234 DISEASE GERMS 



regarded as parasitic upon healthy cells, although 

 many forms of abnormal bioplasm, like pus, cancer, &c., 

 maybe transferred from animals to man, or vice versd, 

 and grow and multiply. All such forms have, however, 

 been derived from normal cells, which perhaps 

 would not grow and multiply if transferred from one 

 organism to another, though all have descended from 

 the same primitive bioplasmic mass. As the bioplasm 

 retrogrades it acquires the power of living upon less 

 elaborate pabulum than normal bioplasm, and may 

 even appropriate different kinds of pabulum. Its rate 

 of growth and multiplication is far greater than that 

 of the normal bioplasm from which it came, and it 

 retains its vitality under circumstances which would 

 certainly have ensured the destruction of the latter. 

 Nor must the fact be lost sight of that the develop- 

 ment of the abnormal forms of bioplasm tends to 

 degradation and destruction. The bioplasm of 

 vaccine, although conservative in effect, is damaging in 

 its action. Its growth is the lesser of two evils. But 

 these and allied forms of bioplasm cannot be considered 

 parasites on account of their derivation. 



The true parasite is as much a species as is the 

 being upon which it feeds. The masses of living 

 matter developed from the living matter of one of 

 the higher organisms have descended from a specific 

 living mass. In no sense can such bodies be regarded 

 as species. Never do they regain the properties and 

 powers of the living matter from which they were 



