GERMS THAT SLEEP.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 46, Issue 14240, 21 October 1920, Page 2

GERMS THAT SLEEP.

EPIDEMICS FROM THE COMETS. In medical and scientific circles there has been considerable discussion recently on the question as to whether recent pestilences and epidemics which have visited the earth can be traced directly to the sky. It may be a coincidence, but it is pointed out that, every appearance of Halley’s Comet, or any other large comet has been followed by some kind of plague. The recent mysterious and almost world-wide epidemic of influenza began soon after the earth had been immersed in the tail of Halley’s comet. The history of the world, indeed, is replete ■with numerous other instances. SIR OLIVER LODGE’S VIEW. The possible link between contagious diseases and comets may seem rather vague until it is realised that, while some comets are only masses of gas, most of them are made up of enormous swarms of meteors ranging in size from masses weighing hundreds of tons to tiny fragments, and even particles of dust. Some of the more advanced scientists of modern times, Sir Oliver Lodge, the great English authority, among others, have voiced the belief that the majority of comets are fragments of worlds torn to pieces through one cause and another. They declare that in these comfets, which had their origin in the destruction of other worlds, there may be countless billions of disease germs or infectious organisms which were carried away with the debris, and which remained in a dormant state in the cold of space. NO LIMIT. There appears to be no limit to the length of time certain disease germs can remain dormant. Under favourable conditions they are known to have slept for countless ages in the sunbaked deserts of the world and on the frozen soil near the North and South Poles. So iu case germs possessing these characteristics should be projected from other worlds into this earth’s temperate atmosphere, it is quite possible that they awaken from their long sleep and are again rendered active and correspondingly dangerous to the inhabitants of tins earth. As long ago as .1799 Noah Webster began to suspect there was some possible connection between earthquakes and epidemics. Going over the records compiled by him, it is worthy of note that there was an epidemic in 1174 almost simultaneously with a violent eruption of Etna. The epidemic of 1(510 was accompanied by eruptions in Iceland folowing on great earthquakes. DISEASE AFTER ETNA ERUPTION. A comet appeared in loot, followed by another epidemic, and an eruption of Etna. Six years later Etna was again in eruption, and there was another outbreak of disease. To go further back, Hippocrates, the great father of science, was of opinion that the scourges came from the air, and he describes an epidemic closely resembling the modern influenza which was rampant in 412 B.C. This is the first known record of the disease.