Vart I.] Question as io Presence of Organisms in Cholera Blood. "^J 



aggregation of bioplasts. It has long been known that in pyaemia the smaller vessels 

 and capillaries, especially near the parts aifected, are frequently blocked up with 

 what are believed by many to be aggregations of pus-cells in various stages of 

 disintegration ; but another school, with Virchow as one of its principal expounders 

 denies that these plugs are due to pus, but ascribes them to solid particles brought 

 by the veins from the diseased tissue. Perhaps when the tendency in certain conditions 

 of the blood to aggegration of particles of its plasma, in the manner described as 

 occurring in cholera, becomes generally known, these views relative to the pus-like 

 corpuscles in the small vessels may become materially modified. We have not as yet 

 been able to obtain samples from blood from a patient suffering from pyaemia, but we 

 may state that the nearest approach to the above described appearance of the blood 

 in cholera was obtained in specimens of blood (examined by precisely the same 

 method) from dogs, in whom a condition more or less approaching to pyaemia had 

 been artificially produced. 



It is neither impossible, nor without some show of reason to infer, that the same 

 tendency on the part of these plasma particles to leave the clot, and to become 

 separated from the red cells, may exist in the living tissues ; that a tendency to 

 accumulation in the minute vessels and capillaries may occur in cholera ; and that 

 this, to some extent at least, may be the cause of the extreme difficulty with which 

 the capillary circulation is evidently carried on in the course of this disease. 



These suggestions we make with much diffidence, as we have not yet been able 

 to test their accuracy by direct experiment. In such complicated investigations it 

 is often extremely difficult to adduce positive proof of the truth of inferences which 

 are yet so far founded on evidence that they deserve notice. 



The points in question will be made the subject of careful inquiry, but 

 meantime it appears desirable that the possible accuracy of the views we have 

 expressed should be recorded. 



C— Observations on the blood in connection with the question of monads and 

 bacteria, of fungi and of sarcinae. 



Intimately associated with the zymotic theories of the production of disease, and 

 notably of cholera, is the question of the existence of monads, bacteria and such- 

 like organisms in the blood of the persons affected, either in such a condition as 

 readily to be recognized, or in such an undeveloped state as to elude detection by the 

 best objectives yet constructed. As to the former condition we have already very 

 emphatically expressed the conclusion which our observations have forced upon us, 

 at least so far as the blood in cholera is concerned, namely, that no such bodies 

 can be seen in this fluid, either during life or within a few hours after death as 

 an invariable concomitant of the disease. 



Whether or not such organisms may, nevertheless, be potentially present, is 

 a question to which we have devoted a considerable portion of our time. In order 



