I
did not wish to alarm you prematurely this morning, but the worst has
happened. The silicious fragments in that confounded earth have
lacerated terribly the mucous membranes of these three unfortunate
young men. That in itself is a matter of small importance. The mucous
membrane is most delicate, but it has quite amazing capacities of
repairing itself. The point is this. The water in that spring, and--
I'll be perfectly frank--the water in most of the surface springs in
this particular locality, is simply swarming with pathogenic germs,
and amongst them I identified this morning the as yet unnamed
_coccus_ which I had the honour to discover, and which is as
deadly as the _coma bacillus_ of Asiatic cholera, or--shall I
say?--the highly specialised venom of the rattlesnake."
"Great Scot!"
"This _coccus_, my dear friend, increases and multiplies under
certain conditions. It exacts a highly lacerated condition of the
mucous membrane into which it burrows. Fortunately it is rare;
fortunately, also, it is seldom found in water which has filtered
through diatomaceous earth; for these fossilised deposits are only
found here and there, and, as a rule, not near water.
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