8o The Story of the Bacteria 



way is opened to the spread of the infecting 

 germs. 



In a later chapter on the safeguards of the 

 body we shall look a little more closely at 

 this significant battle of the cells in various 

 infectious diseases. 



It sometimes happens that so extensive a 

 growth of the bacteria occurs in some local 

 region of the body and so much of the soluble 

 poison is produced that although the bacteria 

 may not themselves get generally distributed 

 the poison which they furnish may enter the 

 circulation, and so produce in distant parts of 

 the body most serious disturbance or even 

 cause death. The condition in which bac- 

 terial poisons are circulating in the blood 

 is called toxcemia. When the bacteria them- 

 selves escape from their primary seat of 

 growth and with their toxins gain access to 

 the blood the condition is called septiccemia 

 or bactericemia- 



These bacteria of suppuration apparently 

 do no harm when they lodge upon the unin- 

 jured surface of the body, but only when 

 they get into the tissues through an injury 



