SUPPURATION WITHOUT BACTERIA. 157 



We may accordingly conclude that, though it cannot be 

 definitely stated that all the streptococci concerned in the 

 production of disease in the human subject are of the same 

 species, there is at present no absolute means of distinguish- 

 ing them. 



Bacillus coli communis. The virulence of this organism 

 also varies much and can be increased by passage from 

 animal to animal. Injection into the serous cavities of 

 rabbits produces a fibrinous inflammation which becomes 

 purulent if the animal lives sufficiently long. If, however, 

 the virulence of the organism be of a high order, death 

 takes place before suppuration is established, and there is 

 a septioemic condition, the organisms occurring in large 

 numbers in the blood. Intravenous injection of a few 

 drops of a virulent bouillon culture usually produces a rapid 

 septicaemia with scattered haemorrhages in various organs, 

 though sometimes the animal recovers. 



Other Effects. It has been found by independent observers that in 

 cases where rabbits recover after intravenous injection of bacillus coli 

 communis, a certain proportion suffer from paralysis and sometimes 

 from atrophy of muscles, especially of the posterior limbs, these 

 symptoms being due to lesions of the cells in the anterior cornua of the 

 spinal cord. Somewhat similar results have been obtained by others 

 after inoculations with staphylococci and streptococci, a certain propor- 

 tion only of the animals showing paralytic symptoms and corresponding 

 changes in the spinal cord. The lesions are believed to be due chiefly 

 to the action of the products of the organisms on the highly-organised 

 nervous elements. Much further research requires to be done before the 

 importance of the.^e results can be properly estimated, but it is not im- 

 probable that they will throw light on the causation of nervous lesions 

 which occur in the human subject, and the etiology of which at present 

 is quite obscure. Some observers, chiefly of the French school, con- 

 sider that paralysis associated with cystitis, in which the bacillus coli 

 communis is often present, may have such a causation, and that paralytic 

 conditions following acute infective fevers may be produced by the pro- 

 ducts of pyogenic cocci which are often present in these conditions. 



Can Suppuration occur apart from Bacteria ? After it 

 had been conclusively proved that bacteria were the chief 

 causes of suppuration, a great many experiments were per- 



