THE CAUSE OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE. 237 



all these things without degenerating into the 

 mysticism of ontology. Although Behring 

 rates it as one of Koch's services to science 

 that he established the entity of disease by 

 setting forth the bacteria as the specific cause, 

 yet it is clear that in adopting such a con- 

 ception scientific medicine would take a long 

 step backwards. In such a confusing state of 

 affairs a clear and unambiguous terminology 

 has always been an advantage. This, how- 

 ever, some of my opponents who are adherents 

 of the bacteriological ontology, did not seem 

 to appreciate, because it is advantageous for 

 any exploded theory to have a vague, ambigu- 

 ous nomenclature. This is plainly in order 

 that its advocates may be able to say, after 

 each 'new victory of science, that they had 

 always really meant something quite different 

 from what every reader of their works had 

 previously supposed them to mean. 



Atomic Combinations and Resistances. 



When organic substances are built up out 

 of the elements or out of very simple com- 

 pounds, there always restilts as the product of 

 such a synthesis not only an increased number 

 of atoms in the molecule but an increased 

 number of combinations of atoms. The indi- 



