74 INFLAMMATION. 



inflammatory action did not produce a locus minoris resistentice, but 

 that the slightest injury caused by the chemical products of the bac- 

 teria themselves sufficiently weakened the part to enable the organ- 

 isms to grow in it. Acute osteomyelitis and local tuberculosis 

 follow not severe, but, as practical experience has shown, trifling 

 injuries. In phthisical patients a severe wound or fracture is not 

 followed by local tuberculosis, but slight injuries determine locali- 

 zation. Chronic infective inflammations, as tuberculosis, syphilis, 

 and actinomycosis, often lay the foundation for acute supptirative 

 inflammation, as the foci of granulation tissue determine localiza- 

 tion of floating pus-microbes, and the embryonal tissue furnishes 

 the most favorable local conditions for their pathogenic action. 

 Acute septic peritonitis has been made the subject of careful experi- 

 mentation with special reference to its etiology. 



Pawlowsky (Beitrage zur Aetiologie und Entstehuugsweise der 

 akuten Peritonitis/ 7 Centmlblatt f. Chirurgie, 1887, No. 48) made 

 10 series, with 101 experiments. The chemical irritants, or cul- 

 tures, were introduced through the canula of a small trocar under 

 strict antiseptic precautions, and the small wound carefully closed 

 with iodoform collodium. The first series consisted of experi- 

 ments with croton oil on three dogs and nine rabbits. The amount 

 of croton oil injected varied from six drops to one-tenth of a 

 drop. The smallest doses produced no symptoms. Large doses 

 produced a severe, acute hemorrhagic peritonitis, the intensity of 

 which was proportionate to the amount of the irritant injected. 

 The peritoneal effusion, under the microscope, was seen to contain 

 red and white blood-corpuscles. Inoculations of different nutrient 

 media with the fluid yielded negative results. In the next series 

 of experiments, an aqueous solution of trypsin and pancreatin 

 was injected for the purpose of determining whether the diges- 

 tive ferments in the event of intestinal perforation could produce 

 peritonitis. The experiments established that trypsiu acts as a 

 powerful irritant upon the peritoneum. Injection of one-half 

 gramme of trypsin dissolved in sterilized water caused in rabbits a 

 severe hemorrhagic peritonitis, with a copious exudation and death 

 in from four to four and one-half hours. In doses of from one- 

 fourth to one-tenth of a gramme hemorrhagic peritonitis was also 

 produced, but death did not occur until twenty to twenty-four hours 

 after the injection. One-twentieth of a gramme produced no symp- 

 toms. Nutrient media inoculated with the products of inflamma- 

 tion remained sterile. Next, the peritoneal cavity was infected 

 with plate cultures of different microbes suspended in sterilized 

 water. The first experiments were made with non-pathogenic 

 germs. Four rabbits and one dog were injected with large quanti- 

 ties of a micrococcus which was obtained from a plate culture 



