236 TRANSACTIONS AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE [Sess. Lxiv. 



which have been acquired very early in the life-history 

 of a metaphyte, before the differentiation of the reproductive 

 cells, and at a time when the future metaphyte is still 

 analogous to a protophyte, may be transmitted. 



If this is the case, it would account for the occasional 

 transmission of an acquired character. 



From a medical point of view, the importance of the 

 distinction between protophytes and metaphytes is very 

 great, and lies in this : If the disease-carrying microbe 

 be a protophyte, a slight change of environment will 

 probably alter its properties more or less, and may make 

 it more or less virulent. In the case of the anthrax 

 bacillus, this was done by Pasteur, and in a different way 

 by Professor Greenfield, of Edinburgh. On the other 

 hand, if the disease-carrying microbe be a metaphyte, 

 or one stage in the life-history of a metaphyte, such a 

 change of properties is exceedingly improbable. 



I wish now to read extracts from a paper on " Plague," 

 which I wrote in 1876, when I was sanitary officer in the 

 Himalayas. 



It has value, for this reason, that as the people of 

 the Upper Himalayas live in isolated villages, generally 

 many miles apart, it is far easier to trace the history 

 of an epidemic there, than it is when the epidemic occurs 

 in crowded cities like Bombay, Poona, and Hong-Kong. 



1. The Egyptian plague, the I'cstis Scplica, the fjola rog 

 (bubo disease) of Garhwi'il, is also known by the name of 

 MiUii'imari (the great plague), under which name it was 

 admirably described by Mr. Batten, of the Civil Service, 

 in his letter to Government, North-Western Provinces, 

 dated 1st January 1850. It is known from all other 

 febrile diseases by the appearance (if the patient lives long 

 enough) of buboes in the groin, in the armpit, or below tlie 

 ear. It does not in any way resemble typhoid fever. 

 There is no pain or tenderness in the right iliac region ; 

 no rose-coloured spots on the alidomen, or behind the 

 shoulders: no diarrha-a, no well-marked moining remission; 

 and lastly, death generally occurs al)out the third day, not 

 about the twenty-first. 



2. Of all known infectious diseases, with the possible 

 exceptions of choh^ra and yellow fever, plague {fjola rog) is 



