104 Pasteur's Researches on, Putrefaction. 



ordinary circumstances, shut against the introduction of the 

 germs of inferior beings ; consequently putrefaction begins 

 first at the surface, and afterwards reaches the interior of a 

 solid mass. If a whole animal is left after death either in contact 

 with, or sheltered from, air, its surface is covered with germs 

 of inferior organism which the atmosphere has conveyed. Its 

 intestinal canal in which fascal matters are formed is filled not 

 only with germs, but with fully developed vibrions, as Leewen- 

 hoek perceived. These vibrions are much in advance of those 

 on the surface of the body. They are adult individuals, deprived 

 of air, bathed in liquids, and in process of multiplication and 

 function-performance. It is by their aid the putrefaction of 

 the body begins, which has only been preserved up to that time 

 by life and the nutrition of its organs." 



After a few observations M. Pasteur declares his conviction 

 that " neither in their origin nor in their nature is there any 

 resemblance between putrefaction and gangrene," and he adds, 

 " instead of being a putrefaction properly so called, gangrene 

 appears to be that condition of an organ in which one part is 

 preserved in spite of death from putrefaction, and in which the 

 liquids and solids act and react chemically and physically 

 beyond the normal actions of nutrition." 



We shall only remark upon this very important and in- 

 teresting paper that few English microscopists adhere to Ehren- 

 berg's notion, which is adopted by M. Pasteur, that vibrions are 

 animals. On the contrary, Drs. Arlidge, Williamson, Burnett, 

 and other authorities, agree with Cohn that they belong to the 

 vegetable kingdom, and are in many cases transitional forms of 

 Algas. 



