542 MICRO-ORGANISMS AND DISEASE [chap. 



evident to every one who has at all devoted any thought to 

 the relation of micro-organisms to disease. The whole 

 doctrine of the specificity of infectious diseases, I might 

 almost say, is involved in such a case, for if in one case it 

 can be unmistakably proved that a harmless bacterium can 

 be transformed into a pathogenic organism, i.e. that an 

 infectious malady can originate de novo., then we should at 

 once be relieved of searching for the initial cause in the 

 outbreak of an epidemic. But in that case we should be 

 forced to contemplate, as contained in the air, in the water, 

 in the soil, everywhere, numbers of bacteria which, owing to 

 some peculiar unknown condition, are capable at once to 

 start any kind of infectious disorder, say anthrax (Buchner), 

 infectious ophthalmia (Sattler), and probably a host of 

 other infectious diseases, and thus to form the starting- 

 point of epidemics. And the only redeeming feature, 

 if redeeming it can be called, in this calamity would be 

 the thought that the particular bacterium would by-and- 

 bye, owing to some accidental new conditions, again become 

 harmless. 



These were the reasons, and good reasons I think they 

 were, which prompted me to inquire into the jequirity 

 bacillus and jequirity ophthalmia, and after a very careful 

 and extensive series of experiments, to be described presently, 

 I have proved beyond any doubt that the jequirity bacillus, 

 per se, has no more power to create an infectious ophthalmia 

 than Buchner's hay bacillus had of creating anthrax. 

 The following experiments prove this conclusively : — 

 The seeds of jequirity (Abrus precatorius) are crushed and 

 powdered, the perisperm- is removed, and of the rest an 

 infusion is made of about the strength of half per cent, 

 with distilled water, previously boiled and contained in a 

 flask previously sterilised (by heat) and plugged with sterile 



