LOCALIZATION OF MICKO-ORGANISMS. 51 



substances, and only in one was the yellow staphylococcus found, 

 and in five cases various putrefactive bacilli were cultivated. In 

 some instances he was able to demonstrate the point at which the 

 different secondary invasions had taken place. Thus in a case of 

 sepsis after scarlatina in which streptococci were found in every 

 part of the body, a pure streptococcus pneumonia? was found in the 

 lower part of the left lung, while a number of foci in the upper 

 part of the right lung contained only bacilli. 



Rinne ( Verhandlungen Deutscher Naturforscher und Aerzte, in 

 Wiesbaden, 1887) made some experiments which convinced him 

 that a trauma which results in an ordinary inflammation does not 

 furnish a locus minoris resistentice for the localization of pathogenic 

 germs, as has been described above. He claims that the living 

 body possesses the capacity to eliminate large numbers of living 

 pus-microbes when these are in tissues where they are not ex- 

 posed to direct contact with oxygen. He has found that cocci 

 do not collect at points the seat of subcutaneous injury, and that 

 they do not migrate into sterile abscesses from distant parts, and 

 not even after intravenous or intraperitoneal injection. Even an 

 injection of a pure culture of pus-microbes into a part injured 

 subcutaneously, or into young or mature cicatricial tissue around 

 encapsulated foreign substances, produced no suppuration. From 

 these experiments he was led to believe that tissue lesions which 

 produce an inflammatory reaction do not predispose to metastatic 

 suppuration. On the other hand, it was also demonstrated ex- 

 perimentally that tissue lesions become a locus minoris resistentice 

 after the tissues have become permeated by the chemical products 

 of the microorganisms. The locus minoris resistentice for the pus- 

 microbes is a tissue which, by chemical or by chemical and 

 mechanical lesions, has lost its normal resistance to the microbes, 

 which is not the case if a trauma is followed by an active repara- 

 tive process. 



The same author (" Der Eiterungs- process und seine Metastasen," 

 Archiv /. klin. Chirurgie, Band xxxix. Heft 2) has recently made 

 numerous experiments on rats, rabbits, guinea-pigs, and dogs, to 

 show that subcutaneous mechanical lesions never suppurate, even 

 after inoculation with larger doses of pure cultures of pus-microbes. 

 The subcutaneous lesions were made with a tenotome under strict 

 antiseptic precautions and the puncture sealed with collodium. 

 The cultures, usually diluted with sterilized water, were injected 

 either subcutaneonsly into the peritoneal cavity, directly into the 

 circulation, or into the injured tissues, but metastatic suppuration 

 was never produced. Circumscribed suppuration was produced 

 around woollen threads impregnated with a pure culture and intro- 

 duced into the tissues. He believes that in these cases the pus- 



