RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS. 
361 
Mr Bouley agreed withthis idea, and said that the sporadic dis¬ 
ease is very rare. He said, also, that the question of spontaneity 
is well decided, and alluded to the importation of the disease into 
some parts of America, where it had never before existed. 
Mr. Liautard, on the invitation of Bouley, referred to the facts 
already known in the American history of the disease as imported 
into Massachusetts. It was effectually suppressed, and has not 
reappeared since 1865. 
Mr. Lydtin spoke on the same subject. 
The President stated that Dr. Willems, an honorary member of 
the Congress, wished to occupy the floor, and he improved the 
occasion to propose to the Congress a vote of welcome to this 
learned gentleman who has spent a great deal of his activity in 
supporting and disseminating a discovery which may yet be 
questioned by few, but which, at any rate, is one of great value 
in the history of pleuro-pneumonia. (General applause.) 
Dr. Willems thanked the Congress for the expression of their 
esteem. He opposed the theory of spontaneity, and recalled 
several cases in proof of the contagiousness of the disease. He 
showed how the disease had been introduced at Hasselt in 1836, 
and was induced to recommend the practice of inoculation. 
Mr. Rossignol presented his views in reference to the differen¬ 
tial diagnosis. 
Prof. Wehenkel said that he did not think the question of 
spontaneity or non-spontaneity ought to occupy all the time of the 
Congress. He declared that there is nothing which can oppose 
the admission of the direct germs of the disease, or even of in¬ 
ferior beings; he saw nothing impossible in transformism ; on 
the contrary, he believed in its reality. He believed that the 
question of spontaneity can be laid on the table, and that the 
principle admitted by the Congress of Zurich could be admitted 
by us, viz.:—that “ from the point of view of sanitary police and 
of practical medicine ,” this malady might be considered as purely 
contagious ; “ and in proceeding in this manner, ”he added, “ every 
one will be left to his philosophical opinions upon the question 
of spontane ’y or non-spontaneity of the disease.” 
“ The measures of sanitary police ought to be based upon the 
