104 A MANUAL OF BACTERIOLOGY 



that no pathogenic microbe is ever transformed into 

 a non-pathogenic form, or vice versd. In fact, he 

 says that 'those organisms which are connected 

 with morbid processes possess this pathogenic 

 power ab initio ; and are not due to any peculiar 

 condition of growth.' If a harmless microbe could 

 be proved capable of transformation into a harmful 

 form, ' the whole doctrine of the infectious diseases 

 is involved in such a case ; for if in one case it can 

 be unmistakably proved that a harmless microbe 

 can be transformed into a pathogenic organism, i.e. 

 into a specific virus of an infectious disease, and 

 if this again can, under altered conditions, resume 

 its harmless property, then we should at once be 

 relieved of searching for the initial cause in the 

 outbreak of an epidemic. But in that case we 

 should be forced to contemplate, as floating in the 

 air, in the water, in the soil, everywhere, millions of 

 microbes which, owing to some peculiar unknown 

 condition, are capable at once to start any kind 

 of infectious disorder, say anthrax (Buchner), in- 

 fectious ophthalmia (Sattler), and probably a host 

 of other infectious diseases, and thus to form the 

 starting-point of epidemics. And the only redeem- 

 ing feature, if redeeming it can be called, in this 

 calamity, would be the thought that the par- 

 ticular microbe would by-and-by, owing to some 

 accidental new conditions, again become harmless ' 

 (Klein). 



The transformation of microbes into different 

 forms is entirely opposed to the Darwinian law. 

 To one who has fully comprehended the meaning 



