244 



other soldiers attacked with yellow fever (albuminuria in every ease, and 

 fatal in fifteen of them). This examination was made on different days of 

 the disease upon 121 samples of finger blood. The results were as 

 follows : 



Average Maximum Minimum 

 Millions Millions Millions 



A. Seventeen healthy soldiers. Red globules 

 per cubic millimetre 4. 5 5. 5 4.0 



B. Thirty-eight soldiers with yellow fever, 



1st day of the disease 4.55 



2d „ „ „ „ 4.56 



3d „ „ „ „ 4.80 



4th „ „ „ „ 4.74 



5th „ „ „ „ 5.58 



6th „ „ „ , 5.01 



7th „ „ „ „ 5.08 



The white corpuscles were not expressly counted, but it was judged 

 upon rough estimates that their number was generally diminished. From 

 Hie figures here given it must be admitted that the proportion of red 

 globules is increased during the attack of yellow fever, the low minimal 

 figures being probably due to excessive loss of blood in particular cases. 



The abstinence from food to which yellow fever patients are commonly 

 subjected during the first four or five days may have had a share in 

 bringing about the concentration of the blood, but it seems highly proba- 

 ble that filtration of the blood-serum through the altered walls of the 

 capillaries constitutes the chief factor in its production. 



Bacteriological Investigations. — The bacteriology of yellow fever is 

 generally considered to have given only negative results, in so far that the 

 etiological significance of the different microorganisms which have been 

 pointed out as the supposed specific germ is not accepted by the most 

 competent judges. From another point of view, however, valuable infor- 

 mation has been gained corroborative of the views expounded by me before 

 the Academy of Sciences of Havana, in February 1883, viz, that the mela- 

 no-albuminuric form is but the result of a secondary infection developed 

 in the stomach or intestine by the ordinary pathogenic bacteria of the 

 alimentary tract, when the protective investment of the mucous membrane 

 has been previously deteriorated through the operation of the yellow 

 fever poison upon the system at large. The well-known bacteriologist, Dr. 

 G. Sternberg, in his official report concerning his extensive investigations 

 in Havana during the summers of 1888 and 1889, expresses himself in the 

 following terms regarding the B. coli commune (his bacillus a) : — "This 



