PART II.] Development of Complex Organisms in Diseased Tissues. 



387 



from anything that could suggest the existence of a channel of communication 

 between the spot and the exterior for any such immobile object as a spore — is most 

 puzzling. The supposition that a sporule had managed to insinuate itself by means 

 of some natural, or artificially produced pore, is untenable from the simple fact that 

 perfectly independent foci of the affection may be distinguished — so distinctly defined 

 as to necessitate the inference that each localised pigmentary deposit had derived its 

 origin from the introduction (through the cutaneous tissues) into that particular part 

 of a foreign body capable of germinating. 



To us it appears much more reasonable to infer that localised spots in the 

 tissues undergo a degenerative change into a substance 'peculiarly adapted to the 

 development of filamentous growths. We ourselves have shown, and it has been 

 shown by others, that under certain conditions — the principal being the absence of 

 vitality or vitality greatly depressed — every tissue in the body is capable of giving 

 rise to the abundant development of complex organisms. 



We reproduce a figure (Fig. 15) of some of the leading forms of these growths 

 for convenience of reference from a report which we submitted last year bearing on 

 this matter, as we have since that period undertaken several experiments of a like 

 nature and which have a very direct bearing on the point now under consideration.* 

 The object of the experiments was to ascertain whether by interfering with the 



* In connection with this subject the question naturally presents itself as to the degree in which results of this 

 nature are influenced by the conditions of the locality where the experiments are carried out — whether the results 

 which are obtained under the influence of the temperature of a tropical climate are likely to occur in temperate 

 localities with lower temperature. We believe that they are, and this on the ground of the following experi- 

 ment : — 



Two men were executed in the Presidency Jail in the month of December 1874. The bodies were removed 

 to the dead-house immediately after having remained suspended for the prescribed period. The following state- 

 ment shows the temperatures registered at various intervals during the following 24 hours by thermometer 

 nserted into the substance of the liver and the muscles of the thigh in both bodies, compared with the coincident 

 atmospheric temperature. 



The loss of temperature is so gradual even when th e external temperature is moderate, that in so far as 

 conditions of temperature are concerned, the body, save in exceptional cases, must, for many hours after death, 

 itself provide a suitable temperature for the rapid development of organisms. 



