1 64 Researches Regarding Cholera : the Blood. [part I. 



as Dr. Bastian has ably pointed out, that such an etiology must necessarily be found 

 for these diseases, or has been distinctly demonstrated for any of them is by no 

 means the case.* This comes out very clearly when, even in regard to septicaemia 

 a disease for which a vegetable origin has been accepted more generally, perhaps, 

 than for any other, we find that an authority like Dr. Burdon-Sanderson refuses to 

 allow that anything beyond a coincidence has been proved to exist between the 

 occurrence of bacteria and the presence of infective properties in inflammatory fluids,! 

 and that observers, such as Robin,:}: Stricker,§ and Billroth,1[ fail to detect such bodies 

 in the blood of living animals suffering from the disease. 



Our own experience has not been favourable to the acceptance of any such 

 doctrines regarding the influence of bacteria and allied organisms, nor can we accept 

 them until much more evidence than at present exists has been adduced in their 

 favour. We feel that all evidence founded on post-mortem examinations, however 

 remarkable the phenomena in such cases may be, requires most cautious scrutiny ; 

 for, even if it be granted that the normal tissues and fluids do not, as a rule, contain 

 the elements of bacteria and remain free of such organisms for prolonged periods 

 under peculiar circumstances, these circumstances, as our experiments show, are 

 certainly not those to which dead bodies are ordinarily exposed. 



In regard to this particular point, questions relative to the ultimate origin of the 

 bacteria are not of special moment. It matters little whether their presence be due 

 to entrance from without, to the development of inherent germs, or to heterogenetic 

 transformations in the elements of the fluids and tissues ; the really important fact 

 being that, in one way or other, they are capable of appearing in healthy as well as 

 in morbid materials. Even were vegetable organisms of a distinct nature demonstrated 

 to exist in the dead fluids and tissues of each disease, the fact might merely indicate 

 the existence of peculiarities in the composition of the medium, and additional 

 evidence in favour of their causative relations to the antecedent disease processes 

 would yet be necessary. 



Where the presence of such organisms is demonstrated during the life of the host, 

 the case is no doubt different ; but even here, there is a great lack of evidence to 

 prove that they really are causes and not consequences of the diseased condition. 

 Dr. Burdon-Sanderson's experiments prove the development of infective inflammatory 

 products as the result of the introduction of pure chemical irritants, and we ourselves 

 have found bacteria in the blood of an animal dying from such an experiment, and 

 yet it cannot be maintained that the bacteria present in such cases were the causes 

 of the diseased condition. 



* Appendix E, "The Beginnings of Life." 



t TJui Lancet, Vol. 1, 1873, p. 7.34. 



X " Tmite Du Microscope," Paris, 1871, p. 932. 



§ The Medical Timrx and Gazette, Vol. I, 1873, p. 62. 



<][ The Medical Timett and Gazette, Vol. II, 1874, p. 48. 



