ESSENTIAL CAUSE OF SUPPURATION. 87 



puration did not occur, he smeared the blade of the tenotome with 

 a pure culture of pus- microbes and kept the instrument under a 

 glass globe for six hours for the liquid to dry on it, and repeated 

 the same operation, and still no suppuration followed. In two 

 dogs of the same age, he dissected up a triangular flap of skin over 

 the abdomen with the base toward Poupart's ligament, and in one 

 of the animals infected the wound with a pure culture of pus- 

 microbes before suturing, while in the other the wound was closed 

 without such infection. The non-infected wound healed by primary 

 intention, while in the other animal a large abscess formed. He 

 also exposed the femoral vessels in animals, and inoculated the sur- 

 face over the vessels with pus-microbes, with the result of causing 

 only an abscess, but never progressive septic infection. In rabbits 

 and dogs, the injection of one drop of pus into the connective tissue 

 produced no reaction absorption taking place. In both of these 

 animals the injection of from 1 to 2 c.c. of pus under the skin 

 always developed large abscesses. In a rabbit, 0.4 c c. of strep- 

 tococci-containing pus caused death in forty hours ; suppuration at 

 the point of injection. Streptococcus culture was obtained from 

 the blood taken from the liver. Wegner ascertained that, in order 

 to produce suppurative peritonitis in rabbits, it is necessary to inject 

 6 c.c. of pus, and in dogs 25 c.c. Fehleisen injected into the 

 peritoneal cavity of rabbits 8 c.c. of streptococci-containing pus, 

 with the result that the animals were almost immediately seized 

 with toxic symptoms, followed by death in twelve hours. After 

 death, double pleuritis and peritonitis were found. Streptococci 

 could be cultivated from the blood. In two rabbits, 8 c.c. of 

 tubercular pus were injected into the peritoneal cavity without pro- 

 ducing any immediate symptoms until tuberculosis developed. In 

 rabbits, staphylococcus-containiug pus produced no constant symp- 

 toms. Some died after an injection of from 1 to 2 c.c., others 

 recovered after injection of from 4 to 5 c.c. From these experi- 

 ments, he came to the conclusion that the virulence of pus does not 

 depend upon the number of microbes it contains, but is proportion- 

 ate to the intensity of the inflammation in the individual from 

 which it was taken. 



Zuckermann (Aus dem Laboratorium f. Cliirurgie, Pathologic u. 

 Therapie der k. Universitat zu Kasan.\ as the result of his own 

 investigations and experiments, formulates his own ideas in refer- 

 ence to the causes of suppuration in the following conclusions : 



1. Mechanical, chemical, or thermal influences, if microbes are 

 excluded, do not produce suppuration. 



2. If suppuration followed any of these causes, it was not 

 without the admission of microbes. 



3. Chemically-pure substances may be mycotically impure ; even 



