46 MICRO-ORGANISMS AND DISEASE. [CHAP. 



in pleuro-pneurnonia of cattle and in the pneumonia of swine 

 fever. Pasteur has cultivated the micrococci in swine lever, 

 and thought that he had reproduced the malady by inoculation. 

 But this is not the case. The micrococci, although very 

 abundantly present in the bowels and in the body, 1 have 

 nothing to do with the malady. Pasteur's inoculations with 

 the cultivated micrococci are quite fallacious ; his positive 

 results are no doubt accounted for by accidental air-infection, 

 for this malady is highly infectious, and unless the most 

 rigorous precautions are taken to obviate infection through the 

 air, positive results may be obtained which in reality are due 

 to accidental air-infection. a 



Micrococci odcur always normally in large quantities in the 

 fluids (saliva and mucus, &c.) of the nasal and oral cavities, 

 pharynx, larynx, and trachea ; they are derived no doubt 

 from the atmosphere. On the papillae filiformes of the tongue 

 they form in some cases large masses. 3 Pasteur 4 has inocu- 

 lated rabbits with the saliva of a child that suffered from 

 hydrophobia, and having cultivated artificially the micrococci 

 present in this saliva, thought to have discovered that a 

 micrococcus (microbe specials) 5 is the cause of hydrophobia. 

 That saliva of the healthy dog and of man inoculated 

 subcutaneously into rabbits sometimes produces death in these 

 animals (Senator) had entirely escaped his notice, and 

 Sternberg 6 has proved this in an extensive series of ex- 

 periments. His own saliva proved sometimes fatal to rabbits. 

 They die of what is called septicaemia, and Sternberg thinks it 

 due to the micrococci ; but this is not to be considered as 

 proved. 



All these micrococci stand therefore in no definite causal 

 relation to the respective maladies, but are probably only of 

 secondary importance. 



The following micrococci are considered to stand in an 

 intimate relation to specific diseases : 



1. Micrococcus variolce et vaccmice. Chauveau 7 was the 

 first to prove experimentally that in vaccinia and in variola 

 the active principle is a particulate non-diffusible substance. 



1 Reports 



2 Ibidem. 



ts of the Medical Officer, 1878, 1879. 



3 Butlin, " Fur of the Tongue," Proceedings of the Royal Society, 1S80. 



4 Comptes Rendus, xlii. 



5 It is not quite clear whether this microbe speciale is a dumb-bell micrococcus 

 or a bacterium termo ; it is quite possible that it is the latter, viz. a rod con- 

 stricted in the middle. If so, it would appear identical with the bacterium th^t 

 produces Davaine's septicaemia in rabbits (see Chapter viii ). 



6 Bulletin, April 30, 1881, National Board of Health, U.S.A. 



7 Complex Lendus, 1868. 



