THE DOCTRINE OF CONTAGIUM VIVUM. 317 



evidence that it is undoubtedly true in regard to some infective 

 inflammations and some contagious fevers. In an argument 

 of this kind, it is of capital importance to get hold of an 

 authentic instance ; because it is more than probable, look- 

 ing to the general analogy between them — that all infective 

 diseases conform in some fashion to one fundamental type. 

 If septic bacteria are the cause of septiccemia — if the spirilla 

 are the cause of relapsing fever — if the Bacillus anthracis 

 is the cause of splenic fever — the inference is almost irre- 

 sistible that other analogous organisms are the cause of other 

 infective inflammations and of other specific fevers. 



I shall confine my observations to the three diseases just 

 named: septicBemiaj relapsing fever, and splenic fever; 

 merely remarking that, in regard to vaccinia, smallpox, 

 sheep-pox, diphtheria, erysipelas, and glanders, the virus of 

 these has been proved to consist of minute particles having 

 the character of micrococci ; and that, in regard to typhus, 

 scarlet fever, measles, and the rest of the contagious fevers, 

 their connection with pathogenic organisms is as yet a matter 

 of pure inference. For further details, I must refer you to 

 the able reports of Mr. Braidwood and Mr. Vacher on the 

 ' Life-history of Contagium,' made on behalf of this Associa- 

 tion, and published in the Journal in the course of the past 

 and present years. 



Septicemia. — We will first inquire how it stands with 

 this doctrine in regard to traumatic septicaemia and pyaemia. 

 You are all aware that foul, ill-conditioned wounds are at- 

 tended with severe, often fatal, symptoms, consisting essen- 

 tially of fever of a remittent type, tending to run on to the 

 formation of embolic inflammations and secondary abscesses. 



The notion that septicaemia is produced by bacteria, and 

 the rationale of the antiseptic treatment which is based 

 thereupon, is founded on the following series of considera- 

 tions : 



1. It is known that decomposing animal substances — 

 blood, muscle, and pus — develope, at an early stage of the 

 process, a virulent poison, which, when injected into the 

 body of an animal, produces symptoms similar to those of 

 clinical septicaemia. This poison is evidently not itself an 

 organism ; it is soluble, or at least diff'usible, in water, and it 

 is capable, by appropriate means, of being separated from the 

 decomposing liquid and its contained organisms. When 

 thus isolated, it behaves like any other chemical poison; its 

 effects are proportionate to the dose, and it has not the least 

 power of self-multiplication in the body. To this substance, 



