2 40 CATTLE PLAGUE REPORT. 



it is only right that a fair and clear statement of the 

 views of those who have investigated the subject 

 should be given, accompanied by references to the 

 original memoirs. Otherwise by these reports par- 

 ticular theories are promulgated as it were by 

 authority, and instead of the public being furnished 

 with a comprehensive view of what is known at the 

 time regarding questions of the deepest scientific 

 interest, as well as of great importance, they are led 

 to accept inferences which perhaps have long been 

 actually proved to be erroneous. Competent observers 

 have indeed rejected Hallier's conclusions as based 

 upon inconclusive evidence. Moreover the arguments 

 advanced against the notion that the contagious 

 poison consists of vegetable particles are so conclu- 

 sive, that the abandonment of the theory is probably 

 only a question of time. 



It has been shown that the contagious poison of 

 contagious fevers and allied affections is not volatile, 

 nor composed of mere albuminous matter capable of 

 being dissolved in fluid. It consists of minute par- 

 ticles of soft matter in a living state, and as was 

 stated in my Report, printed in 1856, this material 

 increases and multiplies, and behaves in a manner 

 peculiar to matter which is alive. Though the con- 

 tagious disease germ consists of living matter, and 

 is formed in a living organism, and lives and grows in 

 the body, it cannot properly be regarded as parasitic. 



Any one who had studied the germinal matter of 



