INOCULATION INTO LOWER ANIMALS. 349 



cation that so reduces the resistance of the individual as 

 to render him susceptible to infection by the bacillus of 

 typhoid fever, should it gain access to his alimentary 

 tract. 



More recently it was reported by Alessi^ that rats, 

 guinea-pigs, and rabbits, when compelled to breathe the 

 gaseous products of decomposition from the contents of 

 a cesspool, or from other decomposing matters, gradu- 

 ally became susceptible to infection by the typhoid 

 bacillus; but unfortunately for the integrity of this 

 observation the description given by Alessi of the two 

 cultures of so-called typhoid bacilli used by him for 

 inoculation, was in one case certainly not that of the 

 typhoid organism, and in the other the culture used had 

 been kept under artificial conditions so long as hardly 

 to be reliable for tests of this character. 



The importance of these observations in their bearing 

 upon the etiology of typhoid fever, if they are demon- 

 strated by subsequent experiment to be trustworthy, is 

 too obvious to necessitate emphasis, and it is greatly to 

 be desired that they may not be permitted to pass un- 

 noticed, but that others interested may find occasion to 

 institute experiments in the same direction with the 

 hope that some light may be shed upon the mooted 

 question concerning the influence of gaseous products 

 of decomposition upon the health of individuals, and 

 particularly upon the part played by them in diminish- 

 ing natural resistance to infection.^ 



1 Alessi: Centralblatt fur Bakteriologie u. Parasitenkande, 1894, Bd. xv., 

 Xo. 7, p. 228. 



- See paper by the antbor : " The Effects of the Gaseous Products of Decom- 

 position upon the Health, and Resistance to Infection, of Certain Animals 

 that are forced to Respire Them." Transactions of the Association of Amer- 

 ican Physicians, 1895, toI. x. pp. 16-44. 



16 



