ON SMALLPOX 97 



in life" immediately presented itself to the disengaged 

 microbes, on which they were "not loth to seize," and 

 in which they perpetuated with unabated vigour and 

 renewed strength a further brood of young pathogenic 

 organisms. These are the "main facts of the case," and, 

 we think, there is little doubt but what they prove the 

 whole sequence of cause and effect. 



The nasal mucosa, being the main route by which the 

 microbes reached the cerebro-spinal cavity, where they 

 incubated and grew, in the medium of the cerebro-spinal 

 fluid, renewing their journey into the outer world along 

 the lines of least resistance, which were those of the inter- 

 neurilemmar spaces, and finally succeeding in destroying 

 beyond repair the tissues composing and surrounding the 

 peripheral sensory "nerve endings," thus leaving both a 

 continuous internal record in secured immunity from 

 further attack and a legible external record, which not only 

 variolous microbes, but the human species can read and 

 "take note of." 



