37 2 Suppuration 



puerperal infections, purulent peritonitis, endometritis, and 

 pleurisy. When the local lesion is limited, as in endometritis, 

 the danger of toxemia is slight ; but when widespread, as the 

 peritoneum, it may prove serious. Bacillus proteus has also 

 been found in acute infectious jaundice and in acute febrile 

 icterus, or Weil's disease. 



Bordoni-Uffredizzi has shown that the proteus quite 

 regularly invades the tissues after death, though it ap- 

 pears unable to maintain an independent existence in the 

 tissues during life, and is probably of importance only when 

 present in association with other bacteria. It at times 

 grows abundantly in the urine, and may produce primary 

 inflammation of the bladder. The inflammatory process 

 may also extend from the bladder to the kidney, and so 

 prove quite serious. 



Epidemics of meat-poisoning have been thought to depend 

 upon Bacillus proteus. One of them was studied by Wesen- 

 berg, * who cultivated the organism from the putrid meat by 

 which 63 persons were made ill. Sil verschmidt f and PfuhlJ 

 have made similar investigations with similar results. 



AND SUPPURATION. 



The process of suppuration is not confined to bacterial 

 micro-organisms, but is shared to a limited extent by the 

 protozoa. Thus, Bntamoeba histolytica (q. v.) is, to all 

 appearances, the sole excitant of the abscesses of the liver 

 secondary to dysentery. It is true that these are cold 

 abscesses and necrotic rather than distinctly purulent in 

 character, yet it seems best to speak of the organism in this 

 connection. 



Bntamoeba buccalis (Prowazek) is a small ameba that 

 has been found in purulent exudates in the oral tissues of 

 persons with carious teeth. 



Amoeba kartulisi (Doflein||) appears to be capable of ex- 

 citing suppuration. It was found by Kartulis in the pus 

 from an abscess of the right side of the lower jaw. The 

 patient was a man aged forty-three years who had been 



* "Zeitschrift fur Hygiene," etc., 1898, xxvm. 



t Ibid., 1899, xxx. 



J Ibid., 1900, xxxv. 



"Arbeitena. d. Kaiserl. Gesundh.-Amt.," xxi, i, Bull. 1904, p. 42. 



|| "Die Protozoa als Krankheitserreger," Jena., 1901, p. 30. 



