598 BACTERIA IN INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 



Lucet (1891) in twenty-two cows suffering from mastitis obtained in 

 twelve cases a motile bacillus, from 1 to 2 p long, which did not liquefy 

 gelatin and caused a development of gas in culture media (Bacillus coli 

 communis ?). 



MASTITIS IN SHEEP. 

 See Micrococcus of gangrenous mastitis in sheep (No. 30). 



MEASLES. 



The etiology of measles and of the specific eruptive febrile diseases gener- 

 ally still remains unsettled. The occasional presence of micrococci in the 

 blood of patients with measles, which has been noted, is without doubt due 

 to a secondary or mixed infection by one of the common pyogenic micro- 

 cocci. In pneumonia occurring during the course of an attack of measles 

 the Micrococcus pneumonia? crouposae is usually found in the pulmonary 

 exudate. 



No great importance can be attached to the observations made, with ref- 

 erence to the presence of microorganisms in this disease, prior to the intro- 

 duction of Koch's plate method and the use of solid culture media for the 

 differentiation of bacteria similar in their morphology. In 1892 Canon and 

 Pielicke, of Berlin, announced the discovery of a minute bacillus in the blood 

 of patients (fourteen) with measles, but their discovery, so far as the writer 

 knows, has not been confirmed by more recent investigations. See Bacillus 

 of Canon and Pielicke (No. 157). 



MENINGITIS. 

 See Cerebro-spinal Meningitis. 



MICE, INFECTIOUS DISEASES OF. 



See Bacillus typhi murium (No. 84) and Bacillus of Laser (No. 83) ; also 

 Bacillus erysipelatos suis (No. 67), which appears to be identical with Koch's 

 Bacillus of septicaemia in mice ; also Bacillus murisepticus pleomorphus 

 (No. 98). 



NEPHRITIS. 



The various microorganisms which have occasionally been found in the 

 urine of cases of chronic nephritis are probably not directly related to the 

 renal disease. Numerous observations are on record which snow that patho- 

 genic microorganisms present in the blood or tissues may find their way into 

 the urine during the course of the acute infectious diseases. In these cases 

 it is probable that the passage of bacteria into the urine depends upon struc- 

 tural changes in the kidneys, due to the presence of pathogenic bacteria or 

 to the action of their toxic products. Pernice and Scagliosi (1894) have stud- 

 ied the development of nephritis in guinea-pigs, dogs, and white mice, into 

 which they injected bouillon cultures of various pathogenic bacteria An- 

 thrax bacillus, Bacillus pyocyaneus, Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus, Ba- 

 cillus prodigiosus. They also injected filtered cultures of these bacilli. As 

 a result of their experiments they conclude that the appearance of microor- 

 ganisms in the urine in acute infectious diseases depends upon pathological 

 anatomical changes in the kidneys, which may result either from the jm s 

 ence of the bacteria or from the action of their toxic products. Pathogenic 

 bacteria are not infrequently found in the urine in the acute infectious dis- 

 eases of man e.g., typhoid fever, pneumonia, septicaemia ; and in certain 

 cases of mixed infection bacteria may be found in the urine which have no 



