109 



that inoculation with pure spores would be fiital ? Klein's 

 mice experiments already referred to seem to show this. It 

 is conceivable, however, that spores may require a suitable 

 dead medium for their development, and that only the living 

 organism, when developed, is able to contend as a parasite 

 with the living cells of the animal body. It is at least a re- 

 markable fact that experiment and observation are more and 

 more tending to associate the communication of disease 

 with liquids and moisture in which the bacilli are developed, 

 rather than with atmospheric influences. Koch finds that 

 desiccation is speedily fatal to the cholera germ, and 

 we know that the communication of the disease is ap- 

 parently associated peculiarly with the washing of infected 

 linen. The statement of Miquel that he has entirely failed 

 to develop disease in rabbits or guinea-pigs by means of 

 germs collected from the atmosphere may have a bearing on 

 this question. Of course, as Miquel observes, failure with 

 rabbits and guinea-pigs would not necessarily imply failure 

 with human beings, on whom experiments have not been 

 tried. This does not aflect the question of septic germs in 

 hospitals. There may well be spores which, though unable 

 to develop in living and healthy tissues or fluids, may find 

 the suitable preliminary medium of culture in morbid secre- 

 tions or dying tissues, as in wounds or in accumulations in the 

 lungs or intestines when the bodily functions are disordered. 

 Thus the spores of the cholera bacillus may pass safely with 

 undissolved food through the acids of the stomach which 

 would destroy the bacillus, and subsequently develop in the 

 intestines. The general principle would be that a body in a 

 bad state of health affords the preliminary conditions of 

 nourishment necessary for the development of the vigorous 

 parasite. 



16. — The consideration of the question of spores, of nuclei, 

 and of the granulations into which non-spore producing 

 bacillus threads crumble leads to the inquiry, whence come 



