INFECTION ATRIA. 35 



insects. In the case of plague the bacilli may be 

 deposited on the skin in the feces of the flea and 

 subsequently inoculated by means of rubbing or 

 scratching. The guinea-pig may be infected with 

 plague by rubbing a culture on the shaven skin. 

 Minute wounds probably exist. Staphylococci may 

 reach the hair follicles as a consequence of rub- 

 bing and cause furunculosis after penetrating the 

 soft epithelium of the follicle. 



The conjunctiva has rather high resistance for Eye. 

 some micro-organisms, as the anthrax bacillus, 

 and it harbors staphylococci continuously. It may 

 be invaded, however, by the gonococcus (especially 

 in children), pneumococcus, streptococcus, staphy- 

 lococcus, diphtheria bacillus, Morax-Axenfeld ba- 

 cillus, and probably the meningococcus. The 

 plague bacillus will cause generalized infection 

 through the conjunctiva in rats, and it is reported 

 that glanders and hydrophobia (Conte, Galtier) 

 may also gain entrance through the conjunctiva. 



The nasal passages become infected with the gj*^ 

 organisms causing coryza, with the organisms of 

 diphtheria, influenza, glanders, leprosy and with 

 the pyogenic cocci. Some of these may extend to 

 the adjacent cavities, antrum of Highmore, frontal 

 einuses, and the middle ear through the Eustachian 

 tube. On account of the proximity of the nasal 

 passages to the brain, and the Jymphatic communi- 

 cations, it is probable that meningitis (pneumo- 

 coccic and epidemic cerebrospinal) often arises by 

 extension of the organisms from the nose to the 

 meninges through the ethmoid. 



Actinomycosis, syphilis, occasionally tuberculo- Month. 

 sis (tongue), noma, thrush, and in children gon- 

 orrhea may find primary location in the mouth. 



