AN ADDRESS ON THE RELATIONS OF MINUTE 
ORGANISMS TO INFLAMMATION 
Delivered in the Pathological Section of the International Medical Congress, August 5, 1881. 
[Tvansactions of the International Medical Congress, London, 1881.] 
Mr. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN.—In opening a discussion on the subject 
of the relations of micro-organisms to disease in general at the meeting of the 
British Medical Association at Cambridge last year,’ I brought forward what 
seemed to be some established facts illustrating the connexion between minute 
organisms and certain specific disorders, both constitutional and local. I dwelt 
especially upon the admirable investigations of M. Pasteur into the Cholera 
des poules, and those of Toussaint and others into malignant pustule or anthrax, 
and the exceedingly beautiful results obtained by the experiments and methods 
of Dr. Koch. This morning we have to discuss a more limited portion of this 
great subject—namely, the relations of micro-organisms to unhealthy processes 
arising in wounds. I have the great satisfaction, gentlemen, of knowing that 
Dr. Koch is present among us, and also that, with infinite kindness, and very 
great trouble to himself, he is about to exhibit at King’s College, to a limited 
number, his methods of procedure in actual operation. It is but to a limited 
number that these demonstrations can be made, because only a very few at 
a time can see them to advantage; but I have also the great satisfaction of 
knowing that Dr. Koch will exhibit this afternoon in this room, by the magic 
lantern, photographs of sections made by himself of various diseased tissues, 
illustrating the effects of micro-organisms. These photographs will be as con- 
vincing and as satisfactory as the actual demonstration of Dr. Koch’s processes, 
because the pictures drawn by light are entirely free from those errors which 
can hardly fail to creep in as a consequence of mental bias when a sketch of 
these minute objects is made by the human hand. Permit me to return to 
Dr. Koch the thanks of this Section for his great kindness in this matter. Thus 
the Congress will have an opportunity of seeing confirmed, and indeed extended, 
the kind of evidence which I brought before the British Medical Association 
last year. 
But while I am more than ever convinced of the importance of the relations 
of micro-organisms to diseased processes in wounds, I propose this morning to 
utter what seems to me a needed note of warning against a tendency to exaggera- 
tion in this direction. This exaggeration, if such there be, is largely due to the 
PDEE Ds) 307. 
