Page:The healing art in its historic and prophetic aspects - the Harveian oration delivered before the Royal College of Physicians, Oct. 19, 1885 (IA b21908199).pdf/32

 time, was the discovery of the first vegetable parasite in the skin and hairs, by Gruby (7) and others, about the year 1840! The notion of parasiticism as a cause of disease has clung to pathology in all ages; and the analogy between fermen- tation and the acute specific processes has long possessed the mind of every thoughtful physician. But we ought clearly to bear in mind, in justice to modern medicine, that the Torula cerevisiae itself was not discovered until 1835, by Schwann and others, and that it is only within the last few years that the presence and activity of an organism have been definitely connected with a specific febrile discase-I refer to the discovery of the spirillum of Relapsing Fever by Oberneier in 1873. A new era in pathology, whatever may be its result, has arisen within the last few years with the rise of bacteriology. A host of highly trained and eager observers in Germany, France, England, and other countries, following the teachings of Koch, are now en- gaged in the study of the acute infective diseases; and by ever-improving methods striving to contribute something fresh to the great but still obscure and unsettled subject of the relation of these organisins to pathology. Fallacious no doubt as were some of the earlier conclusions on this subject, there seems to be no question that the study of Bacteria and Bacilli has greatly widened our views of the nature of disease, and that it promises to lead to practical results of the first importance as regards its pre- vention or modification at the hands of Pasteur and others. The value of all this progress has been greatly extended pathology. by the aid of that new line of scientific inquiry which has already done so much, and which promises still more-I mean Experimental Pathology. Of this subject Hunter laid the foundations a hundred years ago; but it was reserved for our own time to see the extension of his method on a large scale in this country to the subjects of fever and infection to the study of artificially produced disease,