198 A MANUAL OF BACTERIOLOGY 



having an elective affinity for the nervous system, 

 wreaks its spite principally or entirely thereon. In 

 some cases it seizes on that part of it which governs 

 the machinery of respiration, in others on that 

 which presides over the digestive functions ; in 

 others again it seems, as it were, to run up and 

 down the nervous key-board, jarring the delicate 

 mechanism, and stirring up disorder and pain in 

 different parts of the body, with what almost seems 

 malicious caprice.' Therefore, according to Mac- 

 kenzie, the supposed microbe resides in, or acts 

 on, the nervous tissues of the body. 



There are many reasons for thinking that the 

 contagium of influenza is borne through the air by 

 winds rather than by human intercourse. One 

 reason for thinking so is that it does not appear to 

 travel along the lines of human communications, 

 and, as is seen in the infection of ships at sea, is 

 capable of making considerable leaps. Dr. Parsons, 

 on the other hand, believes that the epidemic is 

 propagated mainly by human intercourse, though 

 not in every case necessarily from a person suffering 

 from the disease. 



Concerning the germ of influenza, Klebs thought 

 that he had discovered this in certain Flagellata 

 found in the plasma or corpuscles of the blood 

 during the febrile stage, but no cultivations were 

 made. Gluber found a micrococcus (in pairs) in the 

 blood ; and Frankel noticed the same microbe in the 

 sputum of a patient suffering from influenza. This 

 microbe may have been Micrococcus pneumonice, as 

 pneumonia frequently follows an attack of the 



