1868 - Medical Experiment

Dr. Richardson, of Springport, New York, made an interesting statement at the Medical Convention, recently held in Rochester. In investigating the causes and nature of eruptive diseases he made the following experiment: 'He took a piece of fresh beef and put it under pure water, where he let it remain seventy hours. By this time the meat had begun to decompose, and was far from being agreeable either to the taste or the smell. The doctor then took a single drop of the water and examined it under the microscope. He discovered in it numerous minute animals, all in a lively state. He estimated that a cubic inch of the water contained over twenty thousand of these beings. The doctor at this state deliberately swallowed four ounces of the water, and soon afterward opened a vein in his arm. In the blood that issued forth he discovered a number of living organisms precisely similar to these in the water he drank.'