VIRULENT DISEASE*. 207 



II. 



In these two virulent maladies, then, splenic fever 

 and septicaemia, the researches of Pasteur had clearly 

 established the^T>arasitic theory. A grand and novel 

 opening was made for future studies on the origin of 

 diseases. Yet, judging from the surprising differences 

 which separate septicaemia and splenic fever, we can 

 foresee that should the future, copying the past, in 

 regard to this and still more recent discoveries, have 

 in store, as it no doubt has, the knowledge of new 

 microbes of disease, the specific properties of these 

 microscopic organisms will demand, for each new ex- 

 ploration, ceaselessly repeated efforts, not only to make 

 the existence of these organisms evident, but also to 

 furnish decisive proofs of their morbific power. But 

 the question which may be considered as already solved 

 is the non- spontaneity of these infectious microbes. 

 By what is called spontaneous disease is meant parasitic 

 disease. But in the present state of science sponta- 

 neous disease has no more existence than spontaneous 

 generation. Such aphorisms, however, are not allowed 

 to pass without occasional contradictions, all the more 

 vehement from their rarity. At the International 

 Medical Congress held in London, August 1881, Dr. 

 Bastian, who practises in one of the principal hospitals 

 of London, declared that though he was unable to 



