PYOGENIC BACTERIA. 293 



infection through open wounds does not depend alone upon the 

 potency of the pathogenic micrococci present in them, but also upon 

 the absorption of chemical poisons produced by septic (putrefactive) 

 bacteria, which weaken the vital resisting power of the tissues. 

 Gottstein, as a result of experiments made by him, is of the opinion 

 that the resorption of broken-down red blood corpuscles favors infec- 

 tion by pathogenic bacteria present in wounds ; and he has shown 

 that the injection into animals of certain toxic substances which de- 

 stroy the red corpuscles in the circulation makes them susceptible to 

 the pathogenic action of certain bacteria which are harmless for 

 them under ordinary circumstances. Thus a guinea-pig, an animal 

 which is immune against the bacillus of fowl cholera, succumbed to an 

 inoculation made after first injecting subcutaneously 0.06 gramme of 

 hydracetin dissolved in alcohol. At the autopsy hsemorrhagic exu- 

 dations were found in the serous cavities, haemorrhagic infarctions 

 in the lungs, and quantities of the bacillus injected were found in 

 the blood and in fluid from the cavity of the abdomen. 



In man the ever-present pus cocci are more likely to invade the 

 tissues, forming furuncles, carbuncles, and pustular skin eruptions, 

 or erysipelatous and phlegmonous inflammations, when the standard 

 of health is reduced from any cause, and especially when by absorp- 

 tion or retention various toxic organic products are present in the 

 body in excess. It is thus that we would explain the liability to these 

 local infections, as complications or sequelse of various specific infec- 

 tious diseases, in the victims of chronic alcoholism, in those exposed 

 to septic emanations from sewers, etc. , and probably in many cases 

 from the absorption of toxic products formed in the alimentary canal 

 as a result of the ingestion of improper food, or of abnormal fermen- 

 tative changes in the contents of the intestine, or from constipation. 



The Pus Cocci in Inflammations of Mucous Membranes. 

 To what extent the pus cocci are responsible for inducing and main- 

 taining non-specific inflammations of mucous membranes has not 

 been determined ; but having demonstrated the pyogenic properties 

 of these cocci, their presence in the purulent discharges from inflamed 

 mucous membranes can scarcely be considered as unimportant, not- 

 withstanding the fact that they are also frequently found in secre- 

 tions from healthy mucous surfaces. They are likewise found upon 

 the skin of healthy persons, and yet we have unimpeachable experi- 

 mental evidence that they may produce a local inflammation, at- 

 tended with pus formation, when injected subcutaneously, or even 

 when freely applied to the uninjured surface. 



In otitis media Levy and Schrader obtained Staphylococcus 

 albus in pure cultures in three cases out of ten in which paracentesis 

 was performed, and in two others it was present in association with 



