120 



SEPTICAEMIA. 



that when the decomposed mass was filtered through clay cells the 

 filtrate did not produce the same effect. A small amount of the 

 putrescent fluid injected into the tissues of animals produced intense 

 symptoms of intoxication and sometimes death within an hour. 



FIG. 5. 



Proteus vulgaris, 285 : 1. 



Injections into the subcutaneous tissue of rabbits of a pure culture 

 of the proteus vulgaris and mirabilis not infrequently caused exten- 

 sive abscesses. An alcoholic extract of the putrid meat proved less 

 toxic, but a large quantity also produced sepsis and death. 



Rosenberger ("Experimeutell Studieniiber Septicsemie," Central- 

 blattf. d. med. Wiss., 1882, No. 4) studied experimentally on rabbits 

 the effect of injections of putrid blood. In one series of experi- 

 ments he simply injected the putrid material, in another he boiled 

 the fluid before injecting it. The result was the same typical 

 septicaemia, only that the animals infected with the boiled material 

 required a larger dose and did not succumb so rapidly to the sepsis. 

 Microscopical examination of the blood and culture experiments 

 yielded the same results : the presence of bacteria and their growth 

 upon culture media. He is of the opinion that in septicaemia 

 bacteria are not the first or the essential etiological condition, but 

 believes that under certain circumstances innocent bacteria which 

 may exist in the body are transformed within twenty-four to forty- 

 eight hours into specific septic bacteria. In his experiments he 

 attributed the occurrence of sepsis to the introduction of the septic 

 poison, boiled or unboiled. The most interesting proof that true 

 progressive sepsis is not the result of the introduction into the cir- 

 culation of the products of putrefaction, but of pathogenic germs, 



