362 POISONS, CONTAGIONS, MIASMS. 



Microscopical examination has detected peculiar 

 bodies resembling the globules of the blood in malig- 

 nant putrefying pus, in the matter of vaccine, &c. 

 The presence of these bodies has given weight to 

 the opinion, that contagion proceeds from the 

 development of a diseased organic life ; and these 

 formations have been regarded as the living seeds 

 of disease. 



This view, which is not capable of discussion, has 

 led those philosophers who are accustomed to search 

 for explanations of phenomena in forms, to con- 

 sider the yeast produced by the fermentation of 

 beer as possessed of life. They have imagined it 

 to be composed of animals or plants, which nourish 

 themselves from the sugar in which they are placed, 

 and at the same time yield alcohol and carbonic 

 acid as excrementitious matters*. 



It would perhaps appear wonderful if bodies, 

 possessing a crystalline structure and geometrical 

 figure, were formed during the processes of fermen- 

 tation and putrefaction from the organic substances 

 and tissues of organs. We know, on the contrary, 

 that the complete dissolution into inorganic com- 

 pounds is preceded by a series of transformations, 

 in which the organic structures gradually resign 

 their forms. 



Blood, in a state of decomposition, may appear 

 to the eye unchanged ; and, when we recognise the 

 globules of blood in a liquid contagious matter, the 



* Annalen der Pharmacie, Band xxix. S. 93 und 100. 



