112 



blood-corpuscles in animals may be intruding organisms, 

 especially since Ehrlich has shown that different leuco- 

 cytes exhibit various reactions to staining agents. Five 

 years ago it was discovered that a mould-fungus, the ac- 

 tinomyces, induces fatal disease of man and other ani- 

 mals ; Wittich found organisms, which he calls spirilla, in 

 the blood of apparently healthy gophers ; Koch found 

 numerous organisms (monads) in the blood of five 

 gophers that had died without other discoverable cause. 

 A new filaria has been recently discovered in the human 

 subject by Bastian, and similar discoveries are reported 

 in the camel and the hog. 



There is probably no one among us who doubts that 

 the trichina spiralis can and does induce in the human 

 subject a serious, even fatal disease ; yet the evidence as 

 yet adduced is merely the association of the worm with 

 the morbid condition, for no one, so far as I am aware, 

 has ever induced the disease by introduction of the iso- 

 lated worms. Yet the same men who assert the patho- 

 genetic influence of the trichina, contemptuously reject 

 the idea that leprosy, tuberculosis, recurrent fever, and 

 pyaemia are caused by bacteria, although the evidence 

 constant association of the parasite with the morbid con- 

 dition, applies to all cases. Indeed, the weight of evi- 

 dence is decidedly in favor of the bacteria ; for the tri- 

 china is found not only in the subjects of trichinosis, 

 but also in many individuals who have never been sus- 

 pected of harboring the worm. It is not extremely sel- 

 dom that trichinae are found in the bodies of patients who 

 have died of acute disease, wounds, accidents, etc.; in- 

 deed, an examination of several thousand consecutive 

 cadavers in German hospitals, some years ago, revealed 

 trichinae in over two per cent., without regard to the 

 cause of death. It might, therefore be argued that the 

 presence of the worm is a mere accident an epiphenom- 

 enon, observed in healthy as well as in diseased con- 

 ditions. The bacilli of leprosy, on the other hand, are 

 found only in patients suffering from this disease. I 

 would not express any doubt, by this comparison, of the 



