BACTERIA IN INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 239 



" Look at it from another point of view. The few 

 minims of culture -fluid introduced beneath the skin of 

 a rabbit contain a micrococcus presenting definite mor- 

 phological characters. The blood of the animal which 

 falls a victim to experimental inoculation with this fluid 

 is filled within forty-eight hours with the same micro- 

 organism in numbers far exceeding the normal histo- 

 logical elements, red and white corpuscles ; yet some 

 very conservative physicians still claim that the invading 

 parasite is without import, a mere epi-phenomenon, 

 while the infinitesimal portion of a hypothetical chemi- 

 cal virus is credited with this malignant potency." 



When, in addition to this, we remember that 

 potent chemical poisons, especially when injected 

 subcutaneously, act promptly, and that their poi- 

 sonous effect bears a relation to the dose in which 

 they are administered, whereas a rabbit subjected 

 to an experimental inoculation with septic blood, 

 or with a culture-fluid remotely inoculated with 

 this material, shows no signs of ill-health for many 

 hours, eighteen hours or more, and that it is 

 only when sufficient time has elapsed to permit of 

 the abundant development of the micrococcus that 

 serious symptoms are developed, we shall see that 

 but one conclusion can be drawn as regards the 

 role of the micrococcus. 



It is by experimental evidence of this nature 

 that Koch, Pasteur, and many others have demon- 

 strated beyond question that the disease known as 

 anthrax is produced by a parasitic micro-organism, 

 the Bacillus anthracis ; that the last-named in- 

 vestigator has established the etiological role of the 



