PART III.] Fission- Fungi Found in Certain Diseases in the Blood. 567 



legists, and Dr. Douglas Cunningham and myself were, some years ago, able to 

 satisfy ourselves that bacteria^ vibriones, bacilli, and so forth very speedily disappear 

 from the liquor sanguinis, even when introduced into it during life in considerable 

 numbers. Out of forty-nine experiments which were conducted by us with a view of 

 clearing up this matter, twelve of the animals were examined within six hours of the 

 organisms being injected into the veins, and bacteria, etc., were found to be present in 

 seven, or at the rate of about 58 per cent. ; and out of thirty examined within twenty-four 

 hours, their presence was detected in fourteen, or 47 per cent. ; whereas in nineteen 

 specimens of blood derived from animals which had been inoculated in this manner from 

 two to seven days previously, these bodies could only be detected in two of them, or a 

 little over 10 per cent., just 6 per cent, higher than we had observed to be the case out of 

 a number of ordinary preparations of healthy blood which we had examined.* It is, how- 

 ever, obvious that though it is possible that the blood may be constantly replenished 

 with a greater or less number of these organisms, yet they do not accumulate to any 

 .great extent therein, and it may be safely affirmed that their presence in appreciable 

 numbers is, judging from experience, incompatible with a state of perfect health. It 

 will hereafter be seen that the same remark does not hold good as regards parasites 

 of, apparently, animal nature. 



It may be affirmed, further, that in certain diseased conditions microphytes are 

 very generally present, though perhaps not invariably, nor is their number 

 co-incident with the gravity of the malady. Omitting the cases in which these 

 organisms have been found associated with disease in insects (on account of the 

 difficulty of isolating and clearly identifying such organisms as are found in 

 the blood in these cases, from those found in the tissues generally), it may be 

 stated that it has been clearly established that one or other of the forms of 

 fission-fungi have been found in the blood in two diseases, viz., in charbon, mal de 

 rate or splenic fever; and in recurrent fever. M. Pasteur has recently maintained 

 that a third should be added to the list — sejoticcemia ; and, still more recently, a fourth 

 has been added by Dr. Klein, namely, the disease commonly known as " typhoid fever " 

 of the pig. 



These matters have, during the last few years, received great attention from 

 thoughtful members of the medical profession, and probably at the present time no 

 subject of a scientific character is being more closely investigated. 



The importance of thoroughly sifting the evidence on which the interpretations 

 which have been placed on the significance of such organisms in the blood can 

 scarcely be overrated, seeing that, should the views now commonly advanced proved 

 to be correct, the theory and practice of medicine would be radically affected, and, 

 possibly, the future action of the state with regard to disease be materially modified. 

 Before making an attempt to institute such an examination, it may be well to 



* Cholera : A Report of Microscopical and Fhysiological Researches, Series I, Appendix A, Eighth Armual 

 Rr.port of till' Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of Tn.flia, 1872, reprinted here, p. 65. 



