DEGRADA TION IN PO WER. 



95 



in formative power, which is at length entirely lost, 

 never to be reacquired. 



Degradation in power is commonly associated with 

 increased rate of growth, increased faculty of resisting 

 adverse conditions, and, in some cases, with such 

 remarkable vitality of the living matter that it takes 

 up more than the nourishment which should be appro- 

 priated by healthy parts. Consequently these last are 

 at length starved and deteriorated or are completely 

 destroyed. Nay, the actively living degraded bioplasm 

 may retain its vitality although removed altogether 

 and for some time from the living body, and it may 

 grow and at length destroy other living organisms to 

 which it gains access. 



It is the main object of this work to show that a 

 disease germ is probably a particle of living matter 

 derived by direct descent from the living matter of 

 man's organism, and I propose to give a sketch of 

 some of the most important facts which have led me 

 to adopt this view. The inquiry is of great interest, 

 and affects the question of the nature of the material 

 concerned in the propagation of contagious diseases. 

 I shall also indicate how our views of treatment and 

 more particularly how our efforts to extirpate the 

 poison of contagious diseases and to prevent its pro- 

 duction, will be influenced by the conclusions arrived 

 at. In the first place I shall refer to the mode of 

 multiplication of the bioplasm of man in health, and 

 then endeavour to trace its degradation until a form 



