SEPTICAEMIA IN RABBITS. 359 



(^) Pure cultures of the micrococcus are as virulent as 

 the saliva, in the first instance, or the blood of a rabbit 

 killed ly introducing this fluid beneath its skin. 



I have usually injected from 5 to 20 minims of 

 saliva (mixed salivary secretions and buccal mucus 

 as found in the mouth), and, as stated in my first 

 report, this has has infallibly proved fatal (to un- 

 protected animals). But in an experiment made 

 in Baltimore, a single minim of saliva mixed with 

 five minims of distilled water was injected into each 

 of five young rabbits. Three of the five died within 

 the usual time forty-eight hours with the usual 

 symptoms, and presenting the characteristic patho- 

 logical appearances. The other two showed no ill 

 effect from the injection. 



The following quotation from my first report 

 shows the character of this fatal infectious disease, 

 which, originating, as in the above-mentioned ex- 

 periment, from the introduction of a single drop of 

 human saliva beneath the skin of one of these ani- 

 mals, may be transmitted indefinitely from one to 

 another by successive inoculations. 



" The course of the disease and the post mortem 

 appearances indicate that it is a form of septicaemia. 

 Immediately after the injection there is a rise of tem- 

 perature, which in a few hours may reach 2 to 3 C. 

 (3.6 to 5.4 Fahr.) ; the temperature subsequently 

 falls, and shortly before death is often several degrees 

 below the normal. There is loss of appetite and marked 

 debility after twenty-four hours, and the animal com- 

 monly dies during the second night or early in the morn- 



