LESS COMMON PYOGENIC OHOANISMS 287 



The organisms that have just been described are 

 commonly known as the " pyogenic cocci " of Ogston, 

 Rosenbach, and Passet, and up to as late as 1885 were 

 believed to be the specific factors concerned in the pro- 

 duction of suppurative inflammations. Since that time, 

 however, there has been considerable modification of 

 this view, and while they are still known to be the 

 most common causes of suppuration, they are also 

 known not to be the only causes of this process. 



With the more general application of bacteriological 

 methods to the study of the manifold conditions coming 

 under the eye of the physician, the surgeon, and the 

 pathologist, observations are constantly being made 

 that do not accord with the earlier ideas upon the 

 specific relation of the pyogenic cocci to all forms of 

 suppuration. There is an abundance of evidence to 

 justify the opinion that a number of organisms not 

 commonly classed as pyogenic may, under certain cir- 

 cumstances, assume this property. For example : 



The bacillus of typhoid fever has been found in pure 

 culture in osteomyelitis of the ribs, in acute purulent 

 otitis media, in abscess of the soft parts, in the pus 

 of empyema, and in localized fibro-peritonitis, either 

 during its course or as a sequel of typhoid fever. 



Bacterium coli commune has been found in pure cult- 

 ure in acute peritonitis, in liver-abscess, in purulent in- 

 flammation of the gall-bladder and ducts, and in appen- 

 dicitis; and Welch* has found it in pure culture in 

 fifteen different inflammatory conditions. 



Micrococcus lanceolatus (pneumococcus) has been 

 found alone in abscess of the soft parts, in purulent 



' Welch : " Conditions Underlying the Infection of Wonnds," Ameri- 

 can Journal of the Medical Sciences, November, 1891. 



