464 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



A remark in the paper just referred to would seem to indicate that, 

 in regard to the further possible influence of germs, the thoughts of 

 Mr. Spencer Wells had passed beyond the bounds of pure surgical 

 practice. " Their influence," he says, " on the propagation of epidemic . 

 and contagious diseases has yet to be made out." 



This shows that at the time here referred to the germ theory, 

 in its wider medical sense, had begun to ferment in England. Two 

 years, indeed, prior to the above occasion, and for the use of the same 

 Association as that addressed by Mr. Wells, the late Dr. William Budd 

 had drawn up a series of " Suggestions toward a Scheme for the Inves- 

 tigation of Epidemic and Epizootic Diseases," which strikingly illus- 

 trate the insight of a man of genius, withdrawn from the stimulus of 

 the metropolis, and working alone, at a time when the whole medical 

 profession in England entertained views opposed to his. Budd states 

 in succession, and with perfect clearness, the points which he considers 

 most worthy of the attention of the Association. He recommends 

 inquiry as to the nature of the evidence alleged to prove the disease 

 under investigation to be contagious or communicable. Whether such 

 disease admits of being artificially propagated by inoculation or oth- 

 erwise. Through what surface or surfaces the virus may be shown to 

 enter the body, and to leave it, when the disease is taken in the nat- 

 ural way. Whether the disease is distinguished by eruptions external 

 or internal. Whether it has a period of true incubation ; and, if so, 

 what are the length and limits of that period. Whether one attack, 

 as in small-pox and many other contagious diseases, preserves against 

 future attacks. Whether in the case of human disease animals as well 

 as man are susceptible, and, if so, what animals. What is the evidence, 

 if any, as to the particular country or region in which the disease first 

 appeared ? What are its present geographical limits ? Whether there 

 is any evidence of its modern or recent introduction into countries pre- 

 viously exempt. How far any such disease may have been prevented 

 from invading new countries, or from spreading from any particular 

 center, by measures directed against contagion. Above all, to deter- 

 mine what is the nature, and what the true value, of the evidence sup- 

 posed to show that the specific poison of a contagious disease may 

 originate spontaneously, or be generated de novo. "What we most 

 want to know," adds Budd, " in regard to this whole group of diseases 

 is, where and how the specific p>oiso7is lohich cause them breed and 

 multiply.'''' 



Budcl's own relation to the question here raised was distinct, and, 

 under the circumstances, impressive. "After giving many years of 

 time and thought to an examination of the evidence bearing on this 

 question," he comes to the conclusion that " there is no proof what- 

 ever " that the poisons of specific contagious diseases ever originate 

 spontaneously. " That the evidence on which the contrary conclusion 

 is founded is negative only ; that evidence of precisely the same order, 



