:
when, in short, no constitutional dis-
ease will be incurable and such scourges
as epidemics will be unknown, These
results, indeed, may be but a small part
of what will follow discoveries in bacte-
riology. The higher the plans of actual
Enowledge the more extended is the
horizon, What has been accomplished
within the past ten years as regards
knowledge or the causes, prevention
and treatment of diseases far transcends
what would have been regarded a
quarter of centuary ago as the wiidest
and most impossible speculation.”
There follows this significant de-
claration a description of the methods
by which the disease-producing or-
ganism called microbes or bacteria
Liave been discovered and brought un-
der observation, with some reference to
the actual production of diseases by
inunoculation with pure cultures of the
characteristic microbes: certain
diseases,” says Dr. Flint, “among
which are tuberculosis, pneumonia’
erysipelas, carbuncle, diptheria, typhoid
fever, yellow fever, relapsing fever,
the malarial fever, certain catarrhs,
tetanus, pearly all contagious diseases,
a great number of skin affections, &e.,
the causative action of bacteria can
no longer be doubted. The conditions
necessary to the development of these
diseases seem to be a suscectibility on
the part of the individual and the
lodgment and multiplication of special
bacteria in the system.” The follow-
it statement concerning the dis
| ease that causes perhaps one-seventh of
the deaths of human beings is notable,
coming, as it does, from a physican of
such prominence:
**It 1s probable that a person with an
inherited tendency consumption
would never develop the disease if he
could be absolutely protected against
infection with the tubercle lacillus;
but once infected, the bacteria multiply
aud produce the characteristic signs
and symptons, In other persons the
| bacillus tuberculosis with «difficulty
| finds a lodgment and mulliplies ime
| perfectly, Many of the lower animals
| are suceptable to tuberculosis, and the
disease has often been produced by
direct innoculation with a pure culture
| of the tubercle bacillus. Iu the light
of modern discoveries consumption can
no longer be regarded as au tucurable
disease.”
Can the bacteria or their poisonous
~the *“‘ptomaines’’ that are supposed
‘10 be the direct cuuse of the disease
| —be destroyed without destroying the
| patient? Thisis the question. The
effect of disoveries in bucleriolgy bas
been as great! in surgical as in medical
practice, owing to the use of antiseptic
methods in operation—methols de
veloped from those of Lister—and to
this DreFlint directs attention. In
conclusion he says: “If what is known
of the relations of bacteria wv disease
can justify even a small part of the
speculations with regard to the possible
results of future Investigations, our
present knowledge of the relations of
micro-organisms to digestion, to the
growth of plan to the changes of
matter Involved in putrefaction, and to
all Kinds of fermentation, opens a field
for the I on that seems truly
illimitable.””
There is instrnetion of the most vale
uabie kind for the public in articles
like this, written by men emmisent in
the medical profession, and sumu
the results of researches so |
the
in the
December con-
med i-
1
i ERS Wil
fuch as
bal
in
3m
0