RATIONAL BACTERIOLOGY J. R. Verner C. W. Weiant R. J. Watkins Copyright 1953 by J. R. Werner, C. W. Weiant, & R. J. Watkins Manufactured in the United States of America by H. Wolff, New York Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged CONTENTS PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION 1: Formal Bacteriology 1 BACTERIA IN GENERAL 2 METHODS OF STUDYING BACTERIA 3 PATHOGENICITY, INFECTION, AND IMMUNITY 4 BACTERIAL CLASSIFICATION 5 5THE STAPHYLOCOCCUS 6 THE STREPTOCOCCUS 7 PNEUMOCOCCUS—DIPLOCOCCUS PNEUMONIAE 8 GRAM NEGATIVE COCCI—NEISSERIAE 9 THE COLIFORM GROUP—ENTEROBACTERIACEAE 10 SPORE-FORMING ANAEROBES—BACILLACEAE 11 CHOLERA—THE VIBRIOS 12 DIPHTHERIA BACILLUS—CORYNEBACTERIUM DIPHTHERIAE 13 THE TUBERCLE BACILLUS—MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULAE 14 THE SPIRAL FORMS 15 ANIMAL PARASITES 16 RICKETTSIAE 17 THE FILTERABLE VIRUSES 18 THE BACTERIOPHAGE 19 MISCELLANEOUS PATHOGENS 20 STATE BOARD EXAMINATION QUESTIONS 21 GLOSSARY 22 SUMMARY II : The French Revolution from Béchamp to Tissot 23 INTRODUCTION 24 BIOLOGY 25 STRUCTURE 26 FUNCTION OF THE "DUMB-BELLS" 27 CELL DIVISION 28 SPECIALIZATION 29 PATHOGENESIS 30 BACTERIOLOGY 31 CRYSTALLIZATION 32 INFECTION 33 RESISTANCE 34 PATHOLOGY (GENERAL) 35 PATHOLOGY (SPECIAL) 36 PATHOLOGY (SUMMARY) 37 CARRIER 38 CELLULAR PATHOLOGY 39 THE BIONT CYCLE 40 ETIOLOGY 41 HEMATOPOIESIS: THE RED BLOOD CORPUSCLE 42 HEMATOPOIESIS: THE WHITE BLOOD CORPUSCLE 43 PLATELETS AND COAGULATION 44 PHAGOCYTOSIS 45 NEUROLOGY 46 DOUBLE TROUBLE 47 ANIMAL-VEGETABLE RELATIONSHIP 48 IMMUNITY (NATURALLY ACQUIRED) 49 IMMUNITY (NATURAL) 50 IMMUNITY (ARTIFICIAL) 51 INOCULATION 52 ALLERGY AND ANAPHYLAXIS 53 SPECIFIC SERA 54 CHEMOTHERAPY 55 STATISTICS 56 FOUR FALSE DOGMAS OF PASTEUR 57 COMMERCIALISM 58 CONCLUSIONS OF TISSOT 59 TECHNOLOGY 60 TERMINOLOGY 61 THERAPY 62 SIGNIFICANCE TO CHIROPRACTORS III: Critique of Applied Bacteriology 63 THEORY OF INFECTION 64 BACTERIOLOGY AND THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD 65 THEORY OF IMMUNITY 66 PHENOMENA WHICH DESTROY THE VALIDITY OF THE PRACTICE OF ARTIFICIAL IMMUNIZATION 67 BÉCHAMP'S THEORY OF THE MICROZYMA AND HOW IT WOULD CLARIFY THE PRESENT CONFUSION 68 STATISTICAL PROOF OF THE INEFFICACY AND DANGER OF CURRENT PRACTICES 69 CONCLUSION PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION Aside from the fact that the first edition of this work has long been out of print, there are compelling reasons why a new, enlarged, and thoroughly revised edition should be brought out at this time. In the past fifteen years drugless therapy has made enormous strides. The number of practitioners has doubled; the number of their adherents has tripled. Chiropractic in particular may be said to have come of age scientifically. Its educational institutions are now fully commensurate with its status as a mature and autonomous profession. One development, however, is deplorable. In the absence of any organized body of material dealing critically with the germ theory of disease and the public health practices based thereon, it has become necessary to fall back upon medical textbooks in this field, if only to prepare students for state examining boards. Too often the instruction has been taken over by a new generation of younger teachers, generally well trained in the basic sciences at the university, but quite unfamiliar with the classic protests of an earlier generation against orthodoxy, as well as ignorant of the brilliant achievements of such modern representatives of unfettered investigation as Tissot and Speransky. Small wonder that many of these teachers have been inclined to make broad concessions to medical orthodoxy, concessions which need never have been made. If chiropractic is to maintain its traditional place in the vanguard of the fight for health freedom and rational therapy, the gap must be filled, and filled quickly. Hence the urgency felt by the authors in publishing a second edition of RATIONAL BACTERIOLOGY. In the new edition, Section I has been completely rewritten to conform to the newer classification of micro-organisms, as well as to expand the material to the extent necessary to meet present day basic science board requirements. Section II is entirely new. In large part it is an exposition of the researches of the late Professor J. Tissot, of Paris, whose monumental work (as yet untranslated into English), product of a lifetime of vast scholarship and ingenious laboratory investigation, marks the fitting culmination of that great era in the history of French microbiology which began nearly a century ago with Béchamp and a few of his contemporaries. We believe firmly that it is impossible to exaggerate the importance of these researches, and hence make no apology for the amount of space devoted to them. Section III, dealing with the applications of bacteriological knowledge to the problems of disease, is the least altered portion of the book, although here too certain revisions and some new material will be found. In view of the vastness of the material involved in our subject, the authors are well aware that much which might have been included has been omitted. We are likewise aware