SEPTICAEMIA IN RABBITS. 365 



adopted as a standard, ten minutes, and then using 

 the fluid to inoculate sterilized bouillon in another tube. 

 This, being placed in a culture oven for twenty-four 

 hours, remains transparent and unchanged if the seed 

 has been killed, but is clouded and pervaded by the 

 micrococcus if its vitality was not destroyed. 



" In my first series of experiments (Baltimore, 1881) 

 I found that boiling destroys the virulence of blood from 

 a septicsemic rabbit. Having now fixed with precision 

 the thermal death-point of the micrococcus, the next step 

 was evidently to see whether this temperature also 

 destroys the virulence of the fluid containing it. To 

 test this matter, the following experiment was made 

 with the second culture from the blood of the rabbit 

 which died September 15, as above reported. 



" Exp. No. 5, September 17. Injected ten minims 

 of culture No. 2 beneath the skin of a small spotted 

 rabbit, also ten minims of the same culture-fluid, heated 

 to 140 Fahr. for ten minutes, beneath the skin of a 

 small white rabbit of the same litter. Result. The 

 small spotted rabbit was found to be dying the follow- 

 ing morning at eight o'clock. It was killed bv breaking 

 up the medulla, and the blood from the heart examined 

 immediately. This contained the micrococcus in abun- 

 dance, as did also a quantity of serum contained in the 

 pleural cavity and effused serum in the subcutaneous 

 cellular tissue. The small white rabbit, injected at the 

 same time with the same culture-fluid, heated to 140 for 

 ten minutes, did not seem to experience the slightest ill 

 effect from the injection, and to-day (September 24) 

 remains in apparent good health ; that is, the virulence 

 of the culture-fluid used in this experiment was destroyed 

 by the exact temperature which I had previously determined 

 to be fatal to the micrococcus." 1 



1 Quoted from communications to the " Philadelphia Medical Times/' 

 of September 9 and November 4, 1882. 



