[344] 



SOME OF THE PRESENT ASPECTS 



OF THE 



GBEM-THEOEY OF DISEASE, 



[The following is a summary of a popular Lecture given by Prof. Wright under 

 the auspices of the Canadian Institute on the Germ-Theory of Disease. The 

 Lecture was intended mainly to elucidate the subject from a biological point of 

 view, and reviewed the interesting facts which have been contributed to the 

 Natural History of the lowest Fungi by researches into the relationship of micro- 

 scopic organisms to Disease. The present synopsis may be of interest to the 

 members of the Institute.] 



During the last ten years a host of investigators have been busy 

 in different parts of the world in attempting to discover the causes 

 of certain forms of disease, and their labours have been so far 

 attended with success that in almost all forms of contagious and 

 infectious diseases, and in certain others which have not been 

 included in that category, minute organisms of a special form have 

 been found constantly associated with the particular diseases. The 

 thought, of course, lay upon the surface that these organisms are not 

 only the originators of the disease, but are simultaneously the means 

 of spreading it. Such, indeed, has turned out to be the case. It is 

 indisputably proved by means of laborious experiments that in some 

 diseases the minute organisms are entirely responsible for all the 

 course of the disease ; and it is reasonable to conclude that when the 

 same methods have been applied to the study of other diseases, a 

 connection of the same nature will be demonstrated. 



The first discovery affording a substantial basis for a Germ-Theory 

 of disease was made more than twenty years ago by Casimir Davaine 

 (who died in Paris towards the close of last year). He found in 

 the blood of animals affected with Anthrax i a rod-like organism 

 (now known as Bacillus anthracls), in immense quantities, which, 

 accustomed as he was to the investigation of diseases caused by 



1 This disease, also known as Charbon, which has produced immense ravages especially 

 among sheep and cattle in Europe is fortunately very little known in Canada. Isolated cases, 

 however, have been recorded both from Ontario and Quebec, chiefly horses having succnmbed 

 to it. 



