176 MICRO-ORGANISMS AND DISEASE. [CH. xvm. 



inflammation and necrosis, we may expect them to multiply 

 accordingly. 



It is now admitted by most competent observers that in the 

 healthy and normal state the blood and tissues contain no 

 micro-organisms whatever, and that the assertions to the 

 contrary are due to errors in the experiment, i.e. to accidental 

 contamination. I will on this point merely refer, amongst 

 many others, to the observations of Watson Cheyne l and 

 F. W. Zahn. 2 Consequently it cannot be maintained that if 

 in any focus of disintegration micro-organisms make their 

 appearance they are derived from those normally present ; we 

 must, on the contrary, believe that putrefactive organisms can 

 be imported from parts connected with the outer world into 

 distant localities in which disorganisation of tissues has taken 

 place. 



It is clear from the foregoing that after death micro-organisms 

 will readily immigrate into the various tissues, and in this re- 

 spect those organs situated near places where under all con- 

 ditions micro-organisms exist will be the first to be invaded by 

 them ; e.g. the lungs, from micro-organisms present in the 

 bronchi and air-cells derived from the outer air, the walls of 

 the alimentary canal, the mesenteric glands, the peritoneal 

 cavity, the liver, and the spleen. The bacilli possessed of 

 locomotion are particularly to be mentioned in this respect, 

 but other non-motile bacilli and micrococci also find their way 

 into these organs ; thus Koch 3 saw only a few hours after 

 death bacilli (non-motile) present in the blood of the arteries 

 of a healthy person who had died by strangulation. 



1 Pathological Transactions, vol. xxx. 



2 Virchow's Archiv, vol. xcv. 



3 Pathogene Micro-organismen. 



