6oo Microscopic Organisms in Blood of Man and Animals. [part hi. 



etc., of the patient; and, in the particular condition under consideration by the 

 occasional appearance and re-appearance of spirilla, whose presence is manifestly 

 dependent on antecedent changes. That the temperature commences to rise and that 

 other subjective symptoms are manifested before the appearance of spirilla, testifies to 

 this, for it cannot be that they can exert an influence before they are themselves 

 existent. 



Dr. Charles Murchison, at the discussion on the germ-theory of disease at the 

 Pathological Society,* put this matter very clearly when he said, " The fact that in 

 relapsing fever and sheep-pox distinct forms of bacteria have been found in no way 

 proves any causal relationship between these diseases and the bacteria, and is readily 

 accounted for by the acknowledged fact that the form taken by many minute growths 

 depends not upon the germ, but upon the nature of the medium in which it grows. 

 Indeed, the observations which have been made on the spirilla of relapsing fever are 

 strongly in favour of this view, for they are present in the blood during the first 

 paroxysm, but disappear before the crisis ; are absent during the intermission, but 

 return with the relapse of fever, and again disappear before the crisis. It seems 

 difficult to account for their appearance and annihilation twice over, except on the 

 supposition that the soil was suitable for their development during the febrile process, 

 and unsuitable when the febrile process was complete." The remarks which Dr. Bastian 

 made in opening the same discussion on his very interesting observation as to the 

 presence of bacteria in the fluid of a blister-bleb of a febrile patient so long as the 

 bleb remained intact for forty-eight hours, whereas in the fluid of a blister from a 

 healthy person no such appearances would be seen, point in the same direction. 



A like conclusion must be arrived at regarding the bacilli in malignant pustule, 

 septicaemia, and the so called " typhoid fever " in the pig, horse, and other animals. 

 With regard to the microphytes, just named, it may be confidently stated that they 

 are never to be detected in the earlier stages of the disease, but only at a brief 

 period before and after a fatal termination. To my knowledge they have never been 

 found in the blood of animals which have subsequently recovered ; they have always 

  been recognised only as one of the concomitants of impending dissolution. This is 

 undoubtedly the case so far as the two diseases first cited are concerned, and judging 

 from what is known regarding them, I presume that the development of such 

 organisms in the blood of the inoculated pigs was not one of the symptoms which 

 Dr. Klein had observed as indicative that the bacilli which had been introduced 

 into the system of the animals had induced the disease. Should this inference prove 

 to be correct, it is somewhat difficult to understand on what grounds so emphatic an 

 opinion could have been expressed as to their specific action. It does not appear that 

 Leisering in his account of like organisms, in apparently the same disease of the pig 

 (as already mentioned), had found them in any but fatal cases. 



* Hie jMHcri and B^'ltitfh Medical Joutnal^ April 1875. 



