VI. 



BACTERIA OF CADAVERS AND OF PUTREFYING 

 MATERIAL FROM VARIOUS SOURCES. 



THE putrefactive changes which occur so promptly in cadavers, 

 when temperature conditions are favorable, result chiefly from post- 

 mortem invasion of the tissues by bacteria contained in the alimen- 

 tary canal. But it is probable that under certain circumstances 

 microorganisms from the intestine may find their way into the cir- 

 culation during the last hours of life, and that the very prompt putre- 

 factive changes in certain infectious diseases in which the intestine 

 is more or less involved are due to this fact. The writer has made 

 numerous experiments in which a portion of liver or kidney re- 

 moved from the cadaver at an autopsy made soon after death one 

 to six hours has been enveloped in an antiseptic wrapping and kept 

 for forty-eight hours at a temperature of 25 to 30 C. In every in- 

 stance there has been an abundant development of bacteria, although 

 as a rule none were obtained from the same material immediately after 

 the removal of the organ from the body. This shows that a few 

 scattered bacteria were present. The same result was obtained in 

 cases of sudden death from accident, as from portions of liver or 

 kidney removed from the bodies of persons dying of yellow fever, 

 tuberculosis, and other diseases. 



Numerous researches show that the blood of healthy men and 

 animals is free from bacteria, and that saprophytic bacteria injected 

 into a vein soon disappear from the circulation ; and recent experi- 

 ments show that blood serum has decided germicidal power. But in 

 spite of this fact the experiments of Wyssokowitsch show that cer- 

 tain bacteria injected into the circulation may be deposited in the 

 liver, the spleen, and the marrow of the bones, and there retain their 

 vitality for a considerable time. The spores of Bacillus subtilis were 

 found by the observer named to preserve their vitality in the liver or 

 spleen of animals into which they had been injected, for a period of 

 two or three months. In the writer's experiments the microorgan- 

 isms which first developed in fragments of liver preserved in an an- 

 tiseptic wrapping were certain large anaerobic bacilli, and especially 



