238 BACTERIOLOGY. 



est injury to the animal. On the contrary, if some 

 substance which acts as a direct irritant to the intes- 

 tines such, for example, as a small bit of potato upon 

 which the organisms are growing be at the same time 

 introduced, or the intestines be mechanically injured, 

 so that there is a disturbance in their circulation, then 

 the introduction of these organisms is promptly followed 

 by acute and fatal peritonitis. (Halsted. 1 ) 



On the other hand, the results which follow their 

 introduction into the circulation are practically constant. 

 If one inject into the circulation of the rabbit through 

 one of the veins of the ear, or in any other way, from 

 0.1 to 0.3 c.c. of a bouillon culture or watery suspension 

 of a virulent variety of this organism, a fatal pyaemia 

 always follows in from two and one-half to three days. 

 A few hours before death the animal is frequently seen 

 to have severe convulsions. Now and then excessive 

 secretion of urine is noticed. The animal may appear 

 in moderately good condition until from eight to ten 

 hours before death. At the autopsy a typical picture 

 presents ; the voluntary muscles are seen to be marked 

 here and there by yellow spots, which average the size 

 of a flaxseed, and are of about the same shape. They 

 lie usually with their long axis running longitudinally 

 between the muscle fibres. As the abdominal and thor- 

 acic cavities are opened the diaphragm is often seen to 

 be studded by them. Frequently the pericardial sac is 

 distended with a clear gelatinous fluid, and almost con- 

 stantly the yellow points are to be seen in the myocar- 

 dium. The kidneys are rarely without them ; here they 



1 Halsted : The Johns Hopkins Hospital Reports. Report in Surgery No. 1, 

 1891, Vol. II., No. 5, pp. 301-303. 



