DIPHTHERIA. 291 



man savants, it is demonstrated that certain ani- 

 mal matters undergoing putrefaction, inoculated 

 under the skin of the rabbit and of some other 

 animals, produces, after several inoculations, a 

 malady, rapidly fatal, inoculable with extremely 

 minute quantities, and which reproduces itself in- 

 definitely. The presence of a parasite in septi- 

 caemia which presents this character, has been 

 sustained, then denied. ... I can truly say, after 

 several series of experiments comprising more than 

 two hundred and fifty cases, that in the malady of 

 rapid form which kills the rabbit in ten to twenty 

 hours, and which is inoculated so easily into birds, 

 there exists a microbe of well-determined form and 

 properties, of which the action is always identi- 

 cal, which is that which Pasteur has so perfectly 

 studied, and of which I have already demonstrated 

 the presence in chicken cholera," l 



DIPHTHERIA. The presence of micro-organisms, 

 and especially of micrococci in diphtheritic exuda- 

 tions, has been observed by numerous investiga- 

 tors, and was a priori to have been expected, 

 inasmuch as the healthy human mouth is con- 

 stantly infested with micrococci and other forms 

 of bacteria. Oertel says : u They were discovered 

 as far back as 1868, by Buhl, Hueter, and myself, 

 in false membranes, the blood, and the tissues ; in 

 like manner they were demonstrated by Von Rech- 

 linghausen, Wassiloff, Waldeyer, Klebs, Eberth, 

 Heiberg, and others, in the most different organs 



1 Comptes rendus XCL, p. 302. 



