66 Infection 



entrance of bacteria through lesions of the skin. It makes 

 but little difference to what depth the lesion extends, 

 abrasions, punctures, lacerations, incisions, the protective 

 covering is gone and the infecting organisms find themselves 

 in the tissues, surrounded by the tissue lymph, under con- 

 ditions appropriate for growth and multiplication, provided 

 no inhibiting or destructive mechanism be called into action. 



The digestive apparatus is the portal through which 

 many infections take place. The Bacillus diphtheria, 

 finding its way to the pharynx, speedily establishes itself 

 upon the surface, producing pseudomembranous inflam- 

 mation there. Typhoid bacilli, dysentery bacilli, cholera 

 spirilla and related organisms, finding their way to the 

 intestine, where the vital conditions are appropriate, take 

 up their temporary residence there, to the inconvenience of 

 the host, who suffers from one of the respective infections. 



Various organisms pass from the pharynx to the tonsils 

 and so to the lymph nodes and deeper tissues of the neck, 

 where their first operations may be observed. 



It is supposed by some pathologists that the digestive 

 tract is a constant menace to health in that it regularly 

 admits bacteria, through the lacteals, and perhaps through 

 its capillaries, to the blood, where under slightly abnormal 

 conditions they might do harm. According to Adami,* 

 the intestine is responsible for a condition of sub-infection 

 depending upon the constant entrance of colon bacilli into 

 the blood. He finds the colon bacillus in the blood, and 

 traces it to the liver, where its final dissolution takes place 

 in the fine dumbbell-like granules enclosed in the cells. 

 Nichollsf confirms Adami by finding similar dumbbell or 

 diplococcoid bodies in the epithelial denuded tissues of the 

 mesentery of normal animals. 



Nicholas and DescosJ and Ravenel fed fasting dogs upon 

 a soup containing quantities of tubercle bacilli, killed them 

 three hours later, and examined the contents of the thoracic 

 duct, where tubercle bacilli, some alive and some dead, were 

 found in large numbers, van Steenberghe and Grysez|| 



* " Jour, of the American Medical Association," Dec. 16 and 23, 

 1899, vol. xxxm, Nov. 25 and 26. 



f " Jour. Med. Research," vol. xi, No. 2. 



t" Jour, de Phys. et Path, gen.," 1902, iv, 910-912. 



" Jour. Med. Research," x, p. 460, 1904. 



|| "Ann. de 1'Inst. Pasteur," Tome xix, No. 12, p. 787, Dec. 25, 1905. 



