510 BACTERIOLOGY. 



membranes complicating pneumonia; but two cases in 

 particular have been reported by Thue of pleurisy and 

 pericarditis following pneumonia in which the lymph 

 capillaries have been found to be chock-full of diplo- 

 cocci, as if injected. Their presence in the blood after 

 death has been amply proved by numerous investiga- 

 tions. In many instances they have been recovered 

 from the blood during life. Lambert, as a rule, found 

 them in all fatal cases twenty-four to forty-eight hours 

 before death. This examination has considerable prog- 

 nostic value, as nearly all cases in which the pneumo- 

 coccus is found end fatally. This micrococcus has 

 been shown experimentally to be capable of producing 

 various forms of septicaemia local phlegm onous in- 

 flammations, peritonitis, pleuritis, and meningitis. A 

 further proof of the transmission of this organism by 

 means of the blood is given by Foa and Bordoni- 

 Uffreduzzi in their investigations into intra-uterine 

 infection in pneumonia and meningitis. These in- 

 vestigators have demonstrated the presence of the 

 micrococcus lanceolatus in foetal and placental blood 

 and in the uterine sinuses in maternal pneumonia. 

 There being no question, therefore, as to the pos- 

 sibility of the conveyance of the infective agent by 

 means of the blood and the lymph to all parts of the 

 body, we need not wonder at the multiplicity of the 

 affections complicating pneumonia which are caused by 

 this micrococcus ; and not only the secondary, but also 

 the primary diseases, as of the brain and the meninges, 

 may be explained in the same way. Knowing that the 

 saliva and nasal secretions under normal conditions so 

 frequently afford a resting-place for the micrococci, we 

 have only to assume the production of a suitable culture 



