PEEFACE vii 



In Nature variation is so great that misstatements 

 concerning reproductive processes of some forms of life 

 have proved to be accurately descriptive of what occurs in 

 other forms. 



Denial of the existence of non-nucleated phases of some 

 protists renders complete comprehension of many diseases 

 impossible. In the following pages I show once again how 

 the plasson state plays a leading part in the lives of the 

 parasites which cause molluscum contagiosum, cancer, 

 smallpox, &c. 



Had English pathology been conversant with Synchytrium 

 from the year 1892 to the year 1895, the immediate causes 

 of cancer, smallpox, and syphilis might have been agreed 

 upon during that period, and, incidentally a new province 

 of biology would have been then acquired. 



The first practical aim of this book is once more to beg 

 those who in this country direct investigations into the 

 immediate causation of disease to arrange for systematic 

 examination of molluscum contagiosum. This minor malady, 

 which shows in the skin like dimpled pearls, deserves more 

 consideration than all the pearls in the world for the light 

 it sheds on other far more serious diseases. If unprejudiced 

 and willing examination of molluscum bodies is made in the 

 simple way described in this book, it will be recognised in 

 the course of a few days that these bodies are parasitic 

 organisms. In molluscum we have an easy key to smallpox, 

 the filtrable organisms, and to cancer. 



