SYPHILITIC BIOPLASTS. 149 



In the blood removed from the smaller vessels, 

 in the mucus secretions of the mouth, intes- 

 tinal canal, and in the milk of animals suffering 

 from this disorder, I have found multitudes of 

 minute particles of bioplasm, which, as long as they 

 remain alive, are, without doubt, disease-carrying 

 particles. Disease germs are figured in Plates XVIII 

 and XIX, and in Plates XXIV to XXVII. Their 

 characters will be further discussed in the Section on 

 the " Nature of Disease Germs," p. 161. 



The disease germs of many contagious fevers will 

 retain their vitality in water and other fluids for a 

 length of time, and there is reason for concluding 

 that some of these poisons not only grow and 

 multiply in fluids different from any in the organism, 

 but that in the course of such growth and multiplica- 

 tion, they acquire still more virulent properties. 

 Dr. C. Macnatnara has discovered that cholera poison 

 in water after exposure to the sun for a few hours, 

 becomes extremely virulent, and that this period 

 corresponds with the development of multitudes of 

 vibrios ; but that after the lapse of a day or two, 

 when the vibrios will have disappeared and given 

 plaoe to ciliated animalcules, the fluid may be taken 

 with impunity. 



Syphilitic Disease Germs. The syphilitic germ is 

 another of those remarkably special living poisons 

 which may be suspended in serum and other fluids, 

 and retain its vitality for a length of time. 



M 



