PART I.] Microscopic Examination of Blood other than Choleraic. 151 



and, had the presence of foreign organisms in the blood been essentially related to the 

 disease in one way or other, whether as causes of the diseased condition or as indications 

 of its existence, it is scarcely conceivable that they should have consistently failed to 

 afford the slightest evidence of their presence. We are all well aware that these state- 

 ments are likely to be received with some incredulity by a very large number of the 

 members of the medical profession, made as they are at a time when views regarding 

 the important and almost necessary influence of "germs,"' "bacteria," " microzymes," 

 etc., in the development of epidemic disease are so widely diffused and so much quoted ; 

 but, in bringing our examinations of the blood from this point of view to a close, 

 we feel bound to state our results and conclusions distinctly. 



C— Microscopic examinations of the Blood in Diseases other than Cholera. 



In considering questions connected with the blood in cholera, more especially in 

 reference to the doctrines referred to at the close of the previous section, it was 

 important to determine whether the blood in diseased conditions beyond all doubt 

 capable of direct communication by inoculation, diflfered from that in cholera in any 

 important respect, more especially whether it necessarily contained distinct organisms 

 of any kind recognisable by the use of the microscope. After some deliberation 

 vaccinia was selected as the most convenient for this purpose, as there is no objection 

 to the production of the condition in the human subject and a definite series of 

 observations at known periods from the introduction of the morbid agent into the 

 system can be carried out.* 



The table on the next page shows the results of the examination of forty-seven 

 specimens of blood derived from five cases in which vaccination had been performed : — 



The specimens, as shown in the table, dated from twenty-four hours up to nine days 

 subsequent to vaccination. Of the five cases, No. I was abortive, no vesicles ever making 

 their appearance. Nos. II and III were moderately successful, whilst No. IV, and 

 No. V, which was vaccinated directly from it, were excellent cases with large well 

 developed vesicles. The most prominent respect in which these specimens of blood 

 differed from those in cholera was in the absence of any appreciable leucocytosis ; 

 the only specimens in which the white corpuscles were in excess belonging to 

 case II, the subject of which was in an anaemic condition, due to influences of climate, 

 and habitually showed an abundance of leucocytes in the blood. 



In seventeen of the forty-seven specimens motile particles were observed. These 

 were of extreme minuteness, appearing as barely perceptible points, with a rotating or 

 jerking movement in the inter-corpuscular spaces. They showed no evidences of being 

 organisms. Their movements were not more active than those in other instances, certainly 



* There is another advantage attending the selection of vaccinia ; the disease whilst running a definite 

 course is not of a fatal or dangerous nature, and therefore phenomena due to impending death of the 

 organism, or of any of its pans are not likely to occur, mdc, infra p. 165. 



