7 8 DIFFICUL TIES IN A CCEPTING 



the -vegetable germs, therefore, instead of occasioning 

 the disease, may be dependent upon the occurrence 

 of phenomena altogether different. There are, T 

 think, very few morbid conditions that are unques- 

 tionably solely due to the growth and multiplication 

 of vegetable fungi. 



Some difficulties which prevent us from accepting 

 the Vegetable Germ Theory of Disease. If con- 

 tagious diseases are due to the entrance into the 

 organism of such minute vegetable germs as those 

 described, is it not wonderful that any one escapes 

 disease ? Multitudes of germs of different species, as 

 numerous as are the contagious diseases from which 

 we suffer, must, if this theory be true, surround us. 

 And yet the fungus germs, which are to be detected 

 easily enough, and which indeed do exist in great 

 numbers, are not known to cause any disease. Still, 

 upon this view these must be the disease-producing 

 particles, for they are the only vegetable germs that 

 have been discovered. Passing into our lungs with 

 every inspiration, entering our stomachs with our food 

 and drink, everywhere in contact with our cuticle, in 

 the chinks of which they might grow and multiply, 

 these fungus germs must, one would think, pass in 

 vast numbers, into our blood, and be carried to every 

 part of our bodies. Contagious diseases ought, there- 

 fore, to be more common than they are, and escape 

 from attack should be almost impossible. 



Vegetable fungus germs are to be met with in every 



