586 Microscopic Organisms in Blood and their Relation to Disease, [part hi. 



increase contemporaneously with increase of temperature ;* whereas Heydenreich main- 

 tains that high temperature tends to destroy them — he having found that not only 

 were they most numerous in the blood shortly before the fever was at its height, but 

 that, also, outside of the body they would retain their movements longer in a room 

 at 18° to 21° C. than at a higher temperature. He had been able to keep active spirilla 

 in a preparation from a week to a fortnight at this temperature, whereas the spirilla 

 died in from 15 to 21 hours when kept at blood heat (37°— 38° C). At 40°— 41° C. 

 they were found to perish still sooner, — namely, in from 4 to 12 hours.f 



Although, as above shown, they can be preserved alive for a comparatively long 

 time outside the body, nevertheless every attempt which has been made to " cultivate " 

 them has proved abortive ; no change has been observed to take place in them either 

 in size or in number, notwithstanding that they have been " cultivated " in media of 

 various kinds and at different temperatures. 



E.— The relation of Microphytes to Disease. 



In the preceding sections the leading facts regarding the connection of living 

 organisms with the occurrence of disease have been detailed ; it now remains to con- 

 sider what grounds there are forbidding the adoption of the doctrine of a germ theory 

 of disease ; — why, for example, we should not at once admit that splenic disease is 

 caused by bacteria-rods, and that the aim of treatment should be the destruction of 

 the vitality of those rods ; or that recurrent fever is caused by screw-bacteria, and 

 such remedial measures resorted to as tend to destroy them. 



Before such views can serve as the basis of anything like rational treatment it 

 must be shown : (1) either that these organisms, as ordinarily met with, are injurious 

 when introduced into the animal economy; or, (2) that the forms found in disease 

 are in some respects morphologically different from those known to be innocuous, — 

 such a difference, at least, as Virchow suggests, as exists between hemlock and parsley. J 



"With regard to the first point, it has been shown over and over again that all 

 the representatives of the group of fission-fungi can be introduced into the system 

 with the greatest impunity. Not only is their complete innocuousness practically put 

 to the test by every individual at every meal, but observations have been published 

 which have conclusively demonstrated that they may be introduced directly, into the 

 blood by injection into the veins, or indirectly, through the lymphatics in the sub- 

 cutaneous tissue, without the slightest evil consequences. These facts are so well 

 known and generally accepted that it is not necessary to refer to special observations. 



With regard to the second question, however, diametrically opposite opinions are 

 held, — all the advocates of the germ theory, with very few exceptions, maintaining that 

 the particular organism, in the particular disease in which they are specially interested, 



* Heydenreich's RuchfallstypTius, page 39. 



t Loc. cit., pages 100, 101. 



% " Die Fortschritte der Kriegsheilkunde, besonders im Gebiete der Infectionskrankheiten : " 1874. page 34. 



