PATHOGENIC MICRO-OKG ANISMS IN THE BODY. 27 



Zahor (" Ueber das Vorkommen von Spaltpilzen im normalen 

 thierischeu Korper," Wiener med. Jahrbilcher, p. 343, 1886) exam- 

 ined the blood, testicle, heart, and spleen of a healthy rabbit, and 

 found in fresh as well as in hardened sections, after staining with 

 methyl-violet, cocci, and here and there rods. The same examina- 

 tions with like results were made on the organs of a young cat. 

 Under strict antiseptic precautions he removed a testicle from an- 

 other healthy animal, and embedded it at once in paraffin, which, 

 under the microscope, was also seen to contain bacteria. 



Bizzozero (Virchow's Jahresbericht, 1887, B. 1, p. 283) could 

 not detect bacteria of any kind in animals soon after birth, but 

 in the lymph follicles of the vermiform process in healthy rabbits 

 he found numerous bacteria which could be readily stained with 

 Gram's solution, and which, in form and size, corresponded with 

 the schizomycetes which are always contained in the intestinal con- 

 tents of these animals. The microbes were seen mostly in the pro- 

 toplasm of cells, a condition which would indicate that they are 

 transferred from the intestinal canal into the closed lymph follicles 

 through the medium of migrating cells. 



Hauser (Vorkommen von Microorganismen im lebenden Gewebe 

 gesunder Thiere, Archivf. experimentelle Pathologic und Pharma- 

 cologie, B. xx. pp. 162-202) has made a number of carefully-con- 

 ducted experiments to show that no microbes exist in healthy animals. 

 The experiments consisted principally in procuring tissues prone to 

 fermentation, as parts of internal organs, blood, etc., and protecting 

 them against infection from without. He kept the specimens in 

 rarefied air, in filtered air, hydrogen, oxygen, carbonic acid gas, 

 and water, and in various artificial culture soils, at a temperature 

 favorable to putrefaction, but in all instances in which the speci- 

 mens remained nncontaminated no putrefactive changes were ob- 

 served. By this method he believed he was able to demonstrate 

 that tissues taken from healthy animals immediately after death 

 contained no putrefactive bacteria, since it is well known that if the 

 specimens were not perfectly sterile putrefaction would have taken 

 place. The author did not only appear to demonstrate that living 

 tissues contained no microorganisms, but he also ascertained that 

 the preserved sterile organs in time underwent a sort of regressive 

 metamorphosis similar to that which takes place in the body in the 

 absence of microorganisms, and, what is of especial interest, that 

 the products of such processes of resolution possess no poisonous 

 properties whatever. 



Fodor (Deutsche med. Wochenschrift, 1887) has shown that the 

 power of the blood to destroy bacteria is not diminished by a mod- 

 erate degree of anemia, but is lessened when diluted with water, 

 as when this is done the microbes are destroyed more slowly, and 



