454 BACTERIOLOGY. 



laid again upon the significance of the animal 

 organism in the etiology of the infectious dis- 

 eases, in predisposition toward disease, in nat- 

 ural immunity and in immunization, although 

 the correct etiological interpretation was not 

 immediately perceived. H. Buchner and Met- 

 schnikoff especially furnished important aid in 

 this work, and Hueppe in 1893 maintained in 

 a purely mechanical and monistic fashion and 

 in a manner free from all ontology the causal 

 continuity existing in infectious diseases and 

 thus did away with the last remnant of ontol- 

 ogy, even in the complicated realm of organic 

 science. In this scientific conception of etiol- 

 ogy lies the final reconciliation between cellu- 

 lar pathology and bacteriology, a reconciliation 

 which could not and would not be brought about 

 previously because each of these conceptions in 

 its ontological relations held only its own idol 

 worthy of worship. With the removal of this 

 remnant of ontology went the last reminder of 

 the personifications of priest medicine. The 

 abandonment of every form of ontology makes 

 it possible for medicine to develop in as strictly 

 a mechanical way as any other natural science. 

 Although medicine has been greatly preoc- 

 cupied with bacteria, bacteriology has till now 

 exerted only a very slight influence upon med- 

 ical thought. For the majority of physicians 





