A report of microscopical and physiological researches into the nature of the agent or agents producing cholera : second series / by T.R. Lewis and D.D. Cunningham.
- Timothy Richards Lewis
- Date:
- 1874
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A report of microscopical and physiological researches into the nature of the agent or agents producing cholera : second series / by T.R. Lewis and D.D. Cunningham. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![more generally, perhaps, than for any other, we find that an authority like Dr. Burdon-Sanderson refuses to allow that anything beyond a eoincidenee has been proved to exist be- tween the occurrence of bacteria and the presence of infective properties in inflammatory fluids,* and that observers, such as Robin,f Strieker,:]: and Billroth,§ fail to detect such bodies in the blood of living animals suffering from the disease. Our own experience has not been favourable to the ac- The significance of the prea- ceptance of any such doctrines resrard- ence of organisms in the • ,1 • n n i • -i n« 1 tissues after death. ing the influence oi bacteria and allied organisms, nor can we accept them until mucli more evidence than at present exists has been adduced in their favour. We feel that all evidence founded on post-mortem examinations, however remarkable the phenomena in such cases may be, requires most cautious scrutiny; for, even if it be granted that the normal tissues and fluids do not, as a rule, contain the elements of bacteria and remain free of such organisms for prolonged periods under peculiar circumstances, these circumstances, as our experiments show, are certainly not those to which dead bodies are ordinarily exposed. In regard to this particular point, questions relative to the ultimate origin of the bacteria are not of special moment. It matters little whether their presence be due to entrance from without, to the development of inherent germs, or to heterosenetic transformations in the elements of the fluids and tissues; the really important fact being that, in one way or other, they are capable of appearing in healthy as well as in morbid materials. Even were vegetable organisms of a distinct nature demonstrated to exist in the dead fluids and tissues of each disease, the fact might merely indicate the existence of peculiarities in the composition of the medium, and additional evidence in favour of their causative relations to the antecedent disease processes would yet be necessaiy. Where the presence of such organisms is demonstrated during the life of the host, the case The significance of their js n0 doubt different', but even here, presence during life. w . ' . . . there is a great Jack oi evidence to prove that they really are causes and not consequences of the diseased condition. Dr. Burdon-Sanderson's experiments * The Lancet, Vol. I, 1873, p. 734. t TraitS Du Microscope, Pnris, 1871, p. 932. % The Medical Times and Gazette, Vol. I, 1873, p. 62. § The Medical Times and Gazette, Vol. 11, 1874, p. 48.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20395607_0042.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
