176 BACTERIA IN THE SPUTA 



attributed to bacteria the venomous action of the saliva or 

 sputa were Eaynaud and Lannelongue, in 1891. The rabbits 

 that were inoculated with the saliva of a boy who died of 

 rabies, died ; whilst the inoculations with the blood or the buccal 

 mucus were harmless. Pasteur saw two rabbits die after inocula- 

 tion with the same saliva ; and the cultivated microbes exhibited 

 the shape of dumb-bell bacteria in a gelatinous capsule. He then 

 believed he had discovered the cause of hydrophobia ; but Cohn- 

 heim, having noticed the rapidity of the infection, qualified it for 

 septicaemia. 



After these first experiments, Vulpian produced the same infec- 

 tion by inoculating with the normal saliva ; and, in the blood of 

 the inoculated animals, Rochefontaine and Arthaud detected 

 microbes quite identical with the above-named. Sternberg and 

 Claxton confirmed the observations of Vulpian ; but Grififin 

 demonstrated that the saliva of the parotides, gathered separately, 

 is harmless ; so that the infection is to be attributed to secondary 

 products of decomposition, formed in the buccal cavity. Gaglio 

 and De Mattei held the same view, and noticed that the saliva 

 became harmless after boiling. 



Fraenkel in 1884 confirmed anew the observations of Vulpian. 

 He found that dogs were more receptive, the mice less so, and 

 still less guinea-pigs. Dogs, pigeons, and fowls were refractory. 



Miller obtained identical inoculations with the excretion of a 

 woman affected with micosis of the tonsils. He separated after- 

 wards from a decayed root five fungi, of which one was distinctly 

 pathogenous. 



Klein and others studied the venomous action of groups of 

 microbes of the human sputa, so that in late years pathogenic 

 properties were gradually attributed to a considerable number of 

 bacteria. 



Pathogenic Fungi not Cultivable.— The author repeats here 

 what has already been said of the primary microbes of the mouth, 

 to demonstrate that Spirillum sputige?iu?n and Spiroc/icete dentium 

 are especially not cultivable. Kreibohm found in the patina of 

 the tongue two pathogenic bacteria unfit for cultivation in any 

 artificial medium whatever. Miller, with fungi from a gangrenous 

 pulp of the teeth, obtained a gangrenous product for re-inoculation. 



