IS INSANITY DUE TO A MICROBE ?

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXI, Issue 298, 22 December 1896, Page 4

IS INSANITY DUE TO A MICROBE ?

Two physicians connected with a hospital at Ogiensburg, tf.Y., suspect that certaiu forms of insanity are due to a peouliar microbe, says the New York Tribune, Drs P. M. Wise and Warren L. Babcock are the men . They recei v. d a hint of this theory from a foreign scientist, Dr Galceran, of Barcelona, Spain ; but they have baen experiencing with patients m their own hospital, ai>d m consequence are incline \ to adopt the opinion ju9t mentioned. They tcok a person who was suffering from acute delirium, inse- ted a suctiou needle into the membrane basidas the spiunl cord, down near the waist, and extrao'el a little of the moisture which is usually found there. These membrane?, it should be explained, are ontinua'ions of membranes around the brain, nnd the fluid. in the two places is coreid?Jrd identical. That which was extracted by the needle was supposed to ontain baoteria. At any rate rabbits inoculated therewith became sick, although it is not alleged that they were insane. It does not appear distinctly, either that Drs Wise and Baboock had been able t >. find and deaoribeany pirtici^ar form of microbe as belonging to delirium Tb^ir case is not yet proved. Mucb'less.have they shown that acute mania can be cured by inoculation with modified germs —Scientific American. *

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