60 PA THOGENIC BA CTERIA . 



Achard ' studied 49 cases to determine whether or not 

 the intestinal bacteria entered the organism during the 

 death agony. In 14 bacteria were found intra vitam in 

 the liver and in the blood. In 24 no bacteria were found 

 during life, but after death. In n no bacteria were 

 found either during life or after death before twenty-two 

 to twenty-seven hours, when his autopsies were made. 

 The passage of bacteria into the blood during agony was 

 unusual. The bacteria most commonly found during life 

 were the streptococci and staphylococci. In the dead body 

 the one most frequently encountered was the bacillus coli 

 commnnis. Before reaching the intestine the bacteria 

 pass through the stomach, and must resist the deleterious 

 action of the acid gastric juice, which few are able to do. 



(b) The Respiratory Tract. Notwithstanding the moist 

 interiors of the mouth and nose and the lashing cilia of 

 the pharyngeal and tracheal mucous membrane, numbers 

 of bacteria enter the smaller bronchioles, and occasionally 

 penetrate as deeply as the air-cells. It is usual to find a 

 few bacteria in a section of healthy lung. 



Thomson and Hewlett 2 estimate that from 1500 to 

 14,000 bacteria are inspired every hour. As expired air 

 is usually sterile, they sought to determine what became 

 of these organisms, and agree with Lister and with 

 Hildebrandt that the organisms are arrested before they 

 reach the air-cells. They found by killing a number of 

 animals and examining the tracheal surface that it was 

 sterile, and conclude that the great majority of bacteria 

 are stopped in the nose against the moist surfaces of its 

 vestibules, where they found great numbers in the crusts. 

 No doubt the ciliated cells of the nose have something to 

 do with getting rid of the bacteria. 



An ingenious experiment was performed by placing 

 some bacilli prodigiosus upon the septum naris, and 

 making a culture from the spot at intervals during two 



1 Archives de m&lecine exp^rimentale et d'antnmie |>:itli(>lo^i<|ue, 1895, No. 

 l, p. 25- 



1 British Med. Jour., Jan. 1 8, 1896, p. 137. 



