258 PATHOGENIC BACTERIA. 



Hirsli x has shown that under pathological conditions 

 streptococci are by no means rare organisms in the in- 

 testinal canal of infants, and may cause a streptococcic 

 enteritis. In these cases the organisms are found in large 

 numbers in the stomach and in the stools, and later in 

 the course of the disease in the blood and urine of the 

 living child and in the internal organs of the cadaver. 



Liebman 2 reports two cases of streptococcic enteritis 

 that were cerefully studied bacteriologically. 



Flexner, 3 in a series of autopsies upon cases of death 

 from various diseases, found the bodies invaded by num- 

 erous micro-organisms, causing what he has called " term- 

 inal infections," and hastening the fatal issue. Of 793 

 autopsies at Johns Hopkins Hospital, 255 from chronic 

 heart or kidney diseases, or both, were sufficiently well 

 studied bacteriologically to meet the needs of a statis- 

 tical inquiry. Tubercular infection was not included. 

 Of the 255 cases, 213 gave positive bacteriological results. 

 "The micro-organisms causing the infections, 38 in all, 

 were the Streptococcus pyogenes, 16 cases; Staphylococcus 

 pyogenes aureus, 4 cases; Micrococcus lanceolatus, 6 cases; 

 gas bacillus (B. Aerogenes capsulatus), three times alone 

 and twice combined with the Bacillus coli communis; the 

 gonococcus, anthrax bacillus, Bacillus proteus, the last 

 combined with the Bacillus coli, the Bacillus coli alone, 

 a peculiar capsulated bacillus, and an unidentified coc- 

 cus. ' ' 



It is interesting to observe how many cases were 

 accompanied by the streptococcus. All the streptococci 

 may not have been streptococcus pyogenes, but for con- 

 venience in his statistics they were regarded by Flexner 

 as identical. 



The presence of streptococci in the blood in scarlatina 

 has been observed in 30 cases by Crooke, by Frankel 

 and Trendenburg, Raskin, Leubarth, Kurth, and Babes. 



1 Centralbl. fur Bakt. und Parasitenk., Bd. xxii., Nos. 14 and 15, p. 369. 



2 Ibid., Bd. xxii., Nos. 14 and 15, p. 376. 



3 Journal of Experimental Medicine, vol. i., No. 3, 1896. 



