76 The Microscopic Germ Theory of Disease. By II. C. Bastian. 
independently initiated changes taking place in such fluids. It 
seems, therefore, like unintentionally cutting himself free from the 
theory to which he has hitherto adhered, when we find Professor 
Lister, in speaking of the assumed “ special virus of hospital gan- 
grene,” going on to say that “ it is not essential to assume the 
existence of a special virus at all, but that organisms common to all 
the sores in the ward may, for aught we know, assume specific 
properties in the discharges long putrefying under the dressings.” 
This passage has a similar import to that of a quotation previously 
made. In both a first place is assigned to the modifying influence 
of altered fluids ; and however much the correctness of such a 
supposition would tell in favour of cleanliness, free exposure, or 
even of antiseptic dressings, it is none the less inimical to a con- 
sistent holding of the theory on which Professor Lister has chosen 
to base his system of treatment. 
But though such statements are adverse to the holding of a 
germ theory in the only form in which it may be at all tenable, 
they are entirely in accordance with my own observations and views. 
I maintain, in short, that even the very existence of organisms in 
the fluids and tissues of diseased persons is for the most part refer- 
able to the fact that certain changes have previously taken place 
(by deviations from healthy nutrition) in the constitution and 
vitality of such fluids and tissues, and that bacteria and allied 
organisms have appeared therein as pathological products — either 
by heterogenesis, or by what I have termed archebiosis, or birth 
direct frorn/a fluid. 
The evidence on which my belief is founded is of this nature : 
1. Bacteria and their allies are found in greatest abundance 
during the life of the individual in connection with dying tissue- 
elements, and apparently are as plentiful within the dying epithe- 
lium of the cutaneous ducts as in parts like the mouth, which are 
most liable to contamination with organisms from without. Again, 
they exist abundantly in and about the dying cells of bronchial 
mucus, although living bacteria appear to be almost completely 
absent from ordinary air. 
2. The microscopical examination of such epithelial or mucous 
elements also favours the notion that the contained bacteria are 
products engendered within such cells rather than mere results of 
an external contamination and imbibition. This opinion is based 
upon the following considerations. Bacteria only appear within the 
cell when it is obviously dying ; and in the case of epithelium, for 
instance, they manifest themselves at first as minute motionless 
particles scattered through the semi-solid substance of the cell, 
where each particle grows into a distinct bacterium, which still 
remains motionless, and does not appear to divide for a long time. 
This is precisely similar to what I have observed over and over 
