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a scratch in the skin, which may be so minute as almost to escape
notice, that the resulting malignant pustule (which so often results
in death which would not have occurred unless the bacillus had
entered) is a kindly action on the part of the anthrax bacillus to
remove the damage caused by an overdose of disintegrated etheric
matter, or to tell the butcher who has killed a tuberculous beast that
the cluster of "grapes" inside the chest and the abscesses throughout
the body of the animal have resulted from any laudable action of
the tubercle bacilli, particularly since it is now demonstrated beyond
doubt that the injection of those bacilli into a healthy animal will
produce similar lesions.
The President does not explain why the bacillus pestis of
Kitasato, found in the lesions in plague, or the cholera bacillus of
Koch, found in such enormous numbers in the intestines in the
latest stages of cholera that they may form almost pure culture,
should be present in a benevolent capacity whereas the higher forms
of parasite, such as the trypanosome of sleeping sickness, the
amoeba that burrows in the gut in amoebic dysentery, the hydatid,
tape, hook and thread worms, act in a harmful capacity. Is it
contended that these higher parasites, in addition to the organisms
of tuberculosis, diphtheria, plague, syphilis and leprosy, grow in
human tissues and produce characteristic lesions in a benevolent
capacity also ?
It is surely not only coincidence that so many diseases such as
malaria, cholera and plague have been checked by preventive
measures based on the proven facts of their causal organisms whereas
there could be no useful steps taken at the moment to deal with
"disintegrating etheric matter" as the cause of an epidemic.
Epidemics and pandemics of infectious disease of various
types, including influenza, have taken place without anv reference
to wars or unusual slayings and disintegration of "etheric matter."
Epidemic diseases differ in seasonal incidence according to their
nature. Some epidemic diseases occur generally in summer, others
in autumn. There is no special incidence as regards the "annual
holocaust of animals which occurs every Christmas."
Before instituting a campaign in the Borough, at any rate of
the type now being conducted, possibly the Clapton and District
Anti-Vivisection Society will consider the quandary in which the
Council, as a body responsible for the welfare of all citizens, is
placed as regards diphtheria. The Council cannot accept the view
that diphtheria is a "healing crisis" or "spring cleaning." It is
the duty of the Council to prevent the spread of diphtheria.
A deputation from local medical practitioners, including
members of the City Division of the British Medical Association,
which includes Islington and other boroughs, the Medical Practitioners'
Union and the Hackney Medical Practitioners' Society