layer. The bacilli were unable to withstand exposures of forty hours.

Mitchell and Crouch,15 of Denver, have made the most valuable experiments on this subject that we have, and their results coincide with those of the earlier experiments of Migneco. They exposed sputum containing almost a pure culture of tubercle bacilli on sterile sand in Petri dishes so as to represent natural conditions when the sputum falls on the soil. The guinea pigs inoculated with sputum exposed in this way from one to twenty-five hours were all tuberculous, while none developed the disease from the injection of sputum exposed for thirty-five hours. Exposures for a longer time entirely destroyed the vitality of the bacilli. They concluded that sputum dried on a sandy soil only begins to lose its pathogenicity after twenty to thirty-five hours exposure to direct sunlight, and is only lost after the last mentioned time. These exposures were made between 10 a. m. and 4 p. m., during September and October, in Denver, Colorado.

The most recent investigations in this line are those of Jousset.18 From his first experiments (1900) he thought that the virulence of tubercle bacilli was destroyed by exposure to sunlight for from four to seven hours, but hesitated to fix any definite time for sterilization by this method. In a later paper," just published this year (1902), Jousset gives the results of more recent experiments, in which he finds twenty-four hours exposure to direct sunlight insufficient to sterilize sputum, while an exposure of forty-eight hours is sufficient.

It should be understood that in all these experiments the exposures only lasted six or seven hours each day, so that it required from four to six consecutive days to destroy the virulence of tubercle bacilli by sunlight. When it is remembered that tuberculous sputum usually dries in four to six hours, it will be seen what opportunity is afforded for the dissemination of the disease, even when nature's most powerful germicide is operating at its best. We have no observations as to how long the bacilli can withstand diffuse daylight and remain virulent, but we know that they may live in the dust of rooms for from one to three years.

The ability to resist putrefaction, drying and light at once suggests that tubercle bacilli may form spores-an idea that has long been entertained by many. The unstained spaces in tubercle bacilli might cause one to think of spores, but these are not refractive in unstained specimens. The recent observations of Swithinbank 18 in showing that these bacilli will grow in cultures and subcultures after exposure to liquid air at a temperature of -186° C. for forty-two days, might strengthen this opinion.

Against this view we have the observations of Bang,19 of Theobald Smith,20 and of Russell,20 each of whom has found that the bacilli of tuberculosis are killed by a temperature of 60° C. for ten minutes, whereas all known spore bearing bacteria are able to resist this temperature. This is of considerable importance in pasteurizing milk for feeding infants.

Whether tubercle bacilli form spores or not, there is abundant proof that they may live and remain virulent for a long time after they are given off from the animal body. As practical sanitarians, we should not rest in a false sense of security, trusting to nature's agencies for the destruction of these germs soon after they leave the animal body, but should take every possible precaution to destroy them by certain, reliable means, and thus prevent their dissemination. If we expect to have the support and co-operation of the people in this matter, medical men must not be passively indifferent, but must take the initiative in combatting this greatest Scourge of modern civilization, which Dr. Holmes aptly called "the great white plague."

REFERENCES.

'Reed, Carroll and Agramonte, The Etiology of Yellow Fever, Phila. Med. Jour., October 27, 1900; also Jour. Am. Med. Assn., February 16, 1901; also Experimental Yellow Fever, Trans. Assn. Am. Phys., Vol. XVI, 1901.

2Guitéras, American Medicine, November 23, 1901.

'Loc. cit.

'Public Health Reports, U. S. Marine Hospital Service.

'Reed and Carroll, New York Medical Record, October 26, 1901.

"Knopf, Jour. Am. Med. Assn., October 30, 1897.

'Quoted by Voelsch, Beiträge zur allgemeinen Pathologie und path. Anatomie, 1888.

Schill and Fischer, Mittheil. des Kaiserl. Gesundheitsamtes II, 553. 'Cadéac and Malet, Lyon Médical, 1888, LVIII.

10 Loc. cit.

"Quoted from Miguel and Cambier, Bacteriologie, Paris, 1902.

