THE INFLUENZA IN HORSES. 
267 
ward, of the United States Army. The muco-purulent 
discharge from the nose contained only the common vege¬ 
table spores already found in the air. As the disease 
advances the blood abounds in microscopic granules, which 
are, however, indistinguishable from those present in that 
liquid in the course of other specific fevers, and may be held 
to indicate the activity of the morbid processes in the blood 
elements and tissues consequent on the presence of the fever 
poisons and the imperfect elimination of waste matters from 
the system. In the substance of the inflamed mucous mem¬ 
brane these granules or nuclei increase to an extraordinary 
extent, and present most of the same properties as regards 
absorption of colouring and other materials, and presumably 
of reproducing themselves, as naturally belong to the soft 
nuclei (germinal matter) of the various tissues of the body. 
These morbid nuclei are increased with extraordinary ra¬ 
pidity at the expense of the vital elements, liquid and solid, 
of the body, so that Beale and others have concluded that 
they either constituted the virulent principle or contained it. 
The theory which sustains the virulent nature of this bio¬ 
plasm is that which at present accords best with the facts 
observed. It explains how microscopic masses of organic 
matter (granules), without any regular form, size, or structure, 
may float in the atmosphere indistinguishable from other 
inert granular matter, and yet, on gaining access to the body 
of a susceptible animal, may grow and increase at the ex¬ 
pense of the native elements of such body, inducing some 
form of specific disease. That one kind of such bioplasm 
should produce influenza, and that only, while another 
utterly indistinguishable from it by any available means of 
observation should produce rinderpest, a third smallpox, 
and a fourth the contagious lung fever of cattle, is no more 
wonderful nor incomprehensible than that the healthy nuclei 
of bone should invariably build up the hard bone, while those 
of brain matter, though indistinguishable except in position, 
should always build up brain; those of muscle, muscle; 
or those of gristle, gristle. This theory, then, is we 
think, to be received as most accordant with reason and 
the present state of our science, but not as an indisputable 
truth. 
Before leaving this subject it should be noted that in the 
advanced stages of the worst cases of influenza, the blood 
contains minute staff-shaped bodies (bacteria); but as these 
are often seen in the advanced stages of exhausting and 
typhoid diseases, when the blood is surcharged with effete 
organic elements, their presence is to be looked on as im- 
xlvi, 19 
