ATMOSPHERE IN RELATION TO PUTREFACTION AND INFECTION. 
53 
The latest investigation of Dr. Klein has reference to the intimate anatomy of enteric 
fever. Its distinctive feature is set forth in the following extract from the report upon 
it by Mr. Simon : — “ The paper has its distinctive and very great interest in the fact 
that it purports to describe for the first time the contagium of enteric fever as some- 
thing cognizable to the eye; in respect of certain multiplying microscopical forms, 
apparently of the lowest vegetable life, which are found in innumerable swarms in the 
bowel-textures and bowel-discharges of the sick ; penetrating from the former to diffuse 
throughout the patient’s general system*, and teeming in the latter to represent, as this 
view supposes, the possible germs of epidemic infection.” 
As regards the medical profession, results like the foregoing and the interpretations 
affixed to them, are simply revolutionary. They are, therefore, not likely to be 
accepted without opposition. At a Meeting of the Pathological Society, held on the 
6th of last April, the germ-theory of disease was formally introduced as a subject for 
discussion, the debate being continued with great ability and earnestness at subsequent 
meetings. The Conference was attended by many distinguished medical men, some 
of whom were profoundly influenced by the arguments, and none of whom disputed 
the facts brought forward against the theory on that occasion. The leader of the 
debate, and the most prominent speaker, was Dr. Bastian, to whom also fell the task of 
replying on all the questions raised. The coexistence of Bacteria and contagious 
disease was admitted ; but instead of considering these organisms as “ probably the 
essence, or an inseparable part of the essence” of the contagium, Dr. Bastian 
contended that they were “ pathological products,” spontaneously generated in the 
body after it had been rendered diseased by the real contagium. The grouping of 
the ultimate particles of matter to form living organisms, Dr. Bastian considers to 
be an operation as little requiring the action of antecedent life as their grouping 
to form any of the “ other less complex chemical compounds.” Such a position 
must, of course, stand or fall by the evidence which its supporter is able to produce ; 
and accordingly Dr. Bastian appeals to the law and testimony of experiment as 
demonstrating the soundness of his view. He seems quite aware of the gravity of 
the matter in hand : this is his deliberate and almost solemn appeal: — “With the view 
of settling these questions, therefore, we may carefully prepare an infusion from some 
animal tissue, be it muscle, kidney, or liver ; we may place it in a flask whose neck is 
drawn out and narrowed in the blowpipe-flame, we may boil the fluid, seal the vessel 
during ebullition, and keeping it in a warm place, may await the result, as I have often 
done. After a variable time the previously heated fluid within the hermetically sealed 
flask swarms more or less plentifully with Bacteria and allied organisms — even though 
* In the silkworm epidemic called jpebrine, which was extirpated by Pasteur, the parasitic contagium first 
took possession of the intestinal canal, and spread thence “ throughout the patient’s general system.” He 
would he a hardy man who would deny the identity of parasite and contagium in this case, which appears to 
he precisely analogous to that of typhoid fever. See ‘ Fragments of Science,’ 1876, pp. 135-139. 
I 2 
