ecg wel of Disease Germs. 195 
_which it contains, we by implication impute to the microzymes that 
in different diseases they are not identical; and as we affirm them 
to be dynamically different, so also we assume that, under well- 
devised differential experiments, other signs of their specificity may 
be brought to light, and for each sort of them a definite genesiology 
be written.” The learned author of this sentence appears to have 
accepted the doctrine that each contagious disease is produced by a 
specific vegetable organism. Now it appears to me that the argu- 
ments upon which this view is based break down as soon as they 
are analyzed and the facts advanced in their favour carefully in- 
vestigated. This part of the subject has been already considered in 
my work ‘On Disease Germs: their Supposed Nature. It was 
also discussed in my Report on the Cattle Plague, printed in 1866. 
I will now pass on to consider the actual nature of the livmg 
germs in various “exudations,” some specimens of which were de- 
scribed and figured by me as long ago as 1863. 
Simple Exudation.—The transparent colourless fluid which 
moistens the surface of a superficial wound after it has ceased to 
bleed, is poured out from the capillaries, or from the lymphatic 
vessels, or from both sets of vessels. This fluid, besides containing 
albumen in solution, contains multitudes of minute particles of bio- 
plasm, which grow and multiply outside as well as within the 
vessels. These form fibrin and matters more or less allied to it, 
and perform an essential part in the healing process, or in the for- 
mation of pus, as the case may be. These minute particles of living 
matter are present in the blood and lymph in countless numbers. 
They are concerned in the production of fibrous tissue outside the 
capillaries, a change which occurs in many pathological processes, 
and also in the production of pus-corpuscles, and other “corpuscles” 
in‘ the same situation, in disease. All “exudations” contain these 
particles of living matter. The following paragraphs are taken 
from a paper written by me in 1863 :*— 
“When the capillary vessels are distended, as in that extreme 
congestion which soon passes into inflammation, a fluid which 
possesses coagulable properties transudes through the stretched 
capillary walls. It is probable that in such cases minute and 
narrow fissures result, which, however, are too narrow to allow an 
ordinary white or red blood-corpuscle to escape, but, nevertheless, 
wide enough to permit many of the minute particles of the living 
or germinal matter (the existence of which in the blood has been 
already referred to) to pass through. The small protrusions upon 
the surface of the white blood-corpuscle might grow through the 
capillary walls, become detached, and pass into the tissue external 
* “On the Germinal Matter of the Blood, with remarks upon the Formation 
of Fibrin.” Microscopical Society, December 9th, 1863, See ‘Trans. Mic. Soc.,’ 
April, 1864. 
VOL. IV. FP 
