ELIMINATION THEOUGH KIDNEYS. 68 



surface of the mucous membrane, seize the microorganisms, and 

 bring them back to be destroyed by the large phagocytes. Even 

 the large cells in some lymphoid structures may wander to the 

 surface and absorb and destroy, microbes. He is of the opinion 

 that the action of the microorganisms taking place in the normal 

 lymphoid tissues of the alimentary tract resembles, in all particulars, 

 the destructive process following on the inoculation of pathogenic 

 organisms into resistant animals. 



The author asserts, from further experiments, that the large 

 epithelioid cells of the spleen, lymphatic glands, and those of the 

 lungs, are really macrophagi developed from the lymphoid cells. 



Lubarsch (" Ueber Abschwachuug der Milzbrand-bacillen im 

 Froschkorper," Fortschritte der Medicin, No. 4, 1888), in his ex- 

 periments on frogs with the anthrax bacillus, infected the animals 

 by inserting into the lymph sac portions of the internal organs of 

 animals which had died of anthrax. His observations led him to 

 the conclusion that the phagocytes in reality do devour the mi- 

 crobes, and that disintegration of the iutra-cellular microbes is an 

 active process on the part of the cells. 



2. Elimination of Microbes through the Kidneys and other Organs. 



The rapidity with which some microbes disappear from the 

 blood is very remarkable ; it is in many cases a matter of minutes, 

 certainly of an hour or two, and this disappearance from the blood 

 must be due to an active process on the part of the constituents of 

 the blood on them. Mere unsuitability of soil is not sufficient to 

 account for the rapidity of the phenomenon. That they are elimi- 

 nated through the kidneys is shown by various observations, and 

 this is an important point to remember, as probably explaining 

 certain cases of pyelitis occurring in patients who have never had 

 any instrument passed, and in whom urethra and bladder are per- 

 fectly normal. The salivary glands, more especially the parotid, 

 occasionally take part in the excretion of pus- microbes, thus offer- 

 ing an explanation of the not infrequent occurrence of abscesses in 

 the parotid gland after suppurations elsewhere. 



Rosenstein (" Vorkommen der Tuberkel-Bacillen im Harn, n 

 Centralblatt f. d. med. Wissensch., 1883, No. 5) and Babes (Fort- 

 schritte der Medicin, B. i. p. 4) found bacilli in the urine in 

 patients suffering from tuberculosis of the gemto-urinary tract. 



Fardel (" Les bacilles dans la tuberculose miliaire. Tuberculose 

 glomerulaire dti rein," Archiv de Physiologie, 1886) mentioned the 

 condition of the kidneys in cases of miliary tuberculosis as an 

 evidence that the bacilli are diffused through the bloodvessels. 

 He found in a thrombosed capillary vessel in a glomerulus, in 



