GENERAL PATHOLOGY. 73 



system of one recovering from the primary effects of wounds 

 or amputation, and carry liim off with pyaemia. 



Like observations as to syphilitic or gonorrhoea! pus, the 

 poisonous matter of puerperal* fever, or the more familiar 

 illustration of vaccine lymph, give confirmation suited to the 

 general mind of the theoretic views we have advanced, and 

 which are so thoroughly supported by the researches of Prof. 

 Boeck. 



But the nature of this exotic germ-life which, when intro- 

 duced into the vital economy, is the harbinger of pestilence, 

 is not to be explained by (as the morbid germs themselves are 

 not to be confounded with) the animalculse observed in the 

 dying organism. The bacteria which have been revealed by 

 the microscope, prove only the previous destruction of tissue 

 and its advanced state of decomposition ; such relation being 

 reversed, however, in the case of parasitical growths. 



Should we pass over, although not precisely relevant in 

 this connection, another condition, under which this morbid 

 germ-life may be sustained, Ave should be guilty of a neglect 

 which might result in great practical injury. 



It may not be easy to prove that the germ cells of the Pest 

 or other infectious disease can multiply in excrementitious 

 matter as in the living body. But it would be unsafe to 

 consider the exuviae when kept moist and of a moderate 

 degree of heat,* as incapable of furnishing the media for 

 such propagation, unless we had reason to conclude that the 

 matters thrown off by the bowels or otherwise, contained 

 none of the nutrient matter, on which these germs of pesti- 

 lence might feed, or the enveloping substances in which they 

 might lie dormant and be preserved. For all practical pur- 

 poses, and as the first law of hygiene applicable to such cases, 

 all matters thrown off from the organism that is contending 

 with the Pest, should be regarded as a fresh nidus of infec- 

 tion; unless thoroughly disinfected by chlorine, carbolic or 

 sulphurous acids or the like. 



* Prof. Hertwig stated at the First International Veterinary Congress, a case where dung of 

 diseased animals, even after it had lain in vl frozen state for four weeks, was known to have trans- 

 mitted infection. (Gamgee's Cattle Plague, p. 479.) Even the water in which Kinderpest flesh 

 (whether previously salted or not) has been washed, if drank by cattle otherwise untainted, will 

 produce an outbreak ; as will the hawking about of the flesh. (lb,, p. 36) 



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