160 Manual of Veterinary Microbiology. 



aureus has been met with in the blood in several 

 cases of septicaemia. In such cases the virulence of 

 these germs is generally very great and death super- 

 venes too quickly to allow of the formation of pus. 

 We thus see puerperal fever under three different 

 types in which the streptococcus pyogenes is always 

 found ; it sometimes assumes the form of a true sep- 

 ticaemia quickly leading to death ; at other times the 

 patient succumbs with an abscess of the large liga- 

 ments and generalization of the streptococcus, with- 

 out occasioning new abscesses; finally, the disease 

 sometimes evolves comparatively slowly, assuming 

 the characters of a pyasmia with multiple strepto- 

 coccus abscesses. 



These observations show that in septicaemia and 

 pyaemia the process is essentially the same ; the re- 

 sult, in case of pyaemia, proceeds from the special 

 pyogenic property of the germ and from its par- 

 ticular degree of virulence. 



The lesions found at autopsies of septicaemic sub- 

 jects are far from being constant. However, it is ob- 

 served that the bodies rapidly putrefy. The paren- 

 chyma of the liver, kidney, and spleen are often in- 

 flamed and softened. We may also find inflammation 

 of the various serous membranes: pleura, peri- 

 toneum, pericardium, endocardium, etc.; multiple 

 hemorrhages and the more or less icteric color of 

 all the tissues indicate, in certain cases, profound 

 alteration of the blood. 



Pasteur's septiccemia. 



We will not delay to describe the history of the 

 septicaemias experimentally obtained ; they present, 



