As soon as the foundations were dug, fever broke out.
As an instance of this nearer home, I may mention that last winter at
Cannes, in the south of France, some extensive works adjacent to the
town were begun which required a large quantity of earth to be moved.
The weather was exceptionally warm; an outbreak of fever occurred among
the workmen, of whom fifteen died. This fever was attributed to the
turning up of the soil.
If a strong solution of quinine be let fall in the water containing
these organisms they at once die; the efficacy of quinine as a
preventive of this form of fever would therefore not be inconsistent
with this theory. Upon this subject the President called attention to
the view of Sir Joseph Fayrer, who acknowledged the importance of the
discovery if it should be confirmed, but considered that there was a
possibility that the results attributed to these influences might, to
some extent, be due to disturbance of the system in a body predisposed
to be deranged by peculiarity of constitution, climatic or other
influence of the nature of which we are ignorant, though it is
conceivable by analogy.
The marvelous facility of reproduction of various germs, as shown
by Pasteur in the case of chicken cholera, was dwelt upon; and the
President said that it would be a wonder how any higher form of life
could exist subject to the possibility of invasion by such countless
hosts of occult enemies were it not seen that the science of the
prevention of disease advanced quite as rapidly as our knowledge of the
causes.
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