1881.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 439 



With the facts that are known in regard to the clinical history 

 oC diphtheria and those Avhich they had determined in their 

 research, it is easy to make out a theory of the disease which 

 reconciles all existing differences of opinion and seems to be trne. 



A child gets a catarrhal anaina or trachitis. Under the stimu- 

 lation of tlie inflammation products the inert micrococci in the 

 mouth begin to grow ; and, if the conditions be favoiable, the 

 sluggisli plant may be finally transformed into an active organism, 

 and a self-generated diphtheria results. It is plain that if this be 

 correct there must be every grade of case between one which is 

 fatal and one w4iich is checked before it fairly passes the bounds 

 of an ordinary sore throat. Every practitioner knows that such 

 diversity does exist. Again, conditions outside of the body 

 favoring the passage of inert into active micrococci may exist, 

 and the air at last become well loaded with organisms, which, 

 alighting upon the tender throats of children, may begin to grow 

 and themselves produce violent angina, trachitis, and finally fatal 

 diphtheria. 



In the first instance we have endemic diphtheria as we see it in 

 Philadelphia; in the second, the malignant epidemic form of the 

 disease as it existed in Lndington. It is also apparent that in the 

 endemic cases the plant whose activity hf>s been developed within 

 the patient may escape "with the breath, and a second case of 

 diphtheria be produced hy contagion. It is also plain that as the 

 plant gradually in such a case passes from the inert to the active 

 state, there must be degrees of activity in the contagium, one case 

 beino- more apt to give the disease than is another ; also that the 

 malignant diphtheria must be more contagious than the mild 

 endemic cases. 



October 18. 



The President, Dr. Ruschenberger, in the chair. 



Twenty-seven persons present. 



A paper entitled " Revision of the Tertiary Species of Area of 

 the Eastern and Southern United States," by Angelo Heilprin, 

 was presented for publication. 



The death of Dr. Benj. H. Coates, a member, was announced. 



Note.-; on Mistletoes. — Mr. Thomas Meehan called attention to 

 some fine specimens on the table of Phoradendi'on juniperum., 

 var. Lihocedri Engelraann, and Arceuthobium occidentale var. 

 abielinum Engelmann, from Washoe Vallej', Nevada, contributed 

 by Mrs. Ross Lew-ers of J^ranktown and said it might be worth 

 noting a few facts in relation to Mistletoes, which, though perhaps 



