SEPTIC INTOXICATION IN ANIMALS. 119 



embolism are absent, hence death cannot be attributed to fibrin 

 intoxication. In such instances we can only assume the presence of 

 a soluble ptomaine, which is diffused throughout the entire body 

 and destroys life by its toxic properties. 



Frankel (" Ueber Microorgauismen der chir. Infections-Krank- 

 heiten," Wiener med. Wochensohrift, 1885, B. xxxv.) found but few 

 micrococci in the blood of septiceemic patients, and observed that 

 they greatly increased after death ; but after the lapse of some fur- 

 ther time, altogether disappeared, thus also confirming a fact pre- 

 viously known, that putrefaction destroyed septic germs. These 

 observations may tend to harmonize the discrepancy of opinion 

 growing out of the different results obtained by different experi- 

 menters by injection of putrid substances, as some of the fluids 

 may have contained an abundance of living microorganisms, while 

 others may have been rendered sterile by age, owing to advanced 

 putrefaction. 



Brieger (" Giftige Producte der Faulniss-bacterien," Berliner 

 klin. Wochenschrift, 1884, No. 14) and Maas (" Faulniss-alcaloide," 

 Fortschritte der Medicin, 1883) have rendered valuable service in 

 the chemical isolation of ptomaines from putrid substances, and the 

 results of their inoculation experiments established more firmly the 

 fact of putrid intoxication by ptomaines. The number of bacteria 

 in rabbits killed by septic infection is so great, that death may 

 ensue from simple mechanical causes, while, in fatal cases of sepsis 

 in man, the number is often so small that it seems natural to 

 suppose that the microorganisms are capable of producing some 

 poisonous substance which destroys the patient before they have 

 time to multiply to the extent observed in the septicaemia of rabbits 

 and mice. 



Hauser (Ueber Faulniss-bacterien und der en Beziehung zur Septi- 

 ccemie, Leipzig, 1885) succeeded in isolating three kinds of schizo- 

 mycetes from a putrid meat solution, which he called, respectively, 

 proteus vulgaris, mirabilis, and Zenkeri. He claimed that all of 

 them changed their form during their growth, appearing at differ- 

 ent times as cocci, long and short rods, vibriones, spirilli, etc. (Fig. 

 5.) The variety in form, he claims, was influenced by the nature 

 of the culture substance. All these bacteria are putrefactive agents 

 and the proteus vulgaris and mirabilis are most frequently present. 

 The experiments were made by removing organs, or part of organs, 

 from animals immediately after death, and placing them in steril- 

 ized vessels, where they were inoculated with pure cultivations of 

 the proteus. A sterilized emulsion of boiled meat and eggs, inocu- 

 lated with a culture of the three kinds of proteus, was transformed 

 into a putrescent mass in a short time. That this change was not 

 caused by a preformed putrefactive ferment was proved by the fact 



