i2 4 PHYSIC 



and invades the contents of the non-nervous surrounding 

 areas, where secondary zymosis or auto-toxis results, and 

 the most disastrous consequences ensue. 



It might, moreover, be questioned whether many of 

 the cases of exaggerated inflammatory and erysipelatous 

 complications arising in the course of some cases of vac- 

 cination do not arise from the operation of the same 

 causes, and, consequently, not from the introduction of 

 extraneous morbific organisms or the non-avoidance or 

 overlookment of preventable causes. In explanation of 

 the shapes and manner of occurrence of the individual 

 "spots" in vaccinia, varicella, and variola, as well as in 

 many, if not all, of the exanthemata, we would offer the 

 opinion that it is dependent entirely on the histological 

 distribution of the cutaneous terminal nervature, which, 

 being that of individual and associated groups of ultimate 

 fibrils devoid of peripheral blending or anastomosis, lends 

 itself to the occurrence of single and of grouped papules 

 and vesicles, whereas, in the cases of haemo-vascular erup- 

 tions, the manner of the eruption is general over the 

 affected surfaces, as we might expect, where anastomosis 

 occurs throughout the entire blood circulatory structures 

 involved, and where capillary communication is universally 

 present and actively operative. We are, therefore, called 

 upon to observe further, that the diseases under discussion 

 and the exanthemata generally must be primarily largely 

 diseases of the sensory nervature, and of the cutaneous 

 and other textures with which it is related. Their symp- 

 toms, however, point to general involvement of the 

 affected organism, while the lasting impression of im- 

 munity left behind them is the legacy of an anti-toxinal 

 influence of a temporary or permanent character, which 

 we are warranted in referring to the existence of a universal 

 sepsis, the leaving of a general impress, and the peripheral 

 expulsion of the resultant spores, microbes, and toxins. 



