CHAPTER VI 



THE PATHOGENIC MICROCOCCI AND STREPTOCOCCI. B. 

 PYOCYANEUS. S. VENTRICULI. CERE BRO- SPINAL 

 FEVER AND GONORRHGEA 



Suppuration and Septic Conditions 



UNDER the terms " suppuration " and " septic diseases " 

 are included such varied conditions as abscesses, boils 

 and carbuncles, cellulitis, osteomyelitis, erysipelas, infec- 

 tive endocarditis, pyaemia, septicaemia and sapraemia, 

 puerperal fever, suppurative wounds and gas gangrene. 



Although organisms such as the tubercle bacillus, 

 Actinomyces, Entamceba histolytica, and others, induce 

 suppuration, this is not usually regarded as a septic 

 condition ; pathologically, it is only an incident, as it 

 were, in the course of the infection. 



Septic infections and suppuration are of great practical 

 importance, and the progress of surgery during the last 

 quarter of the nineteenth century was largely due to a 

 knowledge of their aetiology. 



Lister so far back as 1867 had come to the conclusion 

 that sepsis and suppuration complicating wounds are due 

 to the presence of adventitious micro-organisms, and 

 initiated the antiseptic system of treatment in order to 

 prevent their entrance and limit their activities when 

 present. 



Ogston in 1881 and Rosenbach in 1884 demonstrated 

 that micro-organisms are almost invariably present in 

 the pus of acute abscesses, and these observations were 



