94 SUPPURATION. 



in dogs produce suppuration, in guinea-pigs only inflammatory 

 swelling. 



2. To a number of chemical agents, such as concentrated solution 

 of salt, acids, etc., a considerable quantity of a culture of staphylo- 

 coccus can be added without suppuration following the injection. 



3. In rabbits and guinea-pigs, even a large quantity of turpentine 

 can be injected without causing suppuration. In dogs, turpentine 

 injection into the subcutaneous tissue acts as a pyogenic substance 

 par excellence. These experimenters affirm that the microbes of 

 suppuration alone cannot produce pus in the subcutaneous tissue in 

 dogs and rabbits. On the other hand, they claim that chemical 

 substances, mycotically pure, can, under certain conditions, produce 

 suppuration, and must, when used in proper doses and concentra- 

 tion in the right kind of animals, produce suppuration without fail. 



Nathan (Archivf. klin. Chir., Bd. xxxvii. 8. 875) makes an inter- 

 esting contribution on the etiology of suppuration in view of the 

 fact that Grawitz and de Bary assert that ammonia, silver nitrate, 

 and turpentine injected subcutaueously into the tissues of dogs pro- 

 duce a suppuration in which no microbes can be found. He used 

 dogs in his experiments; the point of injection was shaved and 

 carefully disinfected with sublimate 1 : 1000 ; the substance used 

 was, after careful sterilization, injected by means of a needle thor- 

 oughly purified by heat. During the whole experiment the field 

 of operation was irrigated with sublimate solution. It was found 

 that abscesses did at times, but not invariably, appear as a result of 

 these injections. Plate cultures always showed that these abscesses 

 contained microorganisms, though both cover-glass preparations and 

 test-tube cultures failed to demonstrate them. The development of 

 microorganisms was explained by the theory that by constant lick- 

 ing the dogs infected the puncture. 



Janowski (" Ueber die Ursachen der acuten Eiterung," Ziegler's 

 Beitrage zur path. Anatomie, Bd. vi. Heft 3) experimented with ster- 

 ilized oil of turpentine on dogs and rabbits, producing by subcu- 

 taneous injections suppuration in the former animal in a few days, 

 while in the rabbits the suppurative process was delayed four to six 

 weeks. With caustic ammonia he obtained only negative results, 

 which led him to assert that when this substance caused suppuration 

 in the hands of other experimenters, it must have been contami- 

 nated with pus-producing microbes. 



P. Kaufman u (" Ueber den Einfluss des Digitoxins auf die 

 Enstehung Eitriger Phlegmone," Arcliiv f. Exp. Pathologic, Bd. 

 xxv. S. 397) has shown experimentally that digitoxiu when injected 

 subcutaneously into the tissues of animals produces suppuration 

 independently of pus-microbes. In dogs this result followed iujec- 



