92 



DR. BASTIAN ON THE 



seem to be generable de novo at the will of the operator by merely 

 placing the animal for a few days under particular sets of un- 

 healthy conditions. 



(c) Some of the ferment-org«inisms may also be made to ap- 

 pear at will in certain parts of still living and previously healthy 

 animals by determining in any such part either (i) a greatly 

 lowered vital activity, or (2) an active perversion of the nutritive 

 life of the part of considerable intensity. 



1. This subject has been studied experimentally by Messrs. 

 Lewis and Cunningham *, two thoroughly competent and trust- 

 worthy observers, whose researches during recent years have won 

 for them a deservedly high reputation. They say, " The object of 

 the experiments was to ascertain whether, by interfering with the 

 vascular supply of certain tissues and organs of the body of an 

 animal without injuring the isolated tissue, we should be able 

 within the course of some hours to detect organisms in those 

 parts in the same manner as we had been able to do when an 

 animal had been killed under chloroform and set aside in a warm 

 place. We found that such was the result, and that a kidney, 

 for example, when [its artery was] carefully ligatured without in- 

 terfering with its position in the abdomen, would be found after 

 some hours to contain precisely similar organisms ; whereas the 

 other kidney, whose circulation had not been interfered with, 

 contained no trace of any vegetation whatever "f. 



* ' The Fungus-Disease of India,' Calcutta, 1875, p. 89. 



t On September 17, 1877, I had an opportunity of seeing how far this would 

 hold good for the human subject. On that day I made an examination, 12 

 hours after death, of the body of a young man who had been suffering from 

 severe heart-disease in University College Hospital. His temperature had only 

 been slightly raised for about 48 hours before death ; but there was reason for 

 believing that embolic obstructions had recently occurred in one or both 

 kidneys. Abundant " vegetations " were found on the mitral and aortic valves, 

 and two or three embolic patches existed in each kidney, some being recent and 

 others of older date. One large yellowish embolic patch was likewise found 

 occupying the upper extremity of an enlarged spleen. Some blood from the 

 right ventricle and some urine from the bladder, carefully removed with capil- 

 lary tubes, on examination with the microscope and a ^ object-glass, showed 

 no organisms of any kind. Portions of tissue cut from the interior of the liver 

 also showed no organisms. On the other hand, the embolic patch in the spleen 

 as well as those in the kidney, both old and recent, showed, when portions of 

 their disintegrated substance were examined, organisms, more or less abun- 

 dantly distributed, similar to those which Messrs. Cunningham and Lewis have 

 figured. Some were Bacilli and some were more like what Cohn now distin- 



