ESSENTIAL CAUSE OF SUPPURATION. 8o 



tures of the staphylococcus pyogenes albus produced the same 

 eftect. Cultures of the streptococcus pyogenes produced only 

 slight inflammation in rabbits, while they proved very fatal in 

 mice. 



Passet ("Ueber die Aetiologie und Therapie der Impetigo, des 

 Furuukels und der Sykosis," Monatshefte f. prakt. Dermatologie, 

 B. vi. No. 10, 1887) took a pure culture of the staphylococcus 

 pyogenes aureus the size of a pea grown upon potato and mixed it 

 with 5 c.c. of distilled water. Of this fluid he injected under 

 the skin of a mouse 0.1 c.c.; the animal recovered. Another 

 mouse was treated in the same manner, but 0.4 c.c. of gelatin, 

 liquefied by the same microbe, was used, and this animal died in 

 eighteen hours. Cocci were found in the blood. In rabbits and 

 dogs, a subcutaneous injection of 1 c.c. liquefied gelatin-culture 

 of the aureus usually produced an abscess at the point of inocula- 

 tion. If the dose was increased to 5 c.c. of such a culture, the 

 animals died in from eighteen to twenty hours, at the same time a 

 local inflammation was found at the point of injection. In all of 

 these cases the blood contained numerous cocci. Of the culture of 

 the streptococcus it was found necessary to inject a considerable 

 quantity in order to produce suppuration. Liquefied gelatin-cul- 

 tures of the staphylococcus pyogenes aureus and albus, in doses 

 of 1 c.c., injected into the abdominal cavities of rabbits, were 

 well tolerated, and death was only produced when the dose was 

 increased to from 4 to 6 c.c. Injection of cultures of the strep- 

 tococcus pyogenes into the peritoneal cavity was even better toler- 

 ated, and usually had to be repeated several times to produce death 

 from peritonitis. A needle dipped into a culture of pus-microbes 

 he could insert into joints without causing suppuration ; but the 

 injection of from 0.3 to 0.5 c.c. of a mixture of pus-microbes 

 and water into the hip-joint of rabbits produced suppurative arthri- 

 tis, rupture of the capsule, and diifuse para-articular phlegmonous 

 inflammation and suppuration, and often death of the animal. 

 Injection of one or two drops of a liquefied gelatin-culture of the 

 staphylococcus aureus, or albus, into a vein of a rabbit did not 

 produce any serious disturbance, but if the dose was increased to 

 from 0.5 to 1, it, as a rule, caused a fatal disease. In such cases, 

 multiple suppurating foci were found in the kidneys, liver, spleen, 

 and lungs, with pleuritic and peritoneal effusions, pericarditis and 

 myocarditis, also serous and purulent effusions into joints and mus- 

 cular abscesses. A pure culture on potato scraped off and injected 

 into the circulation produced mycotic endocarditis. Injection of a 

 pure culture of streptococcus pyogenes was more frequently fol- 

 lowed by joint complications and peritoneal effusion. The effect 

 of the introduction of pus-microbes in man is the same as in 



