312 BACTERIA IN THE SPUTA 



coccus, in its turn, is found in sputa and saliva ; and that the 

 bacillus of Koch is met with, at times, even in the buccal epithelia 

 of a healthy man ? 



For the rest, anyone is in a position to verify the exactness of 

 our observations upon these varied points." Now from the 

 exhibited facts we must infer that probably the same bacteria or 

 bacilli considered pathogenic (in the affections of the genito- 

 urinary or air passages) are, in reality, only so many disseminations 

 of germs or elements of buccal microbes or balano-proeputialis, 

 from which, morphologically, their varied types do not differ at 

 all ; or, at least, that, before admitting the existence of this or that 

 pathogenic bacterium in the above-mentioned passages, it is neces- 

 sary to demonstrate, with clear and conclusive proofs, that such 

 bacilli, declared pathogenic, are not derivations from the normal 

 preserve. And this objection does hold good, not only in the 

 hypothesis we have set up of the oneness, or duality at most, of 

 the parasitic species of the mouth, but even in the hypothesis now 

 prevailing of their plurality. We contend that the more species 

 there are in the nasal crypts or the cavities of the mouth, the 

 more difficult will it be to exclude their co-operation in generating 

 bacteria reputed pathogenic. 



Everything, indeed, leads us to believe that this inexhaustible 

 preserve of normal microbes, placed by nature at the entrance of 

 the digestive and air passages, may have a defensive mission 

 against the intrusion of micro-organisms from without ; may, in 

 other words, constitute a true excluding vegetation ; a barrier to 

 the effect of preventing foreign germs penetrating and thriving in 

 the adjacent organs. 



Nature has imparted to Leptothrix bicccalis such a power of 

 tenacious resistance to foreign agents that the elements of this 

 fungus upon the human teeth are not destroyed for ages, as it is 



* We have lately noticed that our views are confirmed in an observation of 

 Bordoni Uffreduzzi and of Gradenigo, who found "in the pus of the left ear 

 (in a case of ottorhoea) numerous diplococci of biscuit shape, some isolated, 

 others joined in tetrahedrons, . partly free and partly contained in cellules, in 

 the whole similar to gonococci." The authors quoted maintain that the various 

 microbes of ottorhoea (in which the lanceolatus diplococcus predominates) 

 originate even from the saliva. SuW etiologia delPotite media. Archivio per le 

 scienze mediche, Vol. xiv., 1890, pages 276 and 278. 



