60 31anual of Veterinary Microbiology. 



the tissues, as well as that of the leucocytes which 

 speedily accumulate in the wound, are conditions un- 

 favorable to absorption. The latter, moreover, de- 

 pends upon many other circumstances bearing upon 

 the nature of the germ, its vehicle, the depth and 

 extent of the wound, etc. The microbes of tetanus 

 and those of gaseous gangrene, for example, only 

 multiply in wounds to which the access of the air is 

 limited; their activity is checked by atmospheric 

 oxygen. The rapidity of penetration is influenced 

 by the nature of the medium ; an aqueous medium 

 will be more readily absorbed than a solid excipient 

 or one of thick, colloid consistence. 



Tuberculosis, symptomatic charbon, and grangren- 

 ous septicaemia are not inoculable by sub-epidermic 

 punctures, whilst this inoculation is successfully per- 

 formed in the subcutaneous cellular tissue. Absorp- 

 tion is always more easy when the tissue is itself 

 lacerated. 



Absorption from wounds is, in general, very rapid ; 

 glanders has been seen to supervene in spite of deep 

 cauterization of the inoculated wound two hours after 

 the insertion of the virus ; cauterization after a lapse 

 often minutes has still allowed the evolution of sheep- 

 pox. The amputation of the ear of a rabbit inocu- 

 lated with charbon by sub-epidermic puncture in that 

 region has not prevented the irruption of the disease, 

 although this operation followed only three minutes 

 after the inoculation. 



Infection by wounds may be local only, or it may 

 become generalized; in the latter case the extension 

 occurs chiefly by the lymphatics, the germs then 

 showing tbeir presence in these vessels by the lesions 



