242 MICRO-ORGANISMS AND DISEASE. [CHAP. 



F. W. Zahn. 1 Consequently it cannot be maintained that if 

 in any focus of disintegration micro-organisms make their 

 appearance they are derived from those normally present ; 

 we must, on the contrary, assume that putrefactive organisms 

 can be imported from parts connected with the outer world 

 into distant localities in which disorganisation of tissues has 

 taken place. 



It is clear from the foregoing that after death micro- 

 organisms will readily immigrate into the various tissues, and 

 in this respect those organs situated near places where under 

 all conditions micro-organisms exist will be the first to be 

 invaded by them; e.g. the lungs, from micro-organisms 

 present in the bronchi and air-cells derived from the outer 

 air, the walls of the alimentary canal, the mesenteric glands, 

 the peritoneal cavity, the liver and the spleen. The bacilli 

 possessed of locomotion are particularly to be mentioned in 

 this respect, but other non-motile bacilli and micrococci also 

 find their way into these organs ; thus Koch 2 saw only a 

 few hours after death bacilli (non-motile) present in the 

 blood of the arteries of a healthy person who had died by 

 strangulation. 



Quite recently Bizzozero has shown (Centralbl. f. d. med. Wiss. No. 

 45, 1885) that in perfectly normal and living rabbits the lymphatic 

 tissue of the Peyer's glands of the intestine contains bacteria, either free 

 between the lymph-cells, or aggregated in groups within the protoplasm 

 of certain large lymph-cells. I have myself had opportunity to verify 

 this statement. In a perfectly healthy rabbit immediately after killing 

 it, the peritoneum and outer muscular coat is stripped off, then with 

 a clean and sterilized scalpel a scraping is made from the lymphatic 

 tissue of the deepest part of a Peyer's gland, of course care being 

 taken that the mucous membrane lining the intestinal cavity remains 

 unopened. With the scraping cover-glass specimens are then made, 



1 Virchow's Archiv, vol. xcv. 



2 Pathogene Micro -organismen. 



