SPREADING ABSCESS IN RABBITS. 377 



undergoing disintegration ; but no bacteria can be defi- 

 nitely made out. Here, then, we have appearances 

 similar to those often found in man, and much used as 

 an argument against the parasitic nature of such morbid 

 processes. I refer to abscesses resulting from phleg- 

 monous inflammation, which must be regarded as infec- 

 tive in their origin, but in which no micro-organisms 

 have been found. 



' When, however, portions of these abscesses are 

 hardened, and examined in sections, the surprising 

 result is obtained that, though bacteria are not present 

 in their contents, their walls are everywhere formed by 

 a thin layer of micrococci, united together into thick 

 zoogloea masses. These organisms are the smallest patho- 

 genic rnicrococci which I have as yet observed. In 

 some places I was fortunate enough to find them ar- 

 ranged in rows, and thus I was able to measure them ; 

 and I ascertained that they were about .15 //, in diame- 

 ter. (This is, of course, only an approximate measure- 

 ment.) . . . 



" In order to ascertain whether the morbid process 

 here designated as progressive abscess formation could 

 be transmitted from one animal to another, rabbits were 

 injected with blood taken from others which had already 

 died of this disease. These injections produced no ef- 

 fect. A small quantity of the cheesy contents of the 

 abscess was now taken, diluted with distilled water, and 

 injected under the skin of a rabbit. . These resulted ex- 

 actly the same, abscess formation in this animal as in 

 the first. The abscesses spread in the same manner 

 as described in the former case, and caused the death of 

 the animal experimented on in a week and a half. From 

 this animal the disease was conveyed to a third, and so 

 on through several in succession. 



" It was thus demonstrated that the disease is not 



