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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 314, 21 September 1874, Page 4

Professor Rutherford, M.D., in hia fifth and concluding lecture at the Royal Institution, on Respiration, described the matters suspended in the air we breathe, including not only inorganic and dead organic substances, but also living amoebiform particles of protoplasm resembling the germs or spores of fungi and the minute animalcules named bacteria. By tbe passage of tbese through tbe air. be said, disease may be propagated. Like the seeds of plants, these germs can retain their vitality for a long period, and only spring into activity when they meet with suitable conditions. In relation to this, the Professor described the decomposition of a piece of meat, and the early presence of bacteria, saying that the putrefaction of a piece of fresh meat brought into the tainted atmosphere was probably due to the increased numbers of lhe animalcule. He stated that the propagation of small-pox, fevers, and other diseases is now attributed to poison in the form of particles of bacterial protoplasm being carried through tbe atmosphere ; and he stated that sheep have taken smallpox through breathing air passed through clothing which had been worn by persons having that disease. The poision is probably solid, as it clings to the walls of rooms, and clothing. From these germs of whose nature we have as yet no positive knowledge, although always floating in the air and entering our lungs, we probably derive no harm in general, because tbey are either not sufficient in number, or because our organism is in a condition unfavorable to their developement. As a pre- , caucion when entering contaminated ; atmospheres, the Professor alluded to cotton-wool respitators; but he was not sure whether bacteria and olher germs would be intercepted by them, and he suggested their trial, aod said it would be interesting to know whether the germs are killed by the action of chlorine, sulphurous acid, or ozone. The latter part of the lecture was devoted to the structure and office of the skin and its appendages, including its respiratory function aod its regulation of the temperature by sensible and insensible prespiration. Death, which is the result of varnishing the skin, he atrtibuted to the suppression of tbat organ's excretory function rather than to the loss of heat. _^™M(MM^—l^—oM^—^—^____— __——__—^^Mi^^^^^