22 BACTERIOLOGY. 



into this channel of study. Even before the hypothesis 

 of spontaneous generation had received its final refuta- 

 tion a number of observations of a most important 

 nature had been made by investigators who had long 

 since ceased to consider spontaneous generation as a 

 tenable explanation of the origin of the microscopic 

 living particles. 



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 

 the point it now occupies 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 have died as a result of infected wounds, offer, 

 probably, the first reliable contribution to this subject. 

 He studied the tissue changes round about these points 

 to the stage of miliary abscess formation. He refers 

 to the organisms as " vibrios." Almost simultaneously 

 Von Recklinghausen and Waldeyer described similar 

 changes that they had observed in pyaemia and occa- 

 sionally secondary to typhoid fever. Von Reckling- 

 hausen 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 staining 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 constitutional condition 

 to stand in direct ratio to the number of spherical 



