io6 



Twelve days later material containing anthrax spores 

 was mixed with their food ; 2 of the 7 died of anthrax. 



A review of the evidence already adduced indicates 

 that although Pasteur's theory has been demolished be- 

 yond repair, yet he has established the fact that the sus- 

 ceptibility of sheep to anthrax can be diminished by 

 vaccination with the cultivated bacilli. From the eco- 

 nomic standpoint the value of this measure is still de- 

 batable, though the aspect of the question has certainly 

 improved since 1881, when the Hungarian medical com- 

 mission, after inspecting Pasteur's experiment, advised 

 their government not only to withhold its official sanction, 

 but also to forbid all private experimentation. Nocard 

 and Mollereau claim to have secured immunity of guinea- 

 pigs by their method with oxygenated water ; Chauveau 

 with heated anthrax blood. If these claims be substan- 

 tiated we may hope that simple dilution may furnish a 

 virus which shall protect against other diseases as well as 

 against anthrax. At any rate, Pasteur has established a 

 principle, and it is to be hoped will be merely stimulated 

 by the present unsatisfactory results to future and more 

 successful efforts for its application. 



Having thus sketched the present state of knowledge 

 as to the agency of micro-organisms in the induction 

 of disease, I may be permitted to consider briefly certain 

 deductions therefrom, collectively known as the germ 

 theory. I would emphasize the remark that the facts 

 already summarized are not to be confounded with the 

 speculations in which it may please one or another of us 

 to indulge. Ocular demonstration removes a chain of 

 events from the realm of speculation to the domain of 

 fact ; hence the germ theory has no longer jurisdiction 

 over anthrax at least. A possible future demonstration 

 that small-pox, syphilis, etc., are not caused by micro- 

 organisms would be disastrous to the germ theory, but 

 could not change the facts already established as to the 

 morbid agency of the bacillus anthracis. 



The germ theory supposes, if I understand it aright, 

 that all infectious diseases are caused by the vital activity 



