INTROD UCTION. 1 7 



their etiological relation to the process that he formu- 

 lated the law : that decomposition can only take place 

 when the decomposable material becomes coated with a 

 layer of the organisms, and can proceed only when they 

 increase and multiply. 



However convincing the arguments of Plenciz may 

 appear, they seem to have been lost sight of in the course 

 of subsequent events, and by a few were even regarded 

 as the productions of an unbalanced mind. For ex- 

 ample, as late as 1820 we find Ozanam expressing him- 

 self on the subject as follows : " Many authors have 

 written concerning the animal nature of the contagion 

 of infectious diseases ; many have indeed assumed it to 

 be developed from animal substances and that it is itself 

 animal, and possesses the property of life ; I shall not 

 waste time in efforts to refute these absurd hypotheses." 



Similar expressions of opinion were heard from many 

 other medical men of the time, all tending in the same 

 direction, all doubting the possibility of these micro- 

 scopic creatures belonging to the world of living 

 things. 



It was not until between the fourth and fifth decade 

 of the present century that by the fortunate coincidence 

 of a number of important discoveries the true relation 

 of the lower organisms to infectious diseases was scien- 

 tifically pointed out. With the investigations of Pasteur 

 upon the cause of putrefaction in beer and the souring 

 of wine ; with the discovery by Pollender and Davaine 

 of the presence of rod-shaped organisms in the blood of 

 all animals dead of splenic fever, and with the progress 

 of knowledge upon the parasitic nature of certain diseases 

 of plants, the old question of " contagium animatum " 

 again began to receive attention. It was taken up by 



