1 82 Researches Regarding Cholera : the Blood. [part i. 



With regard to the first of these questions, we would not presume to speak 

 decisively, although we ourselves have searched for it in vain with lenses which have 

 the reputation of being the very best hitherto constructed, and have been uniformly 

 unsuccessful in associating it with any constant visible phenomena. 



With regard to the second question, the reply will be satisfactory, or otherwise, 

 according to the particular view entertained as to what the tests of vitality are. 

 On this vexed question we do not venture to offer an opinion — whether, for example, 

 any substance or condition which would cause the coagulation of albumen (animal 

 and vegetable) would or would not be sufficient to destroy the vitality of the entity, 

 be it " ^^%gl' " seed," " germ," or " plasma," we cannot say. This, however, we affirm 

 that in our own experience we have seen no living object preserve its vitality 

 after exposure in a fluid to a temperature approaching to 212" F., nor have we 

 been able to satisfy ourselves that any one else has done so. 



A reference to the Tables of Experiments will show that the application of heat 

 up to boiling point did not, apparently, modify the toxic properties of the particular 

 substances tested ; for out of seventeen instances in which choleraic alvine discharges 

 were thus treated before introduction into the veins of dogs, eight became affected, 

 or 47 per cent. — a slightly larger percentage than the unboiled fluids had yielded ; 

 and out of thirteen cases in which ordinary alvine discharges had been similarly 

 experimented with, three were affected, or 23 per cent. — some two or three per cent, 

 lower than had been the average when the unboiled material had been resorted to. 



Therefore, until it be proved that living substances can withstand immersion in 

 a fluid at a temperature of 212° F. of some minutes' duration, we have no hesitation 

 in stating that the morbid phenomena which we have observed to follow the 

 introduction into the animal economy of strained solutions of choleraic and normal 

 alvine discharges, and of other decomposing animal substances, are not the result 

 of infection with a material the poisonous properties of which are dependent on 

 its possessing vitality. 



III.— EXPERIMENTS ON THE SECTION OF THE SPLANCHNIC AND 

 MESENTERIC NERVES. 



After the issue of our last report, an additional series of experiments regarding 

 the effects of nerve-sections was carried on, with the view of finally satisfying ourselves 

 whether any destruction of epithelium or denudation of the mucous membrane were 

 necessary for the occurrence of a copious effusion of fluid into the intestinal tube, 

 and also whether the observations which we had previously made regarding the coin- 

 cidence of such effusion with partial but not with total deprivation of nervous supply, 

 would stand the test of repeated experiments. 



The following table shows the result of twenty-one experiments on section of the 

 mesenteric nerves : — 



