44 



Inoculation of rabbits with saliva from children dead of 

 broncho-pneumonia caused the same result, and pro- 

 duced the same figure-of-8 bacterium. The same or- 

 ganism was found in the saliva of a healthy adult. Stern- 

 berg found that injection of fresh saliva from certain 

 healthy individuals caused a similar fatal infectious dis- 

 ease, which he calls septicaemia, in rabbits, characterized 

 by the presence of a micrococcus apparently identical 

 with Pasteur's ; and asserts that this organism, isolated 

 by flask cultures, induced the disease again upon subcu- 

 taneous inoculation. Neucki and Gautier isolated from 

 saliva a substance capable also of producing fatal infec- 

 tion of certain animals. Saliva, then, not only after death 

 of the subject, but even fresh from the living individual, 

 can also induce septicaemia. Whether the effect shall 

 be ascribed to a contained bacterium or not is immaterial 

 to our present purpose, which is to emphasize the fact 

 that the group of phenomena called in general septi- 

 caemia may follow other causes than putrid infection ; 

 may be induced on the one hand by the vital action of 

 isolated bacteria, and on the other by unorganized sub- 

 stances the boiled septic materials of Panum and Rosen- 

 berg, the sepsin of Bergmann, the fibrin-ferment of Edel- 

 berg, pepsin and trypsin of Bergmann, haemoglobin, etc. 

 The mode of action common to several, at least, ap- 

 pears to be the liberation of fibrin ferment ; for the blood 

 of septicaemic animals is characterized by the presence 

 of free ferment, which is not found, unless perhaps as 

 traces, in normal blood. This ferment seems to arise, 

 according to the researches of Schmidt, in the disinte- 

 gration of white blood-corpuscles ; and these are known 

 to be invaded and apparently disintegrated by bacteria, 

 in the septicaemia of mice and rabbits, at least. It would 

 appear, although not for all cases demonstrated, that the 

 clinical and anatomical features common to the various 

 forms of septicaemia are attributable to the rapid libera- 

 tion of fibrin ferment in the blood ; and that any agent 

 organized or unorganized, putrid or fresh capable 

 of effecting such liberation may induce the disease. 



