TEXT-BOOK OF BACTERIOLOGY. 321 



The cocci having once entered, the local changes characterizing 

 erysipelas are produced — i.e., progressive redness and swelling of 

 the skin. But severe general symptoms (gastric disturbances, fever, 

 nervousness, etc.) will sometimes appear from the beginning and 

 during the whole process of the disease, which circumstance points 

 to the action of a special bacterial poison, distributed over the body 

 through the blood or fluids, which we have not yet succeeded 

 in separating. 



A microscopic investigation of the diseased tissue reveals the 

 cocci generally in considerable quantities at the edge of the in- 

 flamed region, which latter usually remains free from them. 



The micro-organisms can be stained by Gram's method and ex- 

 hibit their peculiar distribution in the tissue distinctly. They are 

 confined almost exclusively to the lymphatic glands and vessels 

 which they sometimes completely fill, while the adjacent parts re- 

 main free. Occasionally individual cocci appear between or within 

 the cells. They are rarely noticed in the blood and organs. 



PYOGENIC BACTERIA. 



As diseases from wound-infection were prevented, by the aid of 

 antiseptic treatment, with increasing success, it became more and 

 more probable that the cure of wounds was in reality an exceed- 

 ing! j^ simple process, even when unaided by a "reaction," formerly 

 regarded as indispensable. Suppuration was considered to be the 

 principal " process of reaction." The question whether suppuration 

 coijld originate at all without the action of micro-organisms (even 

 if not directly in connection with wounds, since the latter were so 

 successfully kept from complications) was soon answered by the 

 dictum : no suppuration without micro-organisms. The correctness 

 of this assertion was subsequently disputed. A great many theo- 

 retical discussions and experimental elaborations followed, some of 

 them being distmguished by the exhibition of admirable care and 

 skill. We have now reached a positive conclusion regarding some 

 important points. 



The investigations of Scheurlen, Steinhaus, Kaufmann, and es- 

 pecially Grawitz and de Bary, leave us no longer in doubt as to the 

 fact that many germ-free chemical substances (such as nitrate of 

 silver, oil of turpentine, liquor ammonia caustici, digitaline, cada- 

 verine, etc.) can produce an acute suppuration in the subcutaneous 

 tissue. The sterilized cultures, too, of various micro-organisms act 

 in the same way. The cadaverine (pentamethyldiamine) belongs to 

 the series of well-known bacterial excretions. It is just as certain, 



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