MICROPHYTES FOUND IN THE BLOOD. 375 



at present fashionable, and aver that, though the " spores" may 

 be dead, their invisible germs still live, and, under favorable 

 circumstances, will reappear. 



With the foregoing explanation as to the difference between 

 bacilli and their ' spores/ in their power of withstanding agencies 

 ordinarily destructive to life, M. Pasteur was able to convince 

 his former pupil, M. Bert, of the cause of the discrepancies in 

 their respective results, and this the more readily from the cir- 

 cumstance that when a little of the dried alcoholic precipitate of 

 charbon blood was placed in urine the fluid not only manifested 

 virulent properties, but also gave rise to a plentiful crop of 

 bacillus-filaments identical in appearance with those which had 

 existed in the blood previous to its being treated with alcohol. 



It does not seem to have occurred either to M. Pasteur or to 

 M. Bert that under certain circumstances the addition of any 

 dried organic substance to suitable urine would probably be fol- 

 lowed by a crop of bacillus. Indeed, it not unfrequently happens 

 that such a crop may be obtained without intentionally adding 

 anything. 



Whilst this paper was in preparation it occurred to me to 

 place such a sample of urine under different conditions as to 

 temperature, &c., and to carefully observe the results. Some 

 specimens were made slightly alkaUne, others made neutral, and 

 others again left untouched. All the specimens were kept at 

 temperatures varying from 35° to 40° G. (95° to 104° Pahr,), 

 and it was found on the following day that nearly half the speci- 

 mens were coated with a thin pellicle consisting of bacilli in all 

 stages of development, the spore-stage included, notwithstanding 

 that considerable care had been taken to keep out particles and 

 foreign matter of every description. These appearances are 

 familiar to all who have devoted much attention to microscopic 

 studies. It need hardly be added that organisms thus obtained 

 would produce no effect on animals if freed from the decomposed 

 urine. 



B. — The Vegetable Organisms in Septicaemia. 



The belief that septicsemia is produced by organisms belonging 

 to the lower group of fungi has had almost as many adherents as 

 the doctrine just considered, and the literature in support of it is 

 even more extensive. The virus secreted by animals suffering 

 from this disease is, when transferred to the circulation of other 

 animals, as fatal in its results as that of charbon. It can, more- 

 over, be transferred from animal to animal i almost indefinitely. 



1 Observations ilhistrative of this have long been known. Hamont, for 

 example, in 1827, injected matter from a gangrenous abscess from one liorse 

 to another, and from the inoculated horse to a second horse, and found 



