DESTRUCTION OF CONTAGIOUS BIOPLASM. 301 



some day be attainable. The varying action of the 

 same conditions upon different forms of bioplasm 

 almost suggests the possibility that some agent which 

 may destroy the contagious bioplasts circulating in the 

 blood, without injuring the normal bioplasm of that 

 fluid or that of the tissues, may be discovered. The 

 introduction into the blood of some gas or vapour by 

 the respiratory surface, or the absorption from the 

 digestive canal of some compound which would be 

 decomposed after it had passed into the blood, may 

 be the means by which the desired end will be effected. 

 It has been too hastily assumed by some that any 

 substance which would destroy a morbid poison, would 

 necessarily so change the composition of the nutrient 

 fluid in which it was suspended, as to render it unfit 

 for the nutrition of the body. Such _a conclusion, 

 however, is neither supported by facts nor to be justi- 

 fied by theoretical considerations. It has been proved 

 experimentally by Crookes that a solution of carbolic 

 acid of sufficient strength to destroy the poison of 

 cattle plague, may be injected into the blood of a 

 living animal without rendering the blood unfit to 

 support life. The rapid diffusion of certain soluble 

 materials through the tissues of the body proves that 

 living particles, even if embedded in the substance of 

 the elementary parts themselves, might be reached by 

 soluble material introduced into the stomach and 

 afterwards absorbed by the blood. The living matter, 

 or bioplasm, of which contagious disease germs consist, 



