RELATION OF PTOMAINES TO SUPPURATION. 91 



white corpuscles and plasma may be present. Klemperer believes 

 that this is due to a previous destruction of fibrinogen by the 

 microorganisms. The putrid meat infusion used by Schenerleii 

 caused limited suppuration, and on that account it must also have 

 possessed the property to prevent coagulation. To prove this, he 

 made the following experiment: The abdomen of a rabbit was 

 opened while the animal was under the influence of chloroform, 

 and blood was drawn directly from the aorta into a glass tube con- 

 taining putrid extract of meat. As the fluids gradually became 

 mixed, the blood assumed a brownish-red color ; coagulation did 

 not take place alter hours and days, while in the control experi- 

 ments, with solution of salt, the blood coagulated firmly after the 

 lapse of a few minutes. Microscopical examination of the mixture 

 of blood and putrid fluid showed no fibrin and no rouleaux of red 

 blood- corpuscles. Both the red and white corpuscles were con- 

 tracted and corrugated. He next made thirty cultures of the staphy- 

 lococcus pyogenes aureus on agar-agar gelatin, and the same 

 number of cultures of the albus, and after completion of their 

 growth, fourteen days later, he sterilized them with boiling water, 

 and after shaking the fluid removed the cultures and boiled them 

 for a few minutes, and finally filtered them ; and thus obtained 

 about 150 c.c. of a light yellow fluid. This was reduced to 8 

 c.c. by boiling ; when used, the fluid was again filtered. The fil- 

 trate was put in capsules and introduced into the subcutaneous 

 tissues of animals in the same manner as in the preceding experi- 

 ments. The suppuration which followed was again found to be 

 limited to the inside of the broken glass capsules, the same as in 

 the experiments with the sterilized putrid meat infusion. The 

 cadaverin and putrescin, two ptomaines prepared by Brieger, were 

 next experimented with in the same manner. In preventing 

 coagulation the results were even more marked than with the former 

 substances. Both also produced the same localized suppuration in 

 the interior of the broken glass capsule. Cadaveriu has lately 

 been produced chemically by Ladeuberg from trimethyleu-cyanuret 

 as pentamethylendiomin. 



These experiments leave no doubt that ptomaines exert a chemi- 

 cal influence on leucocytes and embryonal tissue, which transforms 

 these tissues into pus corpuscles. The suppuration which is thus 

 produced, however, never extends beyond the tissues which are 

 brought in direct contact with them, and, therefore, always remains 

 circumscribed. In this respect the experiments just cited do not 

 correspond with suppuration as we meet it at the bedside, as here 

 from the same causes, and apparently under the same conditions, 

 the process presents the greatest variations in reference to its inten- 

 sity and extent. In one case the suppuration remains circum- 



