II. 



SOME OF THE PROBLEMS OF BAC- 

 TERIOLOGY. 



THEKE is no subject which, during the last decade, 

 has occupied as large a part of the attention and in- 

 terest of the profession as the germ theory of disease. 

 It is perhaps safe to say that it would have been impos- 

 sible during the last few years to find a single issue of 

 any medical journal in Europe or America which did 

 not contain some reference to it. It is also safe to 

 say that the medical historian of the future will de- 

 scribe our age as chiefly characterized by the develop- 

 ments in this direction, and that, in the word picture, 

 the germ theory of disease will stand out pre-eminent. 

 "When we consider the large proportion of suffering 

 and death due to the infectious diseases, medical and 

 surgical, and remember that this theory has offered an 

 explanation of their causation, propagation and many 

 of their phenomena, and points to methods not only of 

 cure, but of prevention, which is greater than cure, 

 we are not surprised that it should have risen rapidly 

 into prominence and already exercised such an influ- 

 ence in medical thought and action. 



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