In summing up his theory, he says that, generally speaking, there are two sources of these animalcules. First, from subterranean sources, which operate in all sorts of weather and are accompanied by electrical phenomena. Second, from the surface of the earth, swamps, filthy lakes, stagnant ponds, etc. The eggs left on the soil develop in summer, and “the multitudes effluviate into air.”
The essay is interesting to us because of the very clear foreshowing of a theory that we are apt to regard as the creation of recent years. It is a good example of the power of attentive observation and inductive reasoning, which is so seldom met with even in scientific medical men of the present day.
ALBUMINURIA A FREQUENT RESULT OF SEWAGE POISONING.
Dr. George Johnson, in _Br. Med. Jour._ for March 3d, gives the histories of four cases of albuminuria which he believes were the result of breathing sewer air. In addition to other diseases, the result of drain poison, the author has met with several cases of albuminuria which he believes can and does under continued exposure to the sewer poison, result in incurable disorganization of the kidneys. He thinks that, in the absence of other probable exciting causes of albuminuria, the possibility of sewer poisoning should be constantly borne in mind. It is needless to dilate upon the importance of discovering the exciting cause of a disease so serious in its consequences as nephritis. In each of the four cases cited, albuminuria and casts were found in the urine, and blood in two of them. In each case defective drainage was proven, and in two of the four an immediate improvement occurred on removing this cause. One proved fatal from suppression of the urine.
The author suggests as an interesting point, that amongst the various diseases resulting from drain poison, diphtheria is in a very large proportion of cases associated with albuminuria.
It would be interesting to know whether a large proportion of cases of diphtheria occurring in houses having defective plumbing suffer with albuminuria, than in houses where no such defect exists. If these observations are confirmed, we may learn from them something of the cause of the great fatality of scarlet fever and diphtheria in houses which contain defective drains.