MICROBES AND CONTAGIOUS DISEASES 
415 
MICROBES AND CONTAGIOUS DISEASES, 
By M. Trouessart.* 
('Continued from page 358.) 
Theory of the ptomaines. —The discovery of specific alkaloids 
in the pus, by Pamoin (sepsine) and in cadavers and substances 
undergoing putrefaction, by Selim and Gautier, (ptomaines) 
furnished the partisans of the theory of the unorganized 
viruses with their last chance by encouraging the suggestion that 
these ptomaines, or toxic alkaloids, are the product of merely 
chemical morbid alterations in the cadaver, forming themselves in 
the tissues and liquids of the economy irrespective of all mi- 
crobian influences. This idea, in reality, does not, a priori , differ 
from Mr. Robin’s theory of blastema, and if this be admitted, it 
follows that all the pathogenic microbes become assimilated to 
the bacillus of Jequirity of Sakler, which lives and grows, it is 
true, in the toxic juice of the seeds of the Abrusprecatorius, but 
has no connection, as proved by Klein, with the artificial con¬ 
junctivitis which it produces. 
But this theory of the ptomaines without microbes cannot be 
sustained in the presence of an impartial study of the facts. We 
are able, it is true, by a proper filtration, to separate the ptom¬ 
aine from its microbe; but the converse, (as in the case of the 
Jequirity) is an impossibility. This microbe, separated from the 
primitive liquid and placed in bouillons of successive cultures, in 
order to obtain it pure from any foreign element, not only con¬ 
tinues to produce its characteristic ptomaine, but produces it en¬ 
tirely at the expense of the liquid of culture, as demonstrated by 
the recent experiments of Gabriel Pouchet with the ptomaine of 
cholera. There is no more a ptomaine without a special microbe 
than there is ergotine without claviceps purpurea, or vinegar 
without my coderma aceti. 
The mycrobian theory of Mr. Pasteur is the only one which 
* From the Revue Scientifique, Feb. 26, 1885. 
