194 



ESCAPE OF DISEASE GERMS 



the nature of nuclei, and have originated in the ger- 

 minal matter itself, while I am quite certain that some 

 of the minute highly refracting particles embedded in 

 the white blood-corpuscles, pus-corpuscles, and some 

 other masses of germinal matter, result from changes 

 occurring in the germinal matter itself, and are closely 

 allied to fibrin.* 



OF THE ESCAPE OF THE CONTAGIOUS BIOPLASTS 

 FROM THE DISEASED ORGANISM. 



There are three ways in which such minute particles 

 of living matter as contagious disease-germs have 

 been proved to be, might escape from the system in 

 which they have been developed. These may be stated 

 as follows : 



1. The living disease-germs might make their own 

 way through small chinks or fissures in the capil- 

 lary wall when it is overstretched. 



2. They might be removed from the blood sus- 

 pended in the fluid which is made to exude through 

 the vascular wall. 



3. It is supposed by many that disease-germs may 

 be, as it were, attracted through the walls from the 

 blood by the action of epithelial and secreting cells 

 situated outside the vessels. 



The view which has long been entertained and is 



* ' ' On the Germinal Matter of the Blood ; with remarks on the 

 Formation of Fibrin." Trans. Mic. Soc., Dec., 1863. 



