174 MICRO-ORGANISMS AND DISEASE. [CHAP. 



mucous, or parenchymatous tissues, masses of micrococci have 

 been noticed which in no way bear any intimate relation to 

 disease, merely finding in the dead or severely diseased tissues 

 a suitable nidus for their growth and multiplication. But 

 they may be present even in organs which show no severe 

 disorganisation ; thus, for instance, in fatal cases of small-pox, 

 typhoid fever, pyaemia, even infantile diarrhoea, masses of 

 micrococci may be found in and around the blood-vessels in 

 the liver and spleen. In all these cases the micrococci are 

 capable of growing, because owing to the severe general 

 disorder these tissues have before the actual death of the 

 patient lost their vitality, and, consequently, are unable to 

 resist the immigration and settlement of the micrococci. Of 

 the same character are the masses of bacilli one meets with 

 sometimes in the intestinal wall, liver, and mesenteric glands 

 after death from severe disorder of the bowels, e.g. typhoid 

 fever and dysentery. I cannot for a moment accept the view 

 of Klebs and Koch, that the presence of the bacilli mentioned 

 in a former chapter necessarily stand in any causal relation to 

 typhoid fever, seeing that they are not constant, and particularly 

 that they are found in organs directly connected with the 

 intestines, which we know are in this disease in an intense 

 state of disorganisation. 



The question arises : Where do the micrococci and bacilli 

 come from which are thus capable of settling in a disorganised 

 tissue even during the life of the subject ? There can be no 

 doubt that as regards the intestinal wall, the mesenteric glands, 

 the liver, and the spleen, the organisms could readily, in cases 

 of severe disorganisation of the intestine, immigrate from the 

 cavity of the bowel, where they are normally present, into 

 the wall of the intestine, and moreover be absorbed together 

 with the products of disorganised tissue into the mesenteric 

 'lymphatic glands, the liver, and the spleen. Further, it is not 

 difficult to explain that if a focus of inflammation or necrosis 

 be set up at various internal places in consequence of emboli 

 carried from an inflammatory focus to which micrococci or 

 bacilli from the outer world have access, e.g. the skin, ali- 

 mentary canal, respiratory organs, these internal places or 

 metastases would harbour the same organisms, and as soon as 

 disintegration abscess, caseation, or necrosis takes place in 

 these metastases, also the imported organisms would multiply 

 to a great extent, the tissue being shut out from the circulation 

 and practically dead. 



All this I say is not difficult of explanation if we bear in 

 mind that the products of an inflammatory focus to which 



