296 BACTERIA IN INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 



liquid containing an abundance of micrococci." [It 

 must be remembered that the injection of normal human 

 saliva into rabbits produces similar results.] 



44 The membrane with which these experiments were 

 made was obtained by Dr. Formad in the neighborhood 

 of Lakeview, Michigan. . . . The cases were not so vio- 

 lent, nor the contagion so marked, as in the Ludington 

 plague, and the culture studies clearly showed that the 

 growth power of the micrococci was correspondingly 

 feeble. 



" A very important and curious observation was 

 made by Dr. Formad at the spot of the epidemic. The 

 pigs of a family living in an isolated position in the 

 forest were fed with slops from a room where three or 

 four children were sick with the disease. Several of 

 the pigs sickened, and one died. At the autopsy made 

 by Dr. Formad, the larynx and respiratory passages 

 were found entirely free from the disease, whilst the 

 lower end of the oesophagus, the stomach, and the upper 

 duodenum were coated with a very thick false mem- 

 brane loaded with micrococci, and containing the other 

 anatomical elements of true diphtheritic membrane. 

 Underneath this false membrane the mucous membrane 

 was inflamed, and in numerous places ulcerated. In 

 the blood of the pig, as well as in the spleen and 

 bone-marrow, the micrococci were exceedingly numer- 

 ous. They were seen attacking the leucocytes, and in all 

 other particulars conforming with the action of the 

 plant in malignant diphtheria. Inoculation of rabbits 

 with the membrane from the stomach of the pig pro- 

 duced sickness and death, with symptoms, and local and 

 general lesions, similar to those caused by the human 

 membrane. This observation is very important, as 

 showing the local nature of diphtheria in its first onset, 

 and especially as raising the suspicion that the swine- 



