356 
M. TKOUESSART. 
essential points in question, viz: contagion and virulency. Let 
us now return to Mr. Robin’s theory. 
In saying that the microbe developes itself in altered tissues, 
he is not so far from the parasitic theory as his pupils seem to 
suppose. It imports little if the microbe is a complication, an 
epiphenomenon, if this secondary condition dominates the entire 
disease, and gives to it its dangerous character and its contagious 
and virulent nature. In the wound of the serpent it is not the 
bite of the teeth of the animal that makes it dangerous, but the 
introduction of the venom which accompanies it, or the “ epiphe¬ 
nomenon and the same thing exists in the anatomical wound. 
Two men are affected with pneumonia in the same circum¬ 
stances; one recovers easily, because he is but thirty years old; 
the other will almost certainly succumb, because he is seventy-five. 
Will it be said that he dies from old age, and that pneumonia was 
only an “ epiphenomena ?” 
Oidium and phyloxera destroy vines exhausted by improper 
cultivation; will it be said that oidium and phyloxera are not two 
serious diseases, and that they are only “ epiphenomena ?” 
It is then evident that Robin’s theory, as presented by his 
pupils, is no longer on a level with science, and at least is not 
applicable to virulent and contagious diseases. 
Theory of Mr. Charlton Bastian and English physicians of his 
school. —This, the theory of the most ardent opponents to that of 
Tyndall and Pasteur, is found elaborated in the writings of Lewis 
and Lionel S. Beale. It differs but little from the preceding. 
According to Lewis, “ it is evident that the mycrophites of the 
blood are only epiphenomena; that the changes of the liquids of 
the body take place before the slightest trace of their presence 
can be found.”* This, evidently, is Robin’s theory. 
Beale is more exclusive and absolute.! With him, the solid 
particles of vaccine are not bacterias or microccocci, but bioplasts , 
or elements derived from the living matter of the cow, and these 
bioplasts constitute the effective contagiums of all virulent dis- 
* Microphytes of the Blood, 1881. 
t Microscope in Medicine, 1882. Fourth Edition. 
