Specificity and evolution in disease : a paper read at the Conference of Medical Officers of Health, in the Guildhall Worcester, September 26th, 1889 / by W.J. Collins ; with the discussion thereon.

  • Collins, William Job, 1859-1946.
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specificity and evolution in disease : a paper read at the Conference of Medical Officers of Health, in the Guildhall Worcester, September 26th, 1889 / by W.J. Collins ; with the discussion thereon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    diseases of man, in the sense that it has unques- tionably identified a specific morphological unit as the 7'era causa of any one of them. Relapsing fever, with its spirillum Obermeieri, is only a doubtful exception to the statement. There are many considerations which have tended of late to direct the minds of thoughtful pathologists to a chemico-physical rather than a biological explanation of zymotic poisons; and in cases w'here a micro-organism is habitually present it may be questioned whether its pathogenic modus operandi may not be merely to facilitate a chemical change which may be effected without it, as we know may occur in normal digestive processes. The researches of Gautier and others have sufficed to show how numerous and potent are the ptomaines or animal alkaloids which are recover- able from dying tissue, the result of decomposition of the complex albumin molecule, and there is no reason to suppose that their pathogenic effects would afford less satisfactory or less rational ex- planation of the process of specific febrile disease than a morphological noxa whose presence is so assiduously sought for. The ophthalmia pro- duced by the insertion of an infusion of Jequirity (abrus precatorius) into the conjunctival sac was thought to be due to the bacilli it contained ; but it was found that boiling the infusion destroyed its irritant property without destroying the spores of the bacilli, and cultivations therefrom, though rich in bacilli, were harmless in effect. The conclusion being that a chemical poison abrin is the pathoge- netic agent. The foregoing facts, I submit, do not warrant our insisting that the acceptance, within limits, of the bacterial hypothesis of certain diseases implies a
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