ON THE REAL NATURE OF DISEASE GERMS. 853 
diameters, it will be discovered that this is not a simple fluid 
like water containing the nucleus and chlorophyl. But the 
apparent fluid has suspended in it an infinite number of 
particles of living matter, like those of which the amoeba, 
white blood-corpuscle, and other forms of living matter con- 
sist. With high powers the slightly opalescent appearance 
may be detected, and by careful focussing, the minute par- 
ticles of living matter will be brought into view. The 
movements of the fluid may therefore be compared with the 
movements of the living bioplasm of an amoeba. In the 
circulating juice of many plants similar appearances may be 
observed, and in the blood and circulating fluid of all animals, 
and in man himself, minute particles of living matter are to 
be demonstrated in immense multitudes. These are diffused 
through the fluid, and to them is probably due the movement 
of the contents of the finer vessels and spaces. This con- 
stituent of the blood, seen with such difficulty that its 
presence is not yet admitted by observers, is probably the 
most important, for its increase or diminution may occasion 
serious disease or death. This almost impalpable living 
moving matter is the seat of many very important changes, 
and is perhaps influenced before any other constituents of 
the body when certain poisons and disease germs find their 
way into the blood. “ Protection,” after successful vaccina- 
tion, and the escape from a second attack, which is the rule 
in the case of many contagious fevers, is most likely brought 
about by changes induced in the living matter under con- 
sideration. 
In health it is upon this material that the coagulable pro- 
perty of the blood is mainly dependent, and it is this which 
in great part undergoes conversion into what we call fibrin, 
when the blood is removed from the living vessels or “ dies.” 
If destroyed it mav, under favorable circumstances, be re- 
newed by the appropriation of nutrient matter. The white 
blood-corpuscles are intimately related to this living bioplasm, 
and take part in its formation. I believe they bear to it the 
same relation as the “ nucleus” in the cell of Yallisneria 
bears to the living particles suspended in the fluid, while the 
red blood-corpuscles of the blood correspond to the chlorophyl 
particles in the rotating fluid contents of the vegetable cell. 
Attention will presently be drawn to the vast importance of 
this living fibrin-forming matter in various exudations, and 
it will be found that a simple explanation of many most im- 
portant morbid phenomena may be given. Now in the fluid 
exudation or virus which produces a “poisoned wound ” when 
inoculated we also find minute particles of living bioplasm. 
xliii. 56 
