416 BACTERIOLOGY. 



may be recovered from the blood and internal organs. 

 It is the opinion of Sanarelli that the toxic conditions 

 produced by the preliminary injections of the products 

 of growth of the saprophytic organisms may be consid- 

 ered analogous to a similar condition that may occur 

 in man from the absorption of abnormal products of 

 fermentation from the intestinal canal — an auto-intoxi- 

 cation that so reduces the resistance of the individual 

 as to render him susceptible to infection by the bacillus 

 of typhoid fever, should it gain access to his alimentary 

 tract. 



Alessi^ reports that rats, guinea-pigs, and rabbits, 

 when compelled to breathe the gaseous products of 

 decomposition from the contents of a cesspool, or from 

 other decomposing matters, gradually became susceptible 

 to infection by the typhoid bacillus ; but, unfortunately 

 for the value of this observation, the description given 

 by Alessi of the two cultures of so-called typhoid bacilli 

 used by him for inoculation was in one case certainly 

 not that of the typhoid organism, and in the other the 

 culture used had been kept under artificial conditions 

 so long as hardly to be reliable for tests of this 

 character. 



The importance of these observations in their bearing 

 upon the etiology of typhoid fever, if they are demon- 

 strated by subsequent experiment to be trustworthy, is 

 too obvious to necessitate emphasis, and it is greatly to 

 be desired that they may not be permitted to pass un- 

 noticed, but that others interested may find occasion to 

 institute experiments in the same direction, with the 

 hope that some light may be shed upon the mooted 



' Alessi ; Centralblatt fiir Bakteriologie uu. Parasiteukuude 1894, 

 Ed. XV. No. 7, p. 238, 



