TO PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY. 



By means of a knowledge of the causes of the origin and extension of putre- 

 faction in organic atoms, we are able to give a simple reply to the question of 

 the nature of many forms of contagion and miasma, as the following remarks 

 will show. 



EXTENSION OF THE PROCESSES OF PUTREFACTION AND FERMEN- 

 TATION IN THE LIVING ANIMAL BODY. 



It still remains a question with many, whether there are facts to prove that the / 

 condition of decomposition or putrefaction of a substance be propagated to parts/-- 

 or constituents of the living body, and whether by contact with the putrefying 

 substance, a condition will be induced in the parts of the human body, similar to"~^ 

 that at work in the molecules of the putrid matter. We think there can be no 

 hesitation in answering this inquiry in the affirmative. 



\:-:^V. i*7 ^ 



FACTS. 



It is a fact that the dead body often passes into such a state of decomposition 

 while in the anatomical theatre that the blood of the living body is affected by 

 it ; the slightest puncture with a knife that has been used in dissection induces a 

 dangerous or even fatal termination. The facts observed by Magendie that vomit- 

 ing, lassitude, and even, after a prolonged period, death has been induced, by 

 applying blood that is in a state of putrefaction, cerebral substance, bile, and 

 putrefying pus to fresh wounds, have never yet been contradicted. 



It is a fact that the use of many articles of food, as ham, sausages, &c., in 

 certain stages of their decomposition, induce the most dangerous conditions of 

 disease in the healthy body, and not unfrequently are the cause of death. 



WHAT IS TO BE UNDERSTOOD BY THE TERM "PRODUCTS OF 



DISEASE." 



These facts prove that an animal substance in the act of decomposition may 

 induce a process of disease in the bodies of healthy individuals, and that this 

 condition can be transferred to their organs and constituent parts. But as the 

 products of disease can be only understood to mean parts and conditions of the 

 living body in a condition of change in their form and properties, it is clear that 

 as long as this condition remains imperfect, disease may be transferred to a second, 

 or third individual, &c. 



ANTISEPTIC SUBSTANCES RETARD THE EXTENSION OF CONTAGION 



AND MIASMA. 



If now we take into consideration, further, that all those substances or causes 

 which destroy the propagating tendency of contagion and miasma, are at the same 

 time requirements for the removal of all processes of putrefaction and fermenta- 

 tion if daily experience show that, empyreumatic substances, as pyroligneous 

 acid for instance, which most strongly counteract decomposition, are the means of 

 changing entirely the process of disease in wounds suppurating unhealthily, and 

 if further free or combined ammonia (the almost invariable product of putrefactive 

 processes) be found during many contagious diseases, as for instance, typhus in the 

 surrounding atmosphere, and in the urine and faeces ; it surely then seems 



