/^^ 



'^^astroustot 



ri 



pective 



to show that !■ 



i;: 



l; 



J. Both sffc ' 



)readin? 







I 



es^ 



whilst i 



of a multi*"^; 



^ ^ ■ 



- ordinarf 

 Jt of the e# 



I 



such B£^ ^ 



by 



).4 



a6. 



77/vS BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



361 



invariable fatality of the general parasitic disease is 

 precisely what might have been anticipated. 



It would, therefore, follow from these views, ( i ) that 

 the development of the parasites in the latter affec- 

 tions is altogether secondary, in order of time, to the 

 blood-changes by which they are produced ; and, as I 

 have already hinted, it would seem to indicate (3) that 

 even in cases of the spread of such diseases by con- 



tagion, the contagious element, whether living or not 

 living, operates by its power of initiating certain mole- 

 cular changes — which, gradually extending throughout 





the body, may or may not in their turn cause th 

 evolution of new organisms. That is to say, we have, 

 30dyj leadifij: at first, always to do with a mere contact-action, and 

 of its prkif: even in the case of general parasitic diseases, the direct 

 .ry exanttet multiplication of the infecting agent itself is only an 

 of indepecfe: 



t 



unimportant accessory process as compared with the 

 spreading changes initiated by its contact-action. 



Already-existing evidence is thoroughly harmonious 



with such views^ 



In the first place, it is admitted even by those who 



are pure contagionists, that a blood-change 



IS 



the 



primary and necessary initiator of one of these diseases. 



E 



Thus, M. Robin says: — ^Les circonstances qui parais- 

 sent favorable au developpement de la Muscardlne sont 

 celles qui ont pour premier resultat une alteration des 

 humeurs ou des organes de Panimal vivant, et c'est a la 

 suite de certe alteration que le parasite se developpe. . . 

 Le developpement du Botryth est done bien plutot con- 



