CARBOLATES ADMINISTERED INTERNALLY. 305 



nated with the vapour of carbolic acid. The question 

 whether such a plan was efficacious in preventing the 

 spread of erysipelas and hospital gangrene is one that 

 might have been conclusively determined. A similar 

 experiment ought to be tried as regards fevers and 

 other contagious diseases. In ordinary hospitals there 

 is considerable difficulty in carrying out such a plan. 

 The patients themselves, or the attendants, or the com- 

 mittee may object to the smell, or feel indisposed to 

 permit the consumption of a sufficiently large amount 

 of the acid ; and unless the experiment were tried 

 thoroughly and carefully and continuously, day and 

 night for some weeks or months, it would be impos- 

 sible to arrive at the truth. It will, I think, be ad- 

 mitted that many of the circumstances referred to in 

 these pages render it very desirable that such an 

 experiment should be tried without delay. 



On checking the too rapid growth of Bioplasm in the 

 Blood and Tissues. Effects of carbolic Acid and Sulpho- 

 Carbolates administered internally . It has been already 

 shown (pp. 121, 218) that in all fevers and inflamma- 

 tions, the bioplasm in the blood and tissues increases 

 more quickly than in the normal state. This undue 

 increase is indeed essential to the states of fever and 

 inflammation. Were the growth of the bioplasm not 

 accelerated, there could be no " fever " or " inflamma- 

 tion." Were it possible to reduce immediately the rate 

 of growth of the living matter, fever and inflammation 

 already established would be cut short, and the patho- 



