1904.] Staphylococcus pyogenes &?/ Human Blood, etc. 151 



(3) On the Distribution of Opsonins in the Infected Organism. 



It is a fundamentally important but unappreciated fact in connec- 

 tion with bacterial infections that the bacteriotropic pressure we designate 

 by this term the mass effect exerted upon the invading bacteria by the 

 protective substances contained in the blood fluids does not stand at 

 the same level in every part of the infected organism. 



One of us has, in conjunction with Captain George Lamb, I. M.S.,* 

 demonstrated in the case of patients who had succumbed respectively 

 to typhoid and Malta fever that the amount of agglutinins in the 

 splenic pulp is invariably less, f in some instances over 200 times less, 

 than in the circulating blood. It was further shown in the paper in 

 question that there was a similar difference as between the fluid 

 obtained from the typhoid spots and the fluid of the circulating blood. 

 Captain Lamb}: gave a further extension to these observations by 

 demonstrating, in the case of monkeys examined immediately after the 

 crisis of spirillum fever, that the splenic pulp (where the spirilla still 

 survive after they have disappeared from the circulation) is much 

 poorer in bactericidal and bacteriolytic substances than the circulating 

 blood. 



It is shown by these observations that the Bacillus typhosus, the 

 Micrococcus melitensis and the Spirillum Obermeyeri, respectively multiply, 

 or, as the case may be, maintain their existence, within the infected 

 organism in regions of low bacteriotropic pressure. We may legiti- 

 mately assume that the lowered bacteriotropic pressure in the nidus, 

 where the micro-organisms are cultivating themselves, results from a 

 retarded replacement of protective substances which are removed from 

 the body fluids where these come into contact with bacteria. 



Influenced by the results of the observations which have been just 

 set out, we have addressed ourselves to the task of investigating the 

 distribution of the opsonins in the case where the human organism is 

 invaded by the Staphylococcus. With this intent we have instituted 

 comparisons between the serum obtained from the circulating blood 

 and the fluid obtained by centrifugalisation from pus. It will be seen 

 from the observations set forth below that what has been shown to hold 

 true with respect to the distribution of agglutinins and bactericidal 

 and bacteriolytic substances respectively in the bacterial infections 

 before-mentioned, holds true also in the case of the opsonins in the case 

 of staphylococcic infection. In view of this fact, and of the similar 

 facts which we set out elsewhere in connection with tubercular infection 

 (see pp. 167 169), it may be enunciated as a proposition of general 



* Wright and Lamb, ' Lancet,' December 23, 1898. 



f This observation so far as it applies to typhoid had been anticipated by Paul 

 Courmont, ' Soc. de Biologie,' February 20 and March 28, 1897. 



J Lamb, ' Scientific Memoirs by Officers of the Medical and Sanitary Depart- 

 ments of the Government of India,' vol. 12, pp. 96, et seq. 



