PERITONITIS AND BACTEREMIA IN MICE 



the hypothermic state existed. They also show that the intravenous 

 injection of bacteria which are normally eliminated from the blood 

 without any consequences for the animal results in a profuse bac- 

 teremia in mice in deep hypothermia. We have not yet had the op- 

 portunity to investigate whether this disagreement with Fedor's 

 (1958) results are due to differences as to the kind of animal, the 

 degree of hypothermia, or its duration, but it may be mentioned that 

 the observations of Gowen and Friou (1961) in dogs tally with our 

 results in mice. 



The observation that peritonitis and bacteremia are more fre- 

 quent in spontaneously dead mice than in animals sacrificed in good 

 condition after the same time of hypothermia maybe interpreted in 

 two ways. The generalized infection may be a dominating cause of 

 death, or it may be a concomitant phenomenon to other injuries 

 caused by h3T3othermia. In the former case it should be possible to 

 diminish the mortality of hypothermic mice with antibacterial treat- 

 ment. Such treatment was given to groups of h5Apothermic mice. 



The treatment (streptomycin + sulpha) effected a pronounced 

 change in the aerobic intestinal flora from a preponderance of the 

 Escherichia- Aerobacter group to a dominance of enterococci. The 

 latter species, however, did not replace the Gram- negative rods as 

 blood invaders. Generally, no bacteremia was observed in treated 

 animals. However, the average survival time in prolonged hypo- 

 thermia was not increased. Thus, bacteremia seems not to be a de- 

 termining factor in the debilitation and death of hypothermic mice. 

 These observations coincide, for example, with those recorded in 

 irradiated mice by Laurell et al. (1958) and Fallowfield et al. (1962), 

 but differ from the results of Miller et al. (1952). 



II, Experimental Peritonitis and Bacteremia 



Many studies have dealt with the effect of low temperature on in- 

 duced infection. The results have probably been contradictory be- 



253 



