72 The Microscopic Germ Theory of Disease. By H. C. Bastian. 
contain some poisonous element either in the form of a chemical 
compound or altered product of tissue multiplication (pus), which, 
when it came into contact with a healthy mucous membrane, was 
capable of acting as a specific irritant, and there exciting a similar 
morbid process. It is by no means certain, however, that some 
pathologists w'ould not at the present time connect this process 
with the presence of bacteria in the contagious fluids. Such a 
point of view has, indeed, been directly fostered by doctrines 
recently put forward by an eminent pathologist, Dr. Burdon- 
Sanderson. At this Society in 1871, whilst, strangely enough, 
professing to be indifferent to the mode of origin of bacteria, Dr. 
Sanderson said : “ They afford a characteristic by which we may 
distinguish the products of infective inflammation from those which 
are not infective.” And in a more recent paper on “ The Infective 
Product of Acute Inflammation,” * referring to his previous re- 
searches, he says it was inferred from these that, “ if infective 
agents are particulate, they are probably comprised in that group of 
bodies to which I then applied the term microzymes, recognizing 
their identity with the zoocjlsea of Cohn, the micrococci of Hallier, 
and the various forms described by other authors under the terms 
bacterium and vibrio .” And he then adds, as the result of subse- 
quent investigations, the following passage : “ With reference to 
these organisms, two entirely new and most important facts have 
been demonstrated by the observations to he now recorded. It has 
been discovered (1) that in all acute infective inflammations micro- 
zymes abound in the exudation liquids ; and (2) that the same 
forms are to be found in the blood of the infected animals.” And 
when Dr. Sanderson subsequently adds “ that the relation _ of in- 
tensity between different cases of septicaemia and pyaemic inlection 
is indicated by the number and character of these organisms,” hut 
little doubt seems to remain concerning his views as to the causal 
relationship of such organisms to the infectiousness of the inflam- 
mations referred to. And this view is not essentially modified by his 
subsequent concluding explanations, where he says : “ Inasmuch as 
these organisms cannot have originated from the normal tissues or 
juices, they must have been derived from the external moisture.” 
And also, “ it does not at all follow because these organisms come 
in from outside that they bring contagium along with them ; for it 
may he readily admitted that they may serve as carriers of infection 
from diseased to healthy parts, or from diseased to healthy indi- 
viduals, and yet he utterly devoid of any power of themselves 
originating the contagium they convey.” Such a doctrine still 
implies that bacteria are essential to a contagious process, though 
it seems to me to introduce certain very striking elements of weak- 
ness into the germ theory as thus interpreted. If this theory is 
* ‘ Medico-Chirur. Trans.,’ 1873, p. 351. 
