organisms in purulent nephritis in 1865; Rindfleisch in
pyemia in 1866; von Recklinghausen and Waldeyer
in metastatic abscesses in 1865. In 1872 Klebs had
shown how, starting from a wound, bacteria could pene-
trate the lymphatics or the veins by means of the in-
terstices of the connective tissue, and from there infect
the thrombi of the blood vessels or produce abscesses.
Then came the discovery of bacteria in erysipelas,
hospital gangrene, puerperal fever, diphtheria and other
diseases.

But on all these points there was still more legitimate
cause for doubt than in the case of anthrax, and far
from corroborating each other these different discov-
eries succeeded in being almost contradictory. Instead
of bringing order, they seemed to produce confusion. For
example, contrary to what appeared logical, pus of the
same nature and origin contained very different organ-
isms and, on the contrary, forms almost indistinguishable
occurred in very distinct diseases such as smallpox,
diphtheria and cholera. In a general way the organ-
isms discovered in these diseases bore a striking resem-
blance to each other and could scarcely be said to have
any special physiognomy, except the anthrax bacter-
idium, on account of its size and because it was found
in the blood, and the spirillum of recurrent fever, dis-
covered in 1873 by Obermeier, which also passes into
the blood when the fever is at its height, and the spiral
form of which serves to distinguish it. All the other
organisms were alike in form, size and properties, and
this formed an argument of which those who resisted
the contagion of the new ideas were not slow to avail
themselves.

Finally, to complete the perplexity of investigators,
bacteria were not found in some diseases which were
clearly of a contagious nature. After having set up

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