26 BACTERIOLOGY 



In the main, these studies had been conducted upon 

 wounds and the infections to which they are liable; in 

 fact, the evolution of our knowledge of bacteriology to its 

 present development is so intimately associated with this 

 particular line of investigation that a few historical facts 

 in connection with it may not be without interest. 



The observations of Rindfleisch, in 1866, in which he 

 describes the presence of small, pin-head points in the 

 myocardium and general musculature of individuals that 

 had died as a result of infected wounds, represent, probably, 

 the first reliable contribution to this subject. He studied 

 the tissue-changes round about these points up to the 

 stage of miliary abscess-formation. He refers to the organ- 

 isms as "vibrios." Almost simultaneously von Reckling- 

 hausen and Waldeyer described similar changes that they 

 had observed in pyemia and, occasionally, secondary to 

 typhoid fever. Von Recklinghausen believed the granules 

 seen in the abscess-points to be micrococci and not tissue- 

 detritus, and gave as the reason that they were regular in 

 size and shape, and gave specific reactions with particular 

 straining-fluids. Birch-Hirschfeld was able to trace bacteria 

 found in the blood and organs to the wound as the point 

 of entrance, and believed both the local and the constitu- 

 tional conditions to stand in direct ratio to the number of 

 spherical bacteria present in the wound. He observed also 

 that as the organisms increased in number they could often 

 be found within the bodies of pus-corpuscles. His studies 

 of pyemia led him to the important conclusion that in this 

 condition micro-organisms were always present in the 

 blood. 



Of immense importance to the subject were the investiga- 

 tions of Klebs, made at the Military Hospital at Karlsruhe 



