380 Transactions of the Society. 



granules formed from cell protoplasm in the manner we have described. The 

 specimens illustrating pyjBmia especially, showed micrococci both in free masses 

 and within cells of the kidney, almost identical with those shown in our pre- 

 parations. 



In the discussion of the questions referred to, it was assumed that the so- 

 called micrococci were specific independent organisms from without the body, 

 and the chief interest turned on such questions as how they managed to enter 

 underneath the dressing or into the body, whetiier they could exist in the body, 

 or what specific influence, if any, they might have there. 



All reasoning therefore might, however, seem superfluous if it could be shown 

 that, instead of being specific independent organisms from without, the so-called 

 micrococci were merely minute atoms of the protoplasm of the cells within the 

 body, formed as we have described, and that according as they were the result of 

 a physiological or a pathological process, so would their effect be when introduced 

 into the system. In more specific terms we might consider that the particles 

 resulting from the disintegration of the protoplasm of fat-cells would be harmless, 

 while those resulting from the protoplasm of cells in glanders, where we have also 

 observed this process, would be most malignant in their cftect when introduced 

 into the system ; and the same might be said of those particles so clearly shown 

 within and outside the cells in pyaemia. 



