BACTERIA IN INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 605 



Weichselbaum has observed two cases of primary peritonitis and 

 pleuritis apparently induced by Micrococcus pneumonias crou posse, 

 as this microorganism was found in the exudate into the peritoneal 

 cavity. The same author, in a case of peritonitis resulting from 

 rupture of the spleen in the course of typhoid fever, obtained a pure 

 culture of the typhoid bacillus from the peritoneal cavity. The re- 

 sults of A. FrankePs researches (1891) are as follows : In thirty-one 

 cases examined pure cultures were obtained in twenty, viz. : Bacil- 

 lus coli communis, nine times; streptococci, seven times; Bacillus 

 lactis aerogenes, twice; Micrococcus pneumonia crouposas, once; 

 Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus, once. In three cases Bacillus coli 

 communis was present in association with other bacilli, and in four 

 cases the bacteriological examination gave a negative result. 



Frankel has also shown that pure cultures of Bacillus coli com- 

 munis injected into the cavity of the abdomen of rabbits cause a 

 typical peritonitis. The present writer has frequently obtained the 

 same result in experiments made with this bacillus. It would ap- 

 pear, therefore, that the peritonitis which so constantly results from 

 wounds of the intestine is probably due, to a considerable extent, to 

 the introduction of this microorganism from the lumen of the intes- 

 tine, where it is constantly found, into the peritoneal cavity, where 

 the conditions are favorable for its rapid development. 



Malvoz in 1893 found Bacillus coli communis, for the most part 

 in pure cultures, in five out of seven cases examined by him ; in the 

 other two cases he found Streptococcus pyogenes in one and a bacil- 

 lus which appeared to be identical with Bacillus typhi abdominalis 

 in one. Barbacci (1892) in two cases in which meningitis was also 

 present (in one endocarditis also) found the micrococcus of pneu- 

 monia in pure cultures. Le Gendre (1895) has reported a case in 

 which the same microorganism was alone present, and states that 

 in a search of the literature he finds eleven recorded cases due to this 

 micrococcus; of these eight terminated fatally. Tavel and Lanz 

 (1893) in a series of seventy-two cases examined found bacteria re- 

 sembling the colon bacillus in thirty-one. Flexner (1893) reports a 

 case of peritonitis caused by Proteus vulgaris. Tubercular peri- 

 tonitis is, of course, due to infection by the tubercle bacillus. 



PLANTS, INFECTIOUS DISEASES OF. 



The infectious diseases of plants are, for the most part, due to parasitic 

 fungi, but several infectious plant diseases have been shown to depend upon 

 the presence of bacteria in the diseased tissues, and in others this has been 

 claimed by investigators upon more or less satisfactory evidence. The lim- 

 its of the present volume only admit of an enumeration of the most impor- 

 tant of these bacteria : 



Micrococcus amylovorus (Burrill) is believed to be the cause of "pear 

 blight;" Bacillus sorghi (Kellerman and Swingle) of "sorghum blight;'* 