that the organization of material falls considerably short of perfection. However, in view of the urgency already pointed out, we feel that it would be unwise to delay publication in the vain hope of producing eventually a book with which we could feel completely satisfied. If the ideas herein advanced stimulate even a few readers to appropriate action and lead others to look more deeply into the sources and pursue the quest a bit further, our purpose will have been served. J. ROBINSON VERNER C. W. WEIANT R. J. WATKINS PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION This Outline is written with two objects in mind. It aims, first of all, to give to the student and the drugless practitioner those basic facts and principles of bacteriology which underlie the hygiene of the communicable diseases and sanitation, which create an appreciation of the true role of bacteria in disease, and which make possible the interpretation of diagnostic laboratory reports. Incidentally, this is the knowledge usually required to pass a state board examination in the subject. The book has, however, a second and more important object, namely, that of making public some of the outstanding results of medical and bacteriological research of the past few years which undermine the whole germ theory of disease causation and the practices of serum and vaccine therapy or prophylaxis based thereon. It is hoped by the authors that this material, all of which will be found carefully authenticated, may speedily become of service not only to professional groups, but to all laymen, especially parents and educators, who are interested in having the truth prevail. New York C. W. Weiant May 2, 1933 J. R. Verner I: Formal Bacteriology 1 BACTERIA IN GENERAL The discovery of bacteria In the latter part of the 17th century there lived in Delft, Holland, a lens-grinder named Anton van Leeuwenhoek. With a microscope of his own construction he examined specimens of water, excreta, scrapings from the teeth, and various other material in which he found a multitude of tiny moving forms which he called "animalcules." A letter which he wrote to the Royal Society of London in 1683 describing his discovery, as well as the drawings he submitted, leaves no doubt that he was the first human being to see bacteria. Development of bacteriology It was nearly a century before the scientific world paid much attention to Leeuwenhoek's discovery. Müller, of Denmark, in 1786, contributed something to the knowledge of bacterial structure, and Ehrenberg, in 1838, published a work pointing out the fundamental differences between the larger forms. Succeeding investigators gathered more and more information concerning bacterial physiology and growth. Modern bacteriology is said to have begun with the work of Pasteur during the latter half of the 19th century. Pasteur is generally credited with having demonstrated the relation of bacteria to fermentation. The credit for this discovery actually belongs, however, to Béchamp, whose writings were plagiarized by Pasteur. E. Douglas Hume, in her book Béchamp or Pasteur? has shown that Pasteur, far from being the genius and the idealistic benefactor of humanity he is commonly pictured, was in reality a careless and slipshod experimenter in many instances, that he was incapable of drawing correct inferences from his results, that he repeatedly appropriated the work of Béchamp as his own, and that it was only his clever courting of publicity and mastery of showmanship that enabled him to override the more modest, patient, and untiring Béchamp, the true scientist. Bullock, in his History of Bacteriology, is critical of Béchamp for "talking too much." Actually Béchamp was presenting basic ideas in biology, bacteriology, and pathology! Bullock did not examine the early work of Béchamp—the material which is really controversial. Since the real relationships of Pasteur and Béchamp to bacteriology are not generally known, the matter is better left unmentioned on state board examinations. Tissot's opinions will be dealt with later in this book. For more facts of the case refer to Hume's book just mentioned. Great impetus was given to the development of bacteriology by the German contemporary of Pasteur, Robert Koch, who introduced solid culture media, perfected the technic of obtaining bacteria in pure cultures, and established beyond question a relationship between bacteria and disease. Nature of bacteria Bacteria are generally defined as unicellular plants, as distinguished from unicellular animals or protozoa. Many biologists, however, realizing that the distinction between plant and animal ceases to have much meaning in life-forms as primitive as these, place them in an indeterminate class by themselves. They lack the chlorophyll characteristic of plants, yet, like plants, are often capable of depending upon purely inorganic matter for food. Thus they are often considered the simplest forms of fungi. On the other hand, they tend, like many of the lower animal forms, to utilize copper in the synthesis of pigments (instead of the magnesium of vegetable pigment) and, unlike most plants, many of them possess independent movement.