The graft theory of disease : being an application of Mr. Darwin's hypothesis of pangenesis to the explanation of the phenomena of the zymotic diseases / by James Ross.

Date:
1872
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The graft theory of disease : being an application of Mr. Darwin's hypothesis of pangenesis to the explanation of the phenomena of the zymotic diseases / by James Ross. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    say that any precautions were taken to destroy germs which might have adhered to the inside of the capillary tube, or to prevent germs settling upon the lymph before it was taken into the tube. The par- ticles which are still spheroidal may be the vaccine particles, while the staff-shaped bodies may be de- scendants from germs which have found their way from without. I do not at all wish it to be thought that I am placing my opinion upon a question of fact on a level with that of such an accomplished observer and experimentalist as Dr. Sanderson, but I think that he himself will admit that even if con- tagium particles exhibit movements similar to bac- teria, and like them elongate into rods, this does not prove that, like the latter, they are independent organisms ; and he will also probably admit that the caution here given is by no means unnecessary. This digression has caused us to lose sight for a time of the question under discussion, which is, whether the contagium particles are living ; of course if they are independent organisms like bacteria, there can be no doubt that they are in possession of life; and if, on the other hand, they are not inde- pendent organisms, the fact that they have been recently detached from a living body, and that they exhibit the physical and chemical characters of pro- toplasm, along with the active movements peculiar to living units, are sufficient indications that they are possessed of life. The question then stands thus: Professor Chauveau, by experiments similar