4 o 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



periments he drew the conclusion that the virus of putrid infection is 

 not an organized ferment, not bacteria, but an albuminoid substance. 

 Panum, who held similar views twenty years ago, has reasserted his 

 belief in them in an article published in Virchow's Archives, for July, 

 1874, and during the last year the weight of testimony has all been in 

 this direction. Clinical observation has been employed to confirm or 

 refute the conclusions of experimental pathology, and has clearly 

 demonstrated that the poisonous processes, of which we have spoken, 

 can begin in the human body and proceed without the presence of 

 bacteria, and that bacteria may be present in large quantities without 

 the slightest symptom of any poisonous complication. 







Pig. 4. Torul^e. From a Solution of Ammonia Tartrate and Sodic Phosphate. 



It is probable that their role, so far as disease is concerned, is as 

 follows : While they have no power in themselves to excite disease 

 {diphtheria, vaccinia, septicaemia, typhoid fever, etc.), they are able to 

 absorb the poison (ferment ?) which is capable of producing it, to 

 " fix " it, as it is termed, and to give it up to any tissue with which 

 they may come into contact, acting thus as carriers of contagion; 

 then, after the abnormal process has been commenced in the body, a 

 change is brought about in the tissues which renders them suitable 

 for the rapid growth and multiplication of the bacteria, which, in turn, 

 augment the change in the tissues, and thus there is formed a vicious 

 circle, the consequpnces of which are too often fatal. 



Any agent which destroys the life of the bacteria, or prevents their 

 multiplication, breaks this circle and renders a cure possible. 



The influence of bacteria in fermentation is still undecided, but, for 

 the sake of completeness, the different opinions should" be mentioned. 

 It is admitted by all chemists that these or similar organisms are in- 

 variably present in some fermentations Bacterium termo, or rod bac- 

 terium, in putrefaction, and the yeast-plant in alcoholic fermentation, 

 for example ; and while some claim that the process is due to the 

 vitality and growth of these plants, others hold that this growth is an 

 effect, not, a cause ; and a third party claim that the plants secrete the 

 actual ferment. 



According to Liebig, fermentation is an action which is produced 

 in a fermentable substance by an albuminous matter which is dead 

 and in spontaneous decomposition ; that is, fermentation is a cor- 

 relative phenomenon of death. On the other hand, Pasteur maintains 



