The germ theory applied to the explanation of the phenomena of disease : the specific fevers / by T. Maclagan.

  • Maclagan, T. J. (Thomas John), 1838-1903.
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The germ theory applied to the explanation of the phenomena of disease : the specific fevers / by T. Maclagan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    «■] us, that our vision has bounds beyond which it cannot reach. But we are not warranted in regarding1 the limits of our im- perfect vision as the bounds beyond which organized life is impossible. Neither, on the other hand, are we warranted in assuming the existence of organisms ‘minute beyond the reach of all sense 5 without giving grounds for such a faith. All that we know regarding contagium is, (i) that it consists of minute solid particles ; (2) that these particles are probably organized; (3) that in chemical composition they so closely resemble the fluids in which they occur, that the chemist fails to detect even their presence; and (4) that they are so very minute that the highest powers of the microscope fail to give us definite information regarding their nature, or even their existence. Beyond this point the combined efforts of the biologist, the chemist, and the microscopist have failed to carry us. But there is another mode of investigating the subject which has bad but little attention bestowed on it, but which we believe to be capable of affording good results, and of leading to a more accurate knowledge of the true nature of contagium. An organism, which is too minute for ocular examination, has its place in nature defined by its action on its environment. Now, if contagium be organized; and if, as the advocates of the germ theory maintain, the organisms of which it consists are reproduced in enormous quantities within the body, it is not umeasonable to suppose that a careful consideration of the phenomena which manifest themselves during the period at which this reproduction is going on, may throw some light on the tiue nature of the cause which gives rise to them. In other words, a study of the action of the contagium on its environment, may not only advance our knowledge of the pathology of contagious and infectious diseases, but may throw much light on the nature of the contagium itself.
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