1 66 Researches Regarding Cholera : the Blood. [part i. 



which the diseased condition was demonstrably due to chemical agency, as well as of 

 many others in which similar phenomena may occur. 



It is possible that all the diseases ascribed to vegetable parasites may in reality 

 be due to the influence of such organisms, but the proof of it has yet to be pro- 

 duced, and it is no real advance to ascribe them to such an origin on insufficient 

 ground. This theory has attractions for many, on account of the apparently simple 

 explanation which, if true, it would afford of the multiplication of disease-poisons. 

 But, even allowing that such a multiplication could only take place under the 

 influence of living matter and not as the result of any mere chemical process, it 

 must always be borne in mind that the manufacture of the poison must, in any case, 

 occur under the influence of multitudes of living cells and particles, cells and 

 particles which may be just as capable of elaborating such poisons as vegetable 

 organisms or other living matter introduced from without. 



II.— ADDITIONAL EXPERIMENTS ON THE INTRODUCTION OF CHOLERAIC AND 

 OTHER ORGANIC FLUIDS INTO THE SYSTEM. 



As so much of the evidence placed on record relating to the existence of a 

 specific virus in choleraic discharges has been based upon experiments which have been 

 conducted on lower animals, it was resolved that the opportunities for repeating such 

 experiments which Calcutta affords should be sedulously utilised in order, if possible, 

 to settle the question for once and for all. The fact that the animals usually sub- 

 jected to experiments of this kind have been of a very fragile constitution, accounts 

 for a considerable amount of the discrepancy which exists between the statements 

 made as to the effects of various septic influences upon them and the conclusions 

 derived from these effects by various observers. In relation to the same question, 

 and that from every-day experience indeed, we have no hesitation in saying that the 

 inferences which have been deduced from experiments on septic poison conducted on 

 such animals as rabbits, mice, and guinea-pigs, are untrustworthy in the highest 

 degree.* That implicit reliance, however, is, very generally, placed upon the result of 

 experiments obtained by feeding delicate animals with choleraic discharges is evident 

 from some of the statements contained in the Report which has just been issued by 

 the Vienna Cholera Conference. In one place it is mentioned that " les experiences 



* In reference to similar experiments and|conclusions^regarding]CA«r&t»«, M. .Sanson remarks : " Je crain- 

 drais de trop forcer les analogies en concluant des petits rongeurs aux ruminants, et je ne crois pas me tromper en 

 disant que la cause des dissidences que se produisent sur la question est dans cette consideration." — Comptes 

 Rendus, Tome LXVIII, page 341. 



