364 BACTERIOLOGY OF THE EYE 



Seeing that the Trypannsoma, according to Schaudinn, are closely 

 related to the Spirochatce, these experiments are of great interest in 

 the discussion of syphilitic changes. Spielmeyer (K. M.f. A., i. June, 

 1907), working with Trypanosoma, has produced changes in dogs 

 which closely resembled tabes and paralysis, and in which a well- 

 marked optic atrophy could be demonstrated. 



LITEEATUEE OF METASTATIC COENEAL ABSCESSES. 



AXENFELD, A. f. O., 1894, XL, 3, S. 89. 



FUCHS, A. f. O., 1903, LVI, S. 1 (previous literature). 



v. HIPPEL, E., Das Ulcus cornese internum. Festschr. f. A. v. HIPPEL. Sammlung 



zwangl. Abhand., Marhold-Halle, 1899. 

 LEBER-WAGENMANN, A. f. O., 1888, XXXIV, S. 251. 

 v. MICHEL, Discussion on Axenfeld's communication, Naturforscher-Vers. Xiirnberg, 



1893. 

 MORAX, Ann. d'ocul., 1904, CXXXII, S. 409. 



Endogenous Inflammation of the Globe 



(METASTATIC OPHTHALMIA). 1 



Although purulent inflammations only differ from non-purulent in 

 degree, and although we know that the causal agents of the former 

 under special conditions can cause non-purulent, serous, or plastic 

 inflammations ; yet the purulent hsematogenous inflammations arising 

 in the eye can be put into a special class, for we know with certainty 

 that in every case pyogenic organisms have settled down in the 

 affected part of the eye. We cannot infer, in an endogenous purulent 

 inflammation, that the toxins, which were circulating in the blood, 

 have settled down at one spot ; the hypothesis that such a microbe- 

 free metastatic ophthalmia exists is quite without proof. 



The fact that in this or that case no organisms could be found in the globe 

 is not conclusive, for in many cases the germs rapidly die out in the exudates, 2 and 

 in others their microscopic demonstration is difficult, and perhaps it has not been 

 attempted at the right place. The whole mass of the exudate need not be septic ; 

 for example, sterile pus may form in the anterior chamber, due to the distant in- 

 fluence of infection in the vitreous. 



The experimental examination of apparently endogenous toxic wound suppura- 

 tion is not conclusive ; we have shown this in the section on ' Wound Infection ' 

 (cf. p. 103). 



The question Toxic or bacterial metastatic ? is more difficult in the 

 case of the milder endogenous inflammations, which are non-purulent. 



1 The collected older literature is given by Axenfeld, A. f. 0., 1894, xl. 3, 4 ; also in 

 ' Ergebnisse, ' Lubarsch-Ostertag, 1895-1900, Axenfeld. 

 - Cf. later, p. 367. 



