114 Tue Microscope. 
THE PRESENT POSITION OF THE GERM THEORY. 
HE rapid strides which pathological histology is making 
are gradually overtaking the elusive “cause of disease.” 
Hunted down to the lowest forms of animal and vegetable or- 
gvanisms, it may now be said to have been driven out of them 
and into a smaller field, in which we are close upon its tracks. 
Not that the relations of germs, bacteria and bacilli, are no 
longer of importance; they are of great importance, but they 
are no longer directly causal, only accessory to the true causes, 
as these are now understood. 
To explain this it may be stated that the study of the life- 
histories of the lowest germs has shown that while they are 
present in disease, they are also in health; that they may be 
cultivated and inoculated without producing disease, although 
generally they may produce this result; and that noxious and 
innoxious varieties present no objective differences, and are 
therefore probably identical, and act differently not because 
they are of different species, but because they are under differ- 
ent conditions. 
Hence, it has long been suspected that the bacilli, ete., are 
rather the carriers of disease than its direct producers; and the 
inquiry has been directed toward what it is that they carry. Is 
it a chemical poison, or what? 
The question now seems on the verge of a reply to the 
effect that it is some semi-organized ferment, something of the 
same nature as pepsin, pancreatin, etc., but differing from these 
normal and health-giving ferments, in that its action is destruc- 
tive or injurious to the living animal cells, impeding their func- 
tions, or attacking their integrity—resembling, therefore; the 
so-called ptomaines, and similar products of decomposition and 
putrefaction. In the living blood a fibrin-ferment may be rap- 
idly liberated, which will deteriorate the blood-cells and lead to 
septiczemia. 
The introduction and production of these ferments—which 
have not yet been isolated and studied in any large number—are 
very-generally associated with germ-migration and reproduc- 
tion, but not always; and there is strong evidence for the be- 
