28 



Not a few medical journals announced the complete an- 

 nihilation of the bacillus tuberculosis in particular and 

 bacteria in general, a dictum pronounced by a witty rural 

 editor, equally familiar with mycology and Latin syntax, 

 in the words " Sic transit bacteria." Even a leading 

 New York journal remarked that "the case against 

 the bacilli is very strong." If it should be announced 

 by Dr. A. that pyaemia is not characterized by an 

 excess of carbolic acid in the urine, as asserted by 

 Brieger, we practising physicians would not undertake to 

 decide ; we know too much about chemistry. There are 

 at present perhaps a score of men who have given abun- 

 dant evidence of competence in bacterial investigations ; 

 to them and to such as they, not to dermatologists, sur- 

 geons, or pathologists, we must look for facts upon this 

 subject, and for experimental criticisms of one another's 

 assertions. 



Before discussing the relations of bacteria to the body 

 in disease, it is well to consider their relations to the ani- 

 mal in health and after death. It is a much disputed 

 question whether any varieties of bacteria may exist in 

 the blood or tissues of a healthy animal. In former 

 years the affirmative was maintained by many, notably 

 Billroth ; with improvement of methods and differentia- 

 tion between organized and unorganized particles the 

 number of such affirmations decreased ; and the three 

 most noted observers of the present day Koch, Pas- 

 teur, and Ehrlich affirm that they have never detected 

 bacteria in a healthy animal. Numerous attempts have 

 been made to decide the question experimentally by 

 the history of healthy tissues, transferred under precau- 

 tions against contamination, from the living or dying 

 body to conditions of perfect isolation from bacteria. 

 Such experiments demonstrate that some healthy tissues, 

 at least, contain no organisms capable of inducing putre- 

 faction ; as the majority of bacteria are, however, incap- 

 able of effecting this process, the failure to putrefy does 

 not necessarily prove the absence of all bacteria. Ob- 

 servation and experiment on the living body would 



