INFLUENZA. 565 



The 'Yeterinarian' puts the question, Would not the morbific 

 matter have become dikitecl to such an extent (after travel- 

 ling three miles) as to be inert 1 To this I would answer 

 that undoubtedly contagion existing in certain forms, as a 

 gas for instance, would become dissipated, and rendered 

 inert by the action of the air ; but it has not as yet been 

 decided in what form the contagium exists, and if it is a 

 living organism, as many suppose it to be, it would have to 

 pass through a definite course of existence, however brief 

 that might be, and exposure to the atmosphere at any 

 ordinary temperature, would not be at all likely to affect 

 its virulence, even in the slightest degree, and if it is small 

 granular masses of organic matter, as it is now asserted to 

 be, I most certainly cannot see any reason why such particles, 

 being of microscopic proportions, may not be taken up and 

 carried by the air a much greater distance than would be 

 necessary to reach the horse in question from St. John's, 

 and that, too, without undergoing any destructive process, 

 such as would interfere with its activity. Professor Williams, 

 after alluding to contagion and infection as embodied in 

 the theory of Beale, says : ' This hypothesis is strongly 

 corroborated by the fact that influenza is sometimes con- 

 veyed to a healthy locality by horses affected by or recover- 

 ing from it.' Williams continues, ' It is, however, negatived 

 by its being incapable of propagation by inoculation from 

 one horse to another; or by transfusion of blood from a 

 diseased to a healthy horse, by its undoubted spontaneous 

 appearance in localities in which contagion is entirely out 

 of the question, and by its occasional occurrence when 

 influenza prevails in man, dogs, cats, and even birds.' 



Now, it must be admitted, that the disease has not (at 

 least to my knowledge) been produced by direct inoculation, 

 and most writers deny that it can be so produced, but none 

 of them tell us how they conducted their experiments, and 



