PUTREFACTION AND INFECTION. 93 



essence, of all contagia of disease. . . . This view 

 of the matter has since then become greatly more dis- 

 tinct, in consequence of the investigations made by Dr. 

 Sanderson, particularly in 1871 and 1872, with refer- 

 ence to the common septic contagium or ferment. For 

 in that ferment there seems now to be identified a force 

 which, acting disintegratively upon organic matter, 

 whether dead or living, can, on the one hand, initiate 

 putrefaction of what is dead, and, on the other hand, 

 initiate febrile and inflammatory processes in what is 

 living.' 



At a Meeting of the Pathological Society, held on 

 the 6th of April, 1875, the germ-theory of disease was 

 formally introduced as a subject for discussion, the 

 debate being continued with great ability and earnest- 

 ness at subsequent meetings. The Conference was 

 attended by many distinguished medical men, some 

 of whom were profoundly influenced by the arguments, 

 and none of whom disputed the facts brought forward 

 against the theory on that occasion. The leader of 

 the debate, and the most prominent speaker, was Dr. 

 Bastian, to whom also fell the task of replying on all 

 the questions raised. The coexistence of Bacteria and 

 contagious disease was admitted ; but, instead of con- 

 sidering these organisms as * probably the essence, or 

 an inseparable part of the essence ' of the contagium, 

 Dr. Bastian contended that they were ' pathological 

 products,' spontaneously generated in the body after 

 it had been rendered diseased by the real contagium. 

 The grouping of the ultimate particles of matter to 

 form living organisms, Dr. Bastian considers to be 

 an operation as little requiring the action of antece- 

 dent life as their grouping to form any of the ' other 

 less complex chemical compounds.' Such a position 

 must, of course, stand or fall by the evidence which its 



