258 BACTERIOLOGY. 



The bacterium coli commune has been found to be 

 present in pure culture in acute peritonitis; in liver 

 abscess; in purulent inflammation of the gall-bladder 

 and ducts; in appendicitis; and Welch 1 has found it in 

 pure culture in fifteen different inflammatory conditions. 



The micrococcus lanceolatas (pneumococcus) has been 

 found to be the only organism present in abscess of the 

 soft parts; in purulent infiltration of the tissues about 

 a fracture; in purulent cerebro-spinal meningitis; in 

 suppurative synovitis; in acute pericarditis, and in acute 

 inflammation of the middle ear. 



Moreover, many of the less common organisms have 

 been detected in pure cultures in inflammatory condi- 

 tions with which they were not previously thought to 

 be concerned, and to which they are not usually related 

 etiologically. 



In consideration of such evidence as this it is plain 

 that we can no longer adhere rigidly to the opinions 

 formerly held upon the etiology of suppuration, but 

 must subject them to modifications in conformity with 

 this newer evidence. We now know that there exist 

 bacteria other than the " pyogenic cocci/' which, though 

 not normally pyogenic, may give rise to tissue-changes 

 indistinguishable from those produced by the ordinary 

 pus organisms. 2 



GONOCOCCUS. MICROCOCCUS GONORRHOEA. 



One observes upon microscopic examination of cover- 

 slips prepared from the pus of acute gonorrhoea that 



1 Welch: "Conditions underlying the Infection of Wounds," American 

 Journal of the Medical Sciences, November, 1891. 



2 For a more detailed discussion of the subject see " The Factors Concerned 

 in the Production of Suppuration," International Medical Magazine, Phila- 

 delphia, May, 1892. 



