CXXVl 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



the blame, if any, cannot fairly be said to lie with those ' who 

 have opposed the germ-theory of putrefaction/ The ' Anti- 

 septic System' of treatment needs no support from a ' germ- 

 theory'; it can be surely and unassailably based upon the 

 broader physico-chemical doctrines of Liebig\ 



The last blow, however, seems given to the 'germ-theory' 

 of disease, when we are told that the blood and the secretions 

 in sheep-pox are not infective, though this disease is most 

 closely allied to, and even more virulently contagious than, 

 human small-pox. If germs had existed in this general 

 disease, and their multiplication was the cause of it, then 

 most assuredly would they have existed in the blood and in 

 other fluids of the body ; and yet, as Dr. Burdon Sanderson 

 tells us ^, ' In sheep-pox all the diseased parts are infecting, 

 while no result follows from the inoculation either of the 

 blood or of any of the secretions ; the liquid expressed from 

 the pulmonary nodules has been found by M. Chauveau to 

 be extremely virulent — certainly not less so than the juice 

 obtained from the pustules.' Now, although in other of 

 these diseases the blood does undoubtedly exhibit infective 



^ These doctrines do not seem to have been adequately grasped by 

 Prof. Lister, Fragments of organic matter are beheved by Liebig to be 

 capable of acting as ferments ; he, however, holds that their potency is 

 deteroriated by heat almost as much as are the qualities of living fer- 

 ments. The experiments with boiled fluids in bent-neck flasks, there- 

 fore, upon which Prof. Lister so strongly relies in proof of the germ-theory, 

 prove absolutely nothing as between the two theories of fermentation of 

 Liebig and of Pasteur. Amongst the atmospheric particles there are 

 sure to be dead ferments, in the form of mere organic fragments. Now 

 the doubt that previously existed was, as to whether they could initiate 

 fermentation and putrefaction, or whether the presence of living germs 

 was absolutely essential. In the experiments with bent-neck flasks, both 

 fragments and germs must be simultaneously excluded or admitted to 

 the fluids. Professor Lister's readers might suppose that Liebig had no 

 objection to his ferments being boiled, and that the issue lay between 

 the relative efficiency of oxygen and living germs. (See also Gerhardt's 

 * Chimie Organique,' t. iv. p. 545.) 



^ Report * On the Intimate Pathology of Contagion/ in ' Twelfth 

 Report of the Medical Officer of Privy Council.' 



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