Microbic Diseases Individually Considered. 155 



ihotulisme) which occurs in the human species from 

 the use of so-called Boulogne sausage prepared hy 

 unscrupulous dealers from the flesh of animals which 

 have died or been slaughtered, diseased or sound, but 

 nearly always, under the mask of seasoning, already 

 abandoned to the sway of microscopic life which not 

 only uses up its substantial parts, but elaborates di- 

 verse ptomaines of formidable toxic power. 



At other times septicaemia is a sort of auto-intoxi- 

 cation, the septic poisons being elaborated within the 

 economy itself but upon a limited surface which the 

 microbes do not break through, either by reason of 

 their special properties (the anaerobes are unable to 

 live in the blood during life), or because the toxicity 

 of the products secreted and absorbed is such that 

 death supervenes in too short a time to allow of 

 the invasion of the circulatory fluids; this surface is 

 most frequently the seat of a morbid microbic pro- 

 cess : for example, a septic wound, puerperal metritis, 

 gangrenous pneumonia, etc. 



But the germs of the intestine may give rise to 

 troubles even in the absence of special alterations of 

 the mucosa. This takes place when their products of 

 denutrition — ptomaines, indol, skatol, gaseous prod- 

 ucts, etc. — instead of being eliminated by way of the 

 rectum, are absorbed by the blood. The chemical 

 poisoning which then results has received the names 

 stercorcemia and intestinal septicasmia. This poison- 

 ing supervenes under a number of pathological con- 

 ditions, especially when the gastric juice is insuffi- 

 cient in quantity or in acidity to neutralize the ma- 

 jority of the germs which pass through the stomach, 



