PART I.] Connection of Bacteria with Inflammatory or Other States. 177 



Experiment 5. — Injected 20 minims of a solution of the virus (48 hours old), 

 heated to 212° F., into the thigh of a fowl. 



Experiment 6. — The same as Exp. 5. — Both fowls were found dead 49 minutes 

 after the introduction of the poison.* 



These experiments do not, as far as we are aware, differ materially in their results 

 from those performed by Drs. Fayrer, Lauder Brunton, and others. From them it will 

 be seen that heat applied in the manner and to the extent mentioned in the text 

 does not materially modify the poisonous action of the virus of the snake. The heat 

 resorted to was considerably more than sufficed to precipitate the fibro-albuminous 

 material in it, and was, it may be presumed, sufficiently high and prolonged to destroy 

 any protoplasmic bodies which it may have contained. The activity of the fluid did 

 not seem to have suffered by being deprived of its fibro-albuminous constituents by 

 precipitation and subsequent filtration ; nor would the poison appear to be of a very 

 volatile character. f 



Taken altogether, these particalar observations would seem to suggest that we 

 should look to the chemist rather than to the histologist for further information 

 regarding the nature of the active principle in the virus of the snake. 



B.— Experiments on the effect of transferring Inflammatory Products from a serous 

 cavity of one animal to that of another. 



With a view of ascertaining for ourselves whether an ordinary inflammation in one 

 of the serous cavities would, as is so frequently stated, produce a fluid increasing in 

 virulence by transfer from one animal to another, we have made seventy-three special 

 observations on very nearly as many pariah dogs. It seemed desirable that the 

 statement which has been so frequently advanced on this point should be tested in 

 this country, especially as the procedure seemed to offer a favourable field for the 

 discovery of some clue to one or other of the many inexplicable phenomena of cholera 

 and other epidemics. These experiments have materially helped us in coming to a very 

 definite opinion as to the connection of bacteria with inflammatory or other diseased 

 states. Of the seventy-three, thirty-five were required in order to supply an 

 inflammatory virus to test the virulence of the secondary and subsequent products. 

 As the animals thus subjected to experiment were utilised in other ways, and are 

 referred to elsewhere, it is not necessary to tabulate the individual experiments. 



In eleven cases a purely chemical irritant (such as tincture of iodine and tincture 



* In order to satisfy ourselves from personal observation that fowls are not particularly prone to succumb 

 after the introduction of putrid animal matters into their tissues, a fowl was treated in precisely the same 

 manner as the foregoing, except that 20 minims of a solution of highly putrid animal matter was substituted 

 for the snake-venom. Apparently not the slightest effect was produced, and the bird escaped next day. 



f After these experiments had been completed, we learnt incidentally that the attendant who had been 

 instructed to throw the poisoned fowls away had in no single instanc e complied with this order, but had taken 

 them to his own home, and that he and his family had eaten them. No evil consequences ensued. 



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