146 SUPPURATION AND ALLIED CONDITIONS. 



of the human subject, it is often impossible to detect any in 

 the blood taken by puncture of the skin during life, though 

 they may be seen in large numbers in the capillaries of the 

 kidneys, liver, etc., post mortem. The best examples of 

 extensive bacterial multiplication in the circulating blood 

 are afforded by certain infections of the lower animals, e.g., 

 anthrax in guinea-pigs or pneumococcus septicaemia in 

 rabbits. The essential fact in pyaemia, on the other hand, 

 is the occurrence of multiple abscesses in internal organs 

 and other parts of the body. In most of -the cases of 

 typical pyaemia, common in the pre- antiseptic days, the 

 starting-point of the disease was a septic wound with 

 bacterial invasion of a vein leading to thrombosis and 

 secondary embolism. Multiple foci of suppuration may be 

 produced, however, in other ways, as will be described 

 below (p. 161). If the term be used to embrace all such 

 conditions, their method of production should always be 

 distinguished. 



THE BACTERIA OF SUPPURATION. 



A considerable number of bacteria have been described 

 as occurring in the pus of acute suppurations, and of these 

 many have been proved to be the causes of the condition, 

 whilst of some others the exact action has not yet been fully 

 determined. 



Ogston, who was one of the first to study this question (in 

 1881), found that micrococci were most frequently present, 

 and that of these some were arranged irregularly in clusters 

 (staphylococci), whilst others formed chains (streptococci). 

 He found that the former were more common in circum- 

 scribed acute abscesses, the latter in spreading supptirative 

 conditions. Rosenbach shortly afterwards ( 1 8 84), by means 

 of cultures, differentiated several varieties of micrococci, to 

 which he gave the following special names : staphylococcus 

 pyogenes aureus, staphylococcus pyogenes albus, streptococcus 

 pyogenes, micrococcus pyogenes tenuis. Other organisms have 

 since been described as associated with suppuration, such as 



