558 
PATHOLOGICAL PHYSIOLOGY. 
What is the significance of this rapidity in the work of reor¬ 
ganization ? The old pathology could not give it to ns, but if we 
admit the accumulation, by rapid growth, of the elements of viru- 
lency in the tissue of the membrane, as a highly favorable 
medium of culture, we may understand how the anatomical ele¬ 
ments constituting this membrane may be, as it were, smothered 
to death by the microbes gathered around and in them, and that 
once dead, the tissue loses its cohesion and becomes transformed 
into a putrid pulp. There is, again, no doubt that in such cases 
the diastasis which are the products of the manifestation of the 
life of the microbes, will add their proper effect to that of the 
microbes themselves. 
In this last point of view, I believe that very important indi¬ 
cations may be found in aid of the interpretation of the facts of 
microbian pathology, in a special study made by Professor 
Duclax of the parts complicated in the action of microbes in the 
fermentation of cheese. According to all probabilities, we may 
consider as diastatic phenomena, the agglutinative state of the 
blood and the diffluency of the spleen, in the bacteridian anthrax, 
and no doubt, also, the softening of the tissues of the pituitary 
membrane, in acute glanders. The dissolving action of a certain 
diastasis upon the caseine of milk in fermentation justifies the 
comparison. 
It seems to me, gentlemen, that the consideration I have just 
introduced constitutes satisfactory evidence of the extent to 
which the idea of the microbian nature of glanders is admissible 
in the interpretation of the phenomena, hitherto so mysterious, 
which characterizes the disease. The old pathological anatomy 
could only note the facts—the microbian pathology explains 
them. The lesion of glanders, wherever found, is the expression 
of the irritating action of the microbes, both by themselves and 
through the products of their vital activity. 
But why are the lesions of glanders mostly located in the 
respiratory apparatus, of which the skin may be considered as 
an essential dependance ? 
The ultimate query involved in this interrogatory is always 
present, and, when satisfied, becomes always introductory to 
others. 
