428 M. ARMAND BUFFER. 



injected into rabbits previously rendered immune against tbis 

 disease are completely destroyed within fifteen to twenty-five 

 minutes after their introduction, even if the quantity of culture 

 injected be very considerable. If this be correct, it is impos- 

 sible to ascribe the destruction of micro-organisms to the 

 action of phagocytes ; for, in order to exert their action, phago- 

 cytes must first accumulate round the injected culture, then 

 take the bacilli into their interior, and finally destroy them. 

 According to these authors^ this destruction is accomplished 

 by an antiseptic liquid which is not produced by the bacilli, 

 but by the cells of the immune organism. 



Metschnikofi", however, who controlled the facts published 

 by Emmerich and di Mattel, has obtained very different results 

 from those published by these observers. 



Metschnikoff inoculated rabbits with the bacilli of swine 

 fever, and after a lapse of time, varying from half an hour to 

 six days, removed with a capillary pipette one or several drops 

 of liquid which had accumulated at the point of inoculation. 

 This liquid was sometimes quite transparent, but more often 

 was slightly stained with blood, and in several cases consisted 

 of almost pure blood. 



In four cases the liquid taken from the point of inoculation 

 6|, 17, 19, and 26 hours after the operation, contained no 

 micro-organisms. In eleven other cases, in which the liquid 

 was withdrawn 1^, 4, 5, 6, 6|, 19, 20, 24 hours, and 4 days 

 after the inoculation, the beef-broth into which it was placed 

 gave pure cultures of the bacilli of swine fever, which, when 

 inoculated into pigeons and mice, always proved exceedingly 

 virulent. The liquid collected at the point of inoculation 4, 

 19, 20, and 24 hours after the injection of the first vaccin into 

 both immune and non-immune rabbits, contained bacilli of 

 the first vaccin. The liquid taken 19 hours after the in- 

 oculation of two animals, which had been rendered immune 

 against swine fever by repeated injections, gave a culture ; 

 whilst a third sample, taken 20 hours afterwards, remained 

 sterile. 



'■ ♦ Fottschritte der Mediciu,' 1888, T. vi, p. 729. 



