1 78 SUPPURATION AND ALLIED CONDITIONS. 



tubercle bacillus, and various others. The question, how- 

 ever, is now rather of scientific than practical interest, and 

 the general statement may be made that practically all 

 cases of acute suppuration met with clinically are produced 

 by the action of living micro-organisms. 



LESIONS IN THE HUMAN SUBJECT PRODUCED BY 

 PYOGENIC BACTERIA. 



The following statement may be made with regard to 

 the occurrence of the chief organisms mentioned, in the 

 various suppurative and inflammatory conditions in the 

 human subject. The account is, however, by no means 

 exhaustive, as clinical bacteriology has shown that practi- 

 cally every part of the body may be the site of a lesion 

 produced by the pyogenic bacteria. It may also be noted 

 that acute catarrhal conditions of cavities or tubes are in 

 many cases also to be ascribed to their presence. 



The staphy locoed are the most common causal agents 

 in localised abscesses, in pustules on the skin, in car- 

 buncles, boils, etc., in acute suppurative periostitis, in 

 catarrhs of mucous surfaces, in ulcerative endocarditis, and 

 in various pycemic conditions. They may also be present 

 in septicaemia. 



Streptococci are especially found in spreading inflamma- 

 tion with or without suppuration ; in diffuse phlegmonous 

 and erysipelatous conditions, suppurations in serous mem- 

 branes and in joints (Fig. 50). They also occur in acute 

 suppurative periostitis and ulcerative endocarditis. Second- 

 ary abscesses in lymphatic glands and lymphangitis are 

 also, we believe, more frequently caused by streptococci 

 than staphylococci. They also produce fibrinous exuda- 

 tion on the mucous surfaces, leading to the formation of 

 false membrane in many of the cases of non-diphtheritic 

 inflammation of the throat, which are met with in scarla- 

 tina x and other conditions, and they are also the organisms 



1 True diphtheria may also occasionally be associated with this disease, 

 usually as a sequel. 



