108 GANGRENE. 



which ran its course in eight days. The pus from such an abscess 

 may contain the specific microbe, and may act as the original virus. 

 Experiments showed that this disease could be transmitted from 

 mother to foatus. The bacillus could be destroyed by heat alone if 

 exposed to a temperature from 90 to 100 C. (194 to 212 F.) 

 for a quarter of an hour. In the dried state the virus is extremely 

 resistant. However, it can be destroyed after immersion in a hot 

 bath (120 C., 248 F.) in from ten to fifteen minutes. There can 

 be no doubt that the bacillus described here is a saprophyte, and 

 that it is identical with one of the bacilli saprogenes described by 

 Rosen bach. 



Brigadier- Surgeon Godwin (British, Medical Journal, July 23, 



1887) reports a case of progressive gangrene with emphysema, 

 starting from an inflamed corn, which extended with such rapidity 

 that a week after it commenced it had extended so high as to neces- 

 sitate amputation in the thigh. The man suffered from grave septic 

 intoxication, the symptoms of which persisted for a number of days 

 after the amputation, until the ptomaines, had been eliminated. 

 Culture experiments with the pus showed the presence of strepto- 

 coccus pyogenes and staphylococcus pyogenes albus. 



William Koch (" Milzbrand u. Rauschbrand," Deutsche Chi- 

 rurgie, Lieferung 9) states that in a case of progressive gangrene 

 with emphysema in a young man, he found a bacillus which resem- 

 bled the bacillus of glanders, and proved its identity by cultivation 

 and inoculation experiments. 



Ciarrocchi (Yirchow u. Hirsch's Jahresbericht, B. xi. S. 642, 



1888) describes a case of rnetastatic gangrene of the skin, caused by 

 infection through a lacerated wound of the last phalanx of the little 

 finger. Ten days after the accident the patient became ill, com- 

 plaining of chilly sensations, which were followed by fever and 

 thirst. The next day yellowish-white spots appeared on the chest, 

 which were diagnosticated as gangrseua cutauea. Suspecting a 

 causal relation between the injured finger and the gangrene of the 

 skin, cultures were made from the necrotic tissue upon gelatin and 

 the following microbes were isolated : staphylococcus pyogenes 

 aureus, staphylococcus cereus albus, and a brown culture in which 

 a short bacillus was found. Inoculation experiments could not be 

 made as the material was lost, but the results of the microscopical 

 examination agreed with those of Demme, which he obtained from 

 gangrenous spots in the skin of five children affected with erythema 

 nodosa. The latter observer also isolated the two varieties of pus- 

 microbes and a short, fine bacillus, This bacillus, when injected 

 under the skin of animals, produced gangrenous spots and a nodular 

 efflorescence. 



Jaffe and Leydeu (Deutsches Archivf. klin. Medicin, B. ii. S. 488) 