12 Amer. Jour. Med. Sc., March, 1891.

"Cornet, Zeitschrift f. Hygiene, Bd. V, 1888, p. 191.

"Migneco, Archiv. für Hygiene, 1895.

"Mitchell and Crouch, Jour. of Path. and Bact., Vol. VI, No. 1, May,

1899.

18 Jousset, Comp. Rend. d. l. Soc. d. Biol., 1900. "Jousset, Comp. Rend. d. l. Soc. d. Biol., 1902.

18Swithinbank, Proc. British Congress of Tuberculosis, 1901.

Bang, Proc. British Congress on Tuberculosis, 1901.

"Quoted by Ravenel, Bul. Penna. Dept. Agriculture on Tuberculosis in Cattle.

THE PARAMOUNT DUTY TEXAS OWES TO HER

PEOPLE.

F. E. DANIEL, M. D.,

AUSTIN, TEXAS.

I was very much

[DR. F. E. DANIEL prefaced his paper by saying: gratified to find from the remarks the Governor made today that his sentiments are so much in accord with my own as set forth in the brief paper I have prepared. The Association recognizes with deep gratitude the Governor's assistance in recommending the passage of a medical bill. It was not his fault that it was emasculated. It is only to be regretted that he did not express similar sentiments when he was asked to appoint a State Board of Health and when committees waited on him in regard to tuberculosis and compulsory vaccination. I would not be thought to be desirous of detracting by one iota from what the Governor has done, but I repeat that it is to be regretted that he did not render us the assistance he might have done upon these occasions. In my paper, where I indulge in some criticisms on the Quarantine Department, I hope it will be clearly understood that I am criticising the department, and not the distinguished gentlemen who have had charge of its administration.]

Savages and beasts must adapt themselves to their environment or perish. Civilized man conquers his environment. He makes the material resources of his surroundings and the forces of nature subservient to his uses and the advancement of civilization. In the ability to do this lies his chief claim to supremacy in the animal kingdom. The inexorable law of the survival of the fittest in the fierce struggle for existence, applies to races and nations, and is the chief factor in their evolution into strength, stability and permanency. That nation is not the fittest that simply has the largest population, though population is the first requisite to national strength and expansion. A people may be so numerous, but defective in the elements of vitality, that, like an overburdened fruit tree, where none of the fruit may ripen, it goes to pieces of its own weight; or they stagnate until cholera or plague relieves the congestion, or a stronger, a fitter race, reduces them to subjection.

A healthy, strong, vigorous and enlightened population makes a nation great. Hence, the prime consideration is physical health. That State which overlooks this, or ignores a fact so well under-. stood that it has long since become a maxim: "The welfare of the people is the supreme law," commits a fatal error.

The people are the power in a State. They elect one of their number to govern them, and others to represent them and express their will in the legislative halls, and make known their needs. They stand in relation to their governor as children to a father, and look to him for protection, not only in their property rights and the fruits of their labor-both of which are safeguarded in Texas-but in those interests that are a thousandfold dearer to every man, life, health, home and hearth. Socially, they are "citizens," and each contributes his share to the advancement of all that makes for wealth, strength, enlightenment, safety and prosperity, and the governor is the honored head of the socio-political body. In war the citizens are the State's soldiers and defenders, and the "father," the "chief executive," is their commander-inchief.

That wisdom and promptness would characterize his action were his "children," "fellow citizens," "soldiers" threatened or being devastated by any visible and tangible danger, goes without saying. That both he and the representatives of the people's interests should so long have shut their eyes to the dangers which are as real and as deadly, though intangible, as would be the invasion of an armed host; that they should shut their ears to the warnings of those whose profession and training peculiarly fit them for knowing and appreciating the dangers to the public health by reason of unsanitary conditions, and to the protests of the commercial interests of the State, is as remarkable as it is disgraceful. Such neglect, and the perpetuation of an obsolete and ineffective quarantine instead, is ruining commerce and driving trade from our borders. It is paradoxical. Every safeguard is thrown around property, but no protection is given the people against deadly disease, and against the deadlier danger, the "drugless" doctor! For a quarter of a century the Texas State Medical Association has endeavored to