94 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
pustule, where bacteria in large quantities were seen in the blood and 
in the discharges, forming the materies morbi of that affection. In 
the class of specific fevers and in pyaemia from wounds, similar 
organized structures form the materies morbi also. The presence of 
these bacteria is best studied in pyaemia. 
The majority of these cases are from injury, the disease begin- 
ning locally, spreading throughout the body — a proposition not held 
by all — and hence the old theory that pus w r as the material carried 
in the blood current. This is disproved by two considerations : 1st, 
that the pus actually forms where the secondary deposit appears : 
2nd, there is no proof of the absorption of pus. 
The nature of the materies morbi and its method of transmission 
were then dwelt upon ; with regard to the latter point, until Virchow’s 
theory of thrombosis, two views were held ; one, that pus got into the 
veins coming from the seat of injury and of suppuration ; the other, 
that the pus began in the veins, the result of phlebitis. According 
to Virchow, clots were first formed in the veins; they softened, and the 
products of their disintegration were carried into the system. This 
explanation not satisfying all cases, especially those of puerperal 
pyaemia, the same septic matter was suggested as running in the 
lymphatics; and recent research would seem to show that these 
latter were really rather concerned in its transmission than the veins. 
Then followed Virchow’s theory of embolism, the complement of that 
of thrombosis ; but even a plug in a vessel failed to explain the 
general disorder of pyaemia, and hence attention was directed to the 
nature of the materies morbi itself. 
With regard to the nature of this material, Dr. Payne pointed out 
that bacteria were found in cases of .pyaemia, and generally of the 
specific fevers when properly searched for. The examination of the 
blood for these did not give constant results, and the morbid granules 
derived from white blood-corpuscles were not to be confounded with 
bacteria, nor in examining solid tissues post mortem were the bacteria 
of putrefaction to be mistaken for those of disease. These last were 
rod-shaped, those of disease spherical, and resisting the action of 
alcohol, ether, or caustic potash. Professor Heiberg of Norway found 
in pyaemia from wounds clots in the veins composed of granular 
amorphous material, that closer observation showed to be formed of 
bacteria. In the arteries going to secondary deposits, and in the 
areolae around them, in pyaemia, similar masses of bacteria had been 
seen. These observations Dr. Payne had to some extent verified 
himself. 
In the kidneys the tubes had been noticed plugged by the same 
material, this being the way of exit of the bacteria from the body, 
according to Heiberg. In pyaemic meningitis Dr. Payne had seen 
bacteria in the lymphatic spaces, not in the vessels. 
The important and, to some extent, novel feature in Heiberg’s 
observations, was the detection of bacteria in the solid organs at the 
actual seat of disease. This line of investigation was specially and 
urgently recommended to medical observers with the microscope. 
