80 
i 
JAMES LAW. 
its special mode of action and its limitations, so that we can 
estimate with a reasonable amount of certainty the probable 
results in the two cases. 
“ In bacteria infection the self-multiplying organism is in¬ 
troduced into the body, and if it finds a suitable field for its 
growth it undergoes an indefinite increase, and may under¬ 
mine the health or destroy life in one of various ways ; for ex¬ 
ample by accumulating in the capillaries, arresting the flow of 
blood and abolishing the functions of vital organs, or leading 
to local abscess or gangrene ; by abstracting oxygen and other 
essential elements from the blood, and resolving this vital fluid 
into a poisonous in place of a life-giving stream ; or by repro¬ 
ducing itself in myriads, elaborating a vast amount of noxious 
chemical products and killing by poisoning. The bacteria in¬ 
toxication or poisoning, on the other hand, is effected directly 
by the products of the growth of the bacteria, or in other 
words, by a chemical compound incapable in itself of repro¬ 
ducing or increasing its substance. The respective powers 
and limitations of the two poisons may thus be mapped out 
wifh great clearness. 
“ It is manifest that from bacteria infection may be de¬ 
rived all the evil results of bacteria intoxication, in addition 
to certain pernicious actions peculiarly its own. The germ 
being a living organism, with limitless powers of growth, it is 
manifest that apart from the power of the system to support 
it, there can be no bound to the amount of chemical poisonous 
product it may generate, and thus to its own special work of 
destruction of the essential constituents of the blood, deoxida¬ 
tion of the vital fluid, plugging of vessels, local abscess and 
gangrene, it must ever add the poisonous influences of its 
purely chemical products. But it has its limitations as well, 
which do not belong to its products. In several bacteridian 
diseases the system will not sustain nor nourish the bacteria 
with the same readiness a second time, if at all. The system 
that has once sustained an attack does not readily succumb to 
the same again. An incompatibility or antagonism has been 
established between the system thus protected and the bacter¬ 
ium, and henceforth the system may be repeatedly inoculated 
