110 PHYSIOLOGY OF THE BACTERIA. 



ing normal blood in flasks perfectly closed, has also 

 given some favorable results, such as those of 

 Hensen, Tiegel, Billroth, and Nedvedsky, and 

 some unfavorable results, as those of Llidersand 

 Pasteur. According to Nedvedsky, the blood " con- 

 tains germs capable of undergoing in it, under 

 certain circumstances, an ulterior development : 

 these are the ffemococcos." If these germs do not 

 give birth, normally, to bacteria, it is because the 

 blood is as injurious to them as the most advanced 

 stages of putrefaction (Billroth). If this hypoth- 

 esis is true, it explains several embarrassing facts, 

 such as the existence of micrococci in the pus of 



ease in question, and is proved by comparative tests not to develop in 

 the blood of healthy individuals, obtained at the same time and by the 

 same method. 



" Tried by this test, it must be admitted that certain fungi and groups 

 of micrococci, shown in photographs taken from specimens of yellow- 

 fever blood collected at the military hospital and preserved in culture 

 cells, cannot reasonably be lupposed to be peculiar to or to have any 

 causal relation to this disease." Preliminary Report of Havana Commis- 

 sion to National Board of Health. 



In subsequent observations upon the blood of malarial fever, of 

 syphilis, and of leprosy, I have sometimes obtained a development of 

 micrococci in culture cells where all possible precautions as to the exclu- 

 sion of atmospheric germs had been taken, and in one case have seen 

 the development of PeniciUium in another of Sarcina. The last observa- 

 tion is, so far as I know unique, and I have still in my possession the 

 culture-slide containing numerous masses of Sarcina, presenting the 

 characteristic arrangement of the cells in fours. This slide was put up 

 at the bedside of a patient suffering from intermittent fever in the Char- 

 ity Hospital, New Orleans. Evtry precaution was taken to exclude at- 

 mospheric germs. The patient's finger was washed with absolute alcohol 

 just before making the puncture from which the little drop of blood \\as 

 obtained. The question as to whether in this and similar cases the 

 germs of the organism which develops come from the atmosphere or 

 pre-existed in the blood is one to which I propose to give special atten- 

 tion ; and, after further experiment, I shall discuss it in my report to the 

 National Board of Health. G. M. S. 



