BACTERIA IN CROUPOUS PNEUMONIA. 



in their blood a multitude of oval microorganisms, united for the 

 most part in pairs, or in chains of three or four elements. These 

 experiments are recorded in my paper entitled " Experimental Inves- 

 tigations Relating to the Etiology of the Malarial Fevers/' published 

 in the Report of the National Board of Health for 1881, pp. 74, 75. 



Following up my experiments made in New Orleans (in Septem- 

 ber, 1880), in Philadelphia (January, 1881), and in Baltimore (March, 

 1881), I obtained the following results : 



" The saliva of four students, residents of Baltimore (in March), 

 gave negative results ; eleven rabbits injected with the saliva of six 

 individuals in Philadelphia (in January) gave eight deaths and three 

 negative results; but in the fatal cases a less degree of virulence was 

 shown in six by a more prolonged period between the date of injec- 

 tion and the date of death. This was three days in one, four days 

 in four, and seven days in one. " 



In a paper published in the Journal of the Royal Microscopical 

 Society (June, 1886) I say : 



" My own earlier experiments showed that there is a difference in 

 the pathogenic potency of the saliva of different individuals, and I 

 have since learned that the saliva of the same individual may differ 

 in this respect at different times. Thus during the past three years 

 injections of my own saliva have not infrequently failed to cause a 

 fatal result, and in fatal cases death is apt to occur after a some- 

 what longer interval, seventy-two hours or more ; whereas in my 

 earlier experiments the animals infallibly died within forty-eight 

 hours." 



The presence of my Micrococcus Pasteuri was demonstrated in 

 the blood of the rabbits which succumbed to the inoculations. 



Claxton, in a series of experiments made in Philadelphia in 1882, 

 injected the saliva of seven individuals into eighteen rabbits. Five 

 of these died within five days, and nine at a later period. 



Frankel, whose first publication was made in 1885, discovered 

 the presence of this micrococcus in his own salivary secretions in 1883, 

 and has since made extended and important researches with refe- 

 rence to it. The saliva of five healthy individuals and the sputa 

 of patients suffering from other diseases than pneumonia, injected 

 into eighteen rabbits, induced fatal " sputum septicaemia " in three 

 only. When he commenced his experiments his saliva was uni- 

 formly fatal to rabbits, but a year later it was without effect. 



Wolf injected the saliva of twelve healthy individuals, and of 

 three patients with catarrhal bronchitis, into rabbits, and induced 

 " sputum septicaemia " in three. 



Netter examined the saliva of one hundred and sixty-five healthy 

 persons, by inoculation experiments in rabbits, and demonstrated 

 the presence of this micrococcus in fifteen per cent of the number. 



