82 BACTERIA. 



occurring in diphtheria and in abscesses of the kidney. These results, with 

 some modifications and additions, were almost immediately confirmed by 

 Waldeyer and Weigert ; Recklinghausen and Weigert concluding that these 

 micrococci were all in the lymphatic vessels, Waldeyer, on the other hand, 

 holding that some, at any rate, were contained in the blood-vessels. 



In 1872 E. Klebs found in pus, organisms which he de- 

 scribes most graphically as rod-like bodies, the so-called 

 bacteria, motionless, frequently grouped in short chains, or 

 in longer threads. He also found numerous micro-spores, 

 very minute refractile organisms, whose diameter might be 

 at most .5^, some lying isolated and free, and having 

 oscillating movements, others linked together in rosary-like 

 threads. Having found them in the discharges he examined 

 granulation tissue (raw or " proud " flesh), in lymph canals, in 

 spaces in the septa or partitions between muscles, in inflamed 

 marrow of bones, and in the ulcerating cartilage of diseased 

 and injured joints, in the walls of blood-vessels and in thrombi 

 or clots formed in the vessels and attached to their walls. 

 These organisms were in all cases situated near the primary 

 wound (the researches were carried on during the Franco- 

 Prussian war), but having found the micro-organisms in this 

 position he next traced them to the abscesses that formed 

 in distant internal organs in cases of pyaemia. In fact, 

 wherever there were points of secondary disease or suppura- 

 tion, there he was able to demonstrate the presence of these 

 organisms ; whilst in very severe cases of blood-poisoning he 

 was actually able to demonstrate their presence in the circu- 

 lating blood. In consequence of this constant presence of the 

 bacteria and micrococci in these various disease areas, he 

 felt justified in concluding that the organisms he had observed 

 and described were the cause of the pyaemic and septicaemic 

 conditions, and that also to their action was due the forma- 

 tion of pus, of abscesses, and even of ulcerative inflamma- 

 tions of the vessel walls. There can be little doubt that 

 the ingenious experiments devised and carried out by him 

 and his pupils formed a groundwork on which succeeding 

 investigators found it possible to build up the present mag- 

 nificent structure. He conceived the idea of separating the 

 micro-organism from the poison which it produced by 

 means of baked clay cylinders, and found that fluid so treated, 

 although it gave rise to constitutional disturbance when in- 

 jected into the blood or under the skin, did not induce 



