SEPTICAEMIA IN RABBITS. 355 



diseases are distinguished by the invariable develop- 

 ment of exceedingly numerous bacilli. There can thus 

 be no doubt that the bacilli of the septicaemia described 

 here possess the same significance as the bacilli of 

 splenic fever, namely, that they are to be regarded as 

 the contagium of this disease." 



Very interesting are the results obtained by 

 Koch in his attempts to infect other animals with 

 the blood of septicaBmic mice. The rabbit, so sus- 

 ceptible to anthrax and to other forms of septicae- 

 mia, resisted not only inoculations with small 

 amounts of the virulent blood, but the entire 

 amount of blood from a septica3mic mouse failed to 

 produce any effect. Field mice, also, although so 

 closely resembling house mice, upon which the 

 successful experiments were made, proved not to 

 be susceptible to the disease. 



SEPTICAEMIA IN RABBITS. The writer discov- 

 ered accidentally, in September, 1880, the virulent 

 properties of his own saliva when injected into 

 rabbits, and has since demonstrated the fact that 

 the highly infectious disease which results from 

 such an inoculation is due to a micrococcus con- 

 stantly present in the buccal secretions, i. e., in 

 the mixed secretions as found in the mouth. 

 The experiment which led to this discovery was 

 made as a check upon other inoculation experi- 

 ments, with a view to ascertain whether a fluid 

 supposed to be innocuous would produce any no- 

 ticeable febrile disturbance when injected beneath 



