Microhic Diseases Individually Considered. 147 



Suppuration. 



We find in pus, besides the cells which constitute 

 its essential part, various species of microbes. Their 

 constant presence in suppurative inflammations led to 

 the supposition that suppuration was only produced 

 through the agency of microbes. This theory was 

 further supported by the results of experimentation; 

 thus, subcutaneous injection of irritating substances 

 previously rendered aseptic caused an inflammation 

 corresponding to the irritating power of these sub- 

 stances, but a non-purulent inflammation. Diapede- 

 sis of the white corpuscles of the blood seemed there- 

 fore to be dependent upon the presence of microbes. 



Similar experiments, however, have led to contrary 

 results in the hands of other investigators, and sup- 

 puration has been produced by means of chemical 

 substances (croton oil, oil of turpentine, silver nitrate, 

 mercury, cadaverin, etc.) without the intervention of 

 bacteria. Moreover, it has been found that the ster- 

 ilized cultures of the staphylococcus pyogenes as 

 surely determine an abscess as the staphylococcus 

 itself; the pus of this abscess, however, is not itself 

 pyogenic. Substances with special pyogenic proper- 

 ties have, in addition, been extracted from cultures 

 of the bacilli of glanders, tuberculosis, charbon and 

 of Friedlander's pneumococcus. Thus is explained 

 the possibility of spontaneous abscesses the pus of 

 which is free from microbes; the latter, in such case, 

 are present in another part of the economy and the 

 pyogenic substances which they secrete being ab- 

 sorbed, we can understand that they may determine 

 purulent inflammation of a predisposed organ or 

 tissue. 



