282 MICROBES, FERMENTS, AND MOULDS. 



In spite of this, Sattler ascribes the pathogenic action 

 of this substance to the microbe. 



Klein repeated his experiments 'with great care, 

 and was successful in solving the contradictions which 

 appeared to result from Sattler's researches. He 

 proved that the bacillus of jequirity, taken by itself, 

 could no more produce an infectious ophthalmia than 

 Biichner's meat bacillus could produce anthrax. The 

 poisonous principle of jequirity is a chemical ferment 

 (Abrine), analogous to pepsine, and independent of 

 any microbe, and its assumed bacillus probably does 

 not differ specifically from Bacillus subtilis. 



The transformation of an originally harmless mi- 

 crobe into a pathogenic microbe is therefore not yet 

 proved, and all known facts contradict the possibility 

 of such a transformation. 



Septic and Pathogenic Microbes. Hence we are 

 led to define, more precisely than before, the terms 

 septic microbes and pathogenic microbes, which are 

 in current use in bacteriology. 



The term " septic " is applied to the microbes or 

 bacteria which generally live in decomposing organic 

 matter and in dead bodies. These microbes, or their 

 spores, are found in the air, in water, or the soil, in 

 the mouth and intestinal canal of a healthy man or 

 animal; but they are developed in greater numbers 

 when the tissues are dead or in a diseased condition, 

 and also in pus, in the bronchial secretion of pulmonary 

 catarrh, on the surface of intestinal ulceration, etc. 



