INTR OD UCTION. 1 7 



the special germ for each disease only that disease can 

 be produced. 



He found in all decomposing matters innumerable 

 minute (( animalcule," and was so firmly convinced of 

 their etiological relation to the process that he formu- 

 lated the law : that decomposition can only take place 

 when the decomposable material becomes coated with a 

 layer of the organisms, and can proceed only when they 

 increase and multiply. 



However convincing the arguments of Plenciz may 

 appear, they seem to have been lost sight of in the 

 course of subsequent events, and by a few were even 

 regarded as the productions of an unbalanced mind. 

 For example, as late as 1820 we find Ozanam express- 

 ing himself on the subject as follows : " Many authors 

 have written concerning the animal nature of the conta- 

 gion of infectious diseases; many have indeed assumed 

 it to be developed from animal substances and that it 

 is itself animal and possesses the property of life; I 

 shall not waste time in efforts to refute these absurd 

 hypotheses/' 



Similar expressions of opinion were heard from many 

 other medical men of the time, all tending in the same 

 direction, all doubting the possibility of these micro- 

 scopic creatures belonging to the world of living things. 



It was not until between the fourth and fifth decades 

 of the present century that by the fortunate coincidence 

 of a number of important discoveries the true relation of 

 the lower organisms to infectious diseases was scienti- 

 fically pointed out. With the investigations of Pasteur 

 upon the cause of putrefaction in beer and the souring 

 of wine; with the discovery by Pollender and Davaine 

 of the presence of rod-shaped organisms in the blood of 



