GERMS OF DISEASE AND DEATH. 253 



worm " is caused by tlie growth in the human skin of 

 a parasitic fungus, and a whole series of skin affections 

 is known wherein lower plants play the part of direct 

 causes. Thus, if it is a matter of certainty that a par- 

 ticular skin-disease is caused by lower-plant growth, so 

 no less is it by analogy likely that all other contagious 

 and epidemic diseases are in reality the products of life. 

 So much for the general idea that permeates the 

 "germ theory " of disease. Within the past few 

 months some highly important additions have been 

 made to our knowledge of the part played by lower 

 organisms in the production of disease. M. Pasteur, 

 whose researches into the development of lower 

 organisms have placed him in the foremost rank of 

 scientific workers, has detailed at length the results of 

 his investigations into the causes which produce the 

 curious disease known as charbon, anthrax, and splenic 

 fever. This disease, whilst but rarely attacking man, 

 is fatal to horses, cattle, and sheep. France suffers 

 greatly from this " plague of boils/' and it is also 

 known in various other countries as a literal scourge. 

 Pasteur, it should be mentioned, had already acquired 

 much valuable experience in the investigation into the 

 cause of the pebrine, or silkworm disease, which in 

 1863 had devastated the silk industry of France. 

 Pasteur showed that pebrine was caused by the growth 

 and multiplication, within the bodies of the insects, of 

 minute "corpuscles," which were practically lower 

 forms of life. Even the eggs from which the worms 

 were hatched, were shown to be liable to infection from 



