452 BACTERIOLOGY. 



From its common seat in the intestines it may, 

 under favoring conditions, penetrate other organs after 

 death which fact may account for its being found 

 so often at autopsy in the interior of the body; but it 

 may also be absorbed during life, more especially if 

 there is obstruction of the intestines or if the mucosa 

 has been deprived of its epithelium. For this reason, 

 no doubt, the B. coli is so frequently found in cholera, 

 typhoid fever, and dysentery, producing often a second 

 infection. The absorption of the colon bacillus from 

 the intestinal canal plays an important part, probably, 

 in the production of many diseases, such as cystitis 

 and other inflammatory affections. It has been con- 

 sidered to be the cause of epidemic infectious enteritis 

 and cholera nostras, this assumption being based upon 

 the facts that the colon bacillus in these diseases is 

 found in greater abundance than usual in the alvine 

 discharges and often in pure culture ; that it then pos- 

 sesses an increased virulence, and that it often pene- 

 trates the interior organs, as has been shown by autop- 

 sies. But the conclusion drawn from these facts as to 

 the etiology of the diseases above mentioned is not 

 positive, though it cannot be denied that under certain 

 conditions the colon bacillus may be productive of dis- 

 ease. This is brought about, according to the com- 

 monly accepted view, either by an increase of virulence 

 of the B. coli normally present in the intestines or by 

 the introduction of especially virulent bacilli in the 

 food. The colon bacillus has also been assumed to be 

 the cause of cholera infautum; but the investigations 

 of Booker, Baginsky, Escherich, and Fliigge would 

 seem, to indicate that this disease is of a much more 

 complicated origin. The B. coli, moreover, is associ- 



