THE BACTERIA IN CONTAGIOUS MALADIES. 157 
twenty-four hours, the arterial blood drawn from 
a rabbit into which one and one half centimeters 
of liquid containing bacteria had been injected, 
can be preserved (by protecting it from exterior 
germs) during several months, without presenting 
traces of putrefaction. The bacteria then are 
dead in the living organism. Nevertheless, the 
living blood is powerless to resist beyond a cer- 
tain point. These results seem difficult to rec- 
oncile with those which Feltz has reached as the 
result of new researches with the toxic principle 
of putrid blood. Compressed air passed through a 
septic liquid has no influence upon its toxic prop- 
erties or upon the minute beings contained in 
it: there is simply a diminished movement of 
the vibrios. In a vacuum the toxic power is 
diminished: the Cocco-bacteria and bacteria be- 
come motionless, the vibrios and spiral bacteria 
lose their activity, but the smallest forms are 
not killed. W. Moxon and J. F. Goodhart have 
recognized the presence of bacteria in the blood 
and in the inflamed tissues of septicemic pa- 
tients. According to Virchow, also, the active 
agent is a bacterium which, injected, with: or 
without putrid liquid, produces death by septic 
intoxication. 
Livon and Zuelzer have never observed any 
symptom of putrid infection to follow injections 
of these micro-organisms into the blood. 
In presence of so many divergent opinions, 
each supported by scientific authorities, we do not 
feel justified in adopting any definite conclusion. 
