470 
PATHOLOGICAL PHYSIOLOGY. 
organic mixture by successive cultures, which purify and segregate 
it, and allow the observer to see it alone, at its work in the organ¬ 
ization where it is introduced ; this microbe alone gives rise to 
the manifestations of glanders, characterized by all its symptoms 
and lesions, with as much certainty as when the disease proceeds 
from the virulent matter inoculated in its natural state. 
Here there is a new advance into the domain of microby, this 
new world, where many discoveries are yet in reserve, waiting for 
those explorers who, provided with all the necessary means, have 
devoted themselves to the researches rendered so delicate and 
difficult by the excessive smallness of the beings whose existence 
is to be observed and their proportions recognized. 
Before proceeding further, we desire to improve this occasion 
to recall the large share of credit which belongs to Prof. Chau- 
veau of Lyons, for aiding in the solution of the problem of the 
“ intimate nature of virulency.” Every one remembers the in¬ 
genious experiments by which he elucidated the theory. Borrow¬ 
ing from Spallanzani the method of dilution by which that great 
physiologist demonstrated the agency of spermatozoids in the 
spermatic secretion, Mr. Cheaveau has shown that a dilution 
would act in the same manner for virulent elements as for the 
sperm, viz., that they reduced their ability in proportion to their 
extent, and that in both cases it, so to speak, rendered it aleatory; 
the chances of manifestation of this ability being conditioned on 
the presence of the living particles in the drop of tested dilution, 
spermatozoid in one, and in the other the corpuscle proceeding 
from the virulent matter. 
- Mr. Chauveau did not remain satisfied with this first mode of 
demonstration. He had recourse to the method of diffusion to 
prove that, in virulent matters, the activity proper was inherent, 
not in the liquid substance susceptible of diffusion, but in the 
solid particles which remain at the bottoms of vases, and which 
the motion of diffusion failed to carry. Again, he has made as 
complete as possible the demonstration that the figurative cor¬ 
puscles of virulent liquids alone possess the specific properties of 
rhose liquids, by showing that, even after five successive washings, 
in a large quantity of liquid, these corpuscular elements are the 
