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3^4 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



matter (either fluids or organisms) had the power of 

 setting up certain changes of a spreading character 

 which soon sufficed to produce a condition of blood 

 similar to that usually preceding the development of 



organisms in this diseas 



If the oro;anisms acted 



qua 



organisms^ and not as ferments or producers of spread- 

 ing chemical changes in the fluids of the body^ then we 

 should necessarily expect that other more or less similar 



r 



organisms would also be capable of multiplying them- 



parasitic diseases. 



selves, and of 



producing general 



This^ however, is notoriously not the case. Fermenting 

 and semi-putrid articles of food, teeming with lower 

 organisms, are constantly eaten with impunity by the 

 lower animals, and are in many instances sought after 

 man — nay, such articles of diet are occasionally 

 administered with the view of curing rather than with 

 the prospect of causing disease ^. We can only con- 

 clude, therefore, that in ^the blood,' in ^flacherie/ and 

 other similar affections, the contagious element acts as 



a mere dead ferment might do 



in inciting blood- 



changes ' 



and that the organisms which are subse- 



quently found in the infected animal are, for the most 

 part, the products of a new birth which has taken place 

 in the altered fluids ^. 



^ Take the case of ' Kousso,' for instance, which is lauded by some as 

 an excellent remedy for Phthisis. See also Appendix E, p. cxxiv. 



^ Other instances of a similar nature are known. Thus, it has been 

 ascertained by M. Vulpian ('ArchWes de Physiologic,' vol. i. 1868), 

 that the insertion of a small portion of cyclamen-root beneath the skin 

 of frogs produces local irritation and a putrefactive process, which, after 



uniea rathei 



iae can, m^'^' 

 any cater] 



Kiistic of ' thnis 

 iJjaccnt parts of 

 n on that of 



ses, The i 



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 «tt operated upoi 



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