VEGETABLE GERM THEORY. 



subscribe to the arguments advanced in favour of the 

 Vegetable Germ Theory of disease, 



But it is time we should pass on to consider what 

 is the nature of the supposed germs to which con- 

 tagious maladies are now attributed. If the opinion 

 is very generally entertained that the materies morbi, 

 the virus, or contagium y of contagious diseases consists 

 of germs which are introduced into the organism, the 

 exact nature of the germs in question, at any rate is 

 the subject of much discussion, and, indeed, the nature 

 of germs generally, as well as the question of origin of 

 these bodies, and the manner in which they act has 

 given rise to many different theories. And surely it 

 is a point not only profoundly interesting, but of vast 

 practical importance, and worth any effort, to deter- 

 mine, whether the germs upon which the cornmuni- 

 cability of contagious diseases alone depends, are 

 certain species of low simple organisms of definite 

 character, produced in the outside world indepen- 

 dently of man, or are bodies which have originated 

 in man himself, and are to be regarded as degraded 

 forms of living matter, derived by direct descent from 

 some form of human living germinal matter or 

 bioplasm. If the first supposition and this is the 

 favourite doctrine at this present time should turn 

 out to be correct, there appears much less hope of 

 extirpating the diseases the germs produce, than if 

 the last-mentioned theory, or some modification of 

 this, should turn out to be true. 



