322 
NATURE OF MATERIES MORBI. 
How would each homesick resident have welcomed the 
genial inspiration of the Saint-Hilaires, and have expanded 
under the grateful influence of a study which brought them 
once more within the pale of European sympathies ! 
“ 4 Thoughts perish/ says the eternal record; well is it, 
therefore, for the natural philosopher of the present day * 
that his deepest theories may be translated into living and 
palpable realities; and that while men stumble over books 
and sentences, he may not only realise his speculations, but 
present them in a language intelligible to humanity in 
common. 
“ In I860 M. E. Roehn thought that the alpaca* was 
destined to be of essential service; he sent over and acclima¬ 
tized the animal, and it is now writing it own history 
(practical and scientific) in the garden at Paris, in the indus¬ 
trial produce of Australia, in the fabrics of the North of 
England, in the covering of my umbrella, and in my last 
tailor’s bill. May I commend this great subject specially to 
pharmaceutists ? May I offer them, even though but as a 
relaxation from their severer studies, a theme so rich in 
associations and so fertile in results? 
“ Haply a stray, sight-worn English tourist, tired of the 
theatre and sickened with the glare and glitter of Mabille, 
may be glad to seek refuge on some quiet autumn morning 
in the more placid, though not less pleasurable, scenes of the 
Jardin d’Acclimatation.” 
NATURE OF «MATERIES MORBI,” AND THE ACTION OF 
PERMANGANATE OF POTASH THEREON. 
By H. B. Condy. 
This term is applied to the emanations from the bodies 
and intestinal discharges of persons suffering from contagious 
diseases, whose only ascertained property is that of gene¬ 
rating in other individuals, predisposed for their develop¬ 
ment, definite affections, in the course of which matter 
possessing the same power is reproduced. There is no evi¬ 
dence to show that these substances are of a gaseous or even 
truly vaporous nature. The fact that those contagious mat¬ 
ters which are accessible, such as the virus of cow-pox and 
* “ This paper is of course written from a French point of view. I am not 
ignorant of the English claim to the introduction of the alpaca, nor of the 
admirable acclimatization experiments of Messrs. Ledger, Wilson, and 
others. Let us hope that some competent authority will give an account 
of recent Australian success.” 
