THE MICROBES OF HUMAN DISEASES. 



233 



primary disease, characterized by the inflammation of 

 the skin, and sometimes as a secondary complication 

 of wounds, sores, and surgical operations. In any case, 

 the course taken by the disease and its contagious 

 nature enables us to assume the presence of a microbe. 

 Martin, Volkmann, and Hiiter found bacteria in the 

 patches of skin ; and Hayem found them in the pus of 

 meningitis, "which followed erysipelas of the face. 

 Lukomski was able to inoculate rabbits with the 

 disease, which may also be communicated by vaccine 

 lymph, taken from a child suffering from erysipelas. 

 Fehleisen has cultivated the microbe in a pure state, 



Fig. 97. Section of the skin in erysipelas : the interfascicular space (e) is full of 

 microbes (m) in 8's or chains; t, connective tissue (x 600 diam.). 



and has inoculated man with it, always reproducing 

 erysipelas with its characteristics and typical course. 

 Antiseptics, such as carbolic acid and analogous sub- 

 stances, employed either as outward applications or as 

 subcutaneous injections, have been successful in many 

 instances in arresting the development of the disease. 



Erysipelas serves as the transition to those diseases 

 within the domain of surgery, and which are generally 

 due to sores, wounds, and operations. 



