THIERSOH. 49 



With this study came a much greater confidence in the 

 germ theory on the part of many zealous observers. Yet 

 many held to the views of Liebig, and showed that, with the 

 exception of gaseous ferments, which were certainly disproved, 

 all the facts could be accounted for on the molecular motion, 

 or chemical theory. It was claimed that the dried remains 

 of decomposing bodies might fly about in the air, in the form 

 of fine particles, and renew their effects on being moistened, 

 as claimed for organic germs, and be kept out of wounds, or 

 be destroyed by the same means; that while micro-organisms 

 were accompaniments, they were not a cause of disease. We 

 will give the views held by some of the great men of the 

 time, as showing the drift of the thought and the entangling 

 of views that have occurred. 



THIERSCH. 



Professor Thiersch, writing in 1875, after alluding to the 

 success of the Lister method of treating wounds, and sketching 

 the history which led to its adoption, seems at that time 

 not to have been fully convinced of the truth of the germ 

 theory of the origin of septic influences. Granting the full 

 force of Schroeder's discovery, he thinks it still possible that 

 the power of generating putrefaction may exist in the fluid 

 product of putrefaction independently of organisms; that this 

 power may be retained in the dry remains of such fluids, 

 which float in the atmosphere, and be filtered out by cotton, 

 the same as claimed for organic germs. Consequently, he 

 then considered the question an open one, as to whether or 

 not putrefaction can progress without organic germs. He 

 also objects to the deductions from these experiments, because 

 albuminous substances are always changed by heat in the ex- 

 perimental flasks. The argument, or claim, that bacteria are 

 secondary to chemical changes, had been very widely held, and 



