26 PATHOGENIC BACTERIA. 



bacillus of anthrax was probably the first bacterium 

 shown to be specific for a disease. Being a very large 

 bacillus and a strong vegetative organism, its growth 

 was easily observed, while the disease was one readily 

 communicated to animals for experimental purposes. 



In 1873, Obermeier observed that actively motile flex- 

 ible spiral organisms were present in large numbers in 

 the blood of patients in the febrile stages of relapsing 

 fever. 



Klebs, who was one of the pioneers of the germ 

 theory, published in 1872 his work upon septicemia and 

 pyemia, in which he expressed himself convinced that 

 the causes of these diseases must come from without the 

 body. Billroth strongly opposed such an idea, asserting 

 that fungi had no especial importance either in the proc- 

 esses of disease or in those of decomposition, but that, 

 existing everywhere in the air, they rapidly developed in 

 the body as soon as through putrefaction a " Faulniss- 

 zymoid," or through inflammation a " phlogistische- 

 zymoid," supplying the necessary feeding-grounds, was 

 produced. 



In 1875 the number of scientific men who had entirely 

 abandoned the doctrine of spontaneous generation and 

 embraced the germ theory of disease was small, and most 

 of those who accepted it were experimenters. A great 

 majority of medical men either believed, like Billroth, 

 that the presence of fungi where decomposition was in 

 progress was an accidental result of their universal dis- 

 tribution, or, being still more conservative, retained the 

 old unquestioning faith that the bacteria, whose presence 

 in putrescent wounds as well as in artificially prepared 

 media was unquestionable, were spontaneously generated 

 there. 



Before many of the important bacteria had been dis- 

 covered, and while ideas upon the relation of micro- 

 organisms to disease were most crude, there were sug- 

 gested some practical applications that produced greater 

 agitation and incited more observation and experimen- 



