SUPPURATION AND SEPTIC DISEASES 127 



Bacillus Murisepticus. 



The bacillus found in mouse septicaemia is similar to if 

 not identical with the bacillus of swine erysipelas. In 

 the tissues it is an extremely minute bacillus, I /u in length, 

 but in cultures filamentous forms occur. It stains well by 

 Gram's method. It is aerobic and facultatively anaerobic. 

 On surface agar it forms minute delicate colonies, or a 

 thin, delicate, greyish film, not unlike that of the strepto- 

 coccus; in stab gelatin it grows well without liquefaction, 

 forming a well-defined but delicate cloud-like growth 

 radiating from the stab. 



CHAPTER X 



MICRO-ORGANISMS OF SUPPURATION AND 

 SEPTIC DISEASES 



THE action of organisms is not an indispensable condition 

 for the formation of pus. Abscesses may be produced by 

 the injection of turpentine, sodium cinnamate, and other 

 substances. Such an abscess intentionally produced (Fixa- 

 tion Abscess) is used by French surgeons for relief of certain 

 bacterial infections, toxaemias, and even for cases of metallic 

 poisoning (Brelet, Medical Press, 1915, i., 440). Pus 

 may also be produced by the introduction into the tissues 

 of sterilised bacteria of several kinds, with or without 

 the soluble products of their growth, so that the exciting 

 cause may be either the intracellular contents of the organ- 

 isms, or, possibly, the mechanical effect combined with 

 the positive ' chemiotaxis ' that most bacteria and their 

 products exhibit to the leucocytes. 



Aseptic pus (sterile pus) is, however, rarely encoun- 

 tered, and pus formation (suppuration) is almost always 

 due to microbic agency. An organism capable of pro- 

 ducing pus is termed ' pyogenic.' An abscess is a local 

 and well-defined collection of pus, and the activities of 

 these so-called septic organisms may produce boils, 

 carbuncles, erysipelas, cellulitis, septicaemia, sapraemia, 

 and pyaemia (for definitions, see p. 14). According to the 

 presence of factors other than the organisms, different 



