This article is only available in the PDF format. Download the PDF to view the article, as well as its associated figures and tables.
Notwithstanding the deluge of matter that has been published of late years in regard to bacteriology, Dr. Hermann Knapp, in introducing a recent lecture on "Fermentation, Putrefaction and Suppuration " before the New York Academy of Medicine, expressed his conviction that the importance of the subject was not sufficiently appreciated in this country. He quoted a recent opinion of Professor Brieger, of Berlin, to the effect that the great majority of all diseases now seem to be of bacterial origin, and in support of the correctness of this proposition referred to the weekly mortality lists of the various American cities. Thus, during the week ending August 28, 1886, the number of deaths from infectious diseases in New York was set down at 33 per cent. of the total mortality; those from consumption at 16 per cent.; and those from croup and diphtheria at about 5 per cent. Here were nearly 55