PART I.] Toxic Properties Possessed by Choleraic and Non- Choleraic Matter. 1 8 1 



of normal alvine discharges (certainly not of lower specific gravity than the choleraic 

 fluids) was not much over half that obtained from the former material ; out of 

 twenty-six experiments, in seven only were the animals affected, or at the rate of 

 26*9 per cent. 



It appears from these results that the dejections of persons suffering from cholera, 

 and also those of persons in good health, when injected into the veins, act in some 

 cases as a poison — have the power of producing a definite effect on the intestinal 

 mucous membrane, resulting in a disorganization of its substance. 



The symptoms and pathological changes induced by both varieties of material, 

 the choleraic and non-choleraic present no differences : but, so far as our experience 

 goes, the proportion of cases in which this result is attained when choleraic fluids 

 are employed, is considerably larger than when non-choleraic material is used. 



A closely allied phenomenon has been observed in connection with those 

 experiments in which the material has been made to reach the circulation indirectly 

 by means of the lymphatics in a serous membrane. We have, however, already touched 

 on this subject in the paragraph referring to our experiments on the question of the 

 increase in intensity of the virulent properties of inflammatory products as necessarily 

 dependent on transference from one animal to another (page 177). 



We have found that such an increase is by no means the ordinary result of the 

 transfer — our experience being based on sixty-eight experiments ; for, whereas the 

 introduction of solutions of excrementitious matters into the peritoneum on twenty- 

 six occasions was followed by serious inflammation and commonly death in twenty 

 instances, or nearly 77 per cent, of the cases, similar experiments in forty-two 

 cases with the fluid product resulting from such primary inflammation was only 

 successful in ten, or 23 per cent. 



With two specimens of exudation only were we able to transfer the morbid 

 action more than twice — once in the present series of experiments and once in 

 the former — but on those two occasions the virulent properties manifested were 

 unmistakable. In one case the original irritant employed was a decomposing solution 

 of meat, ninety-six hours old, and in the other a solution of ordinary alvine 

 discharge. 



Conclusions : — Why the material, whether choleraic or non-choleraic, should exert 

 its power in some instances and not in others, or why choleraic material would 

 appear to possess this power more frequently than ordinary material, we cannot 

 explain ; but we are inclined to believe that the possession of these toxic properties 

 will be found to depend on some variation — it may be only a trifling variation 

 in composition which decomposing organic substances undergo. Something, however, 

 is present which, as we have already said, is capable of exercising a singularly 

 pernicious effect on animal life, the most prominent local manifestation of its action 

 being observed in the intestinal canal. 



What is this something ? Is it visible ? Is it a living substance V 



