334 APPLICATION OF METHODS OF BACTERIOLOGY 



detritus resulting from destructiAe processes acting upon 

 these cells; and of the normal cellular and connective-tissue 

 elements of the part. Here and there through this zone 

 will be seen localized areas of beginning death of the tissues. 

 This zone gradually fades away into the healthy surrounding 

 tissues. It constitutes the so-called "abscess-wall." 



Such is the picture presented by the miliary abscess 

 when produced experimentally in the rabbit, and it corre- 

 sponds from beginning to end with the pathological changes 

 which accompany the formation of larger abscesses in the 

 tissues of human beings. 



From these small abscesses in the tissues of the rabbit 

 micrococcus aureus may again be obtained in pure culture, 

 and will present identically the same characteristics that 

 were possessed by the culture with which the animal was 

 inoculated. 



A characteristic of all staphylococcus abscesses, small as 

 well as large, is centralized death of tissue; even in those of 

 microscopic dimensions this area of necrosis is always 

 discernible by appropriate methods of examination. It 

 represents the very starting-point of the destructive process, 

 and is referable to the combined action of the endotoxins 

 of the bacteria and the interference with the circulation 

 of the past due to proliferation of cells about the point at 

 which the bacteria are located. 



As a result of the studies of van de Velde, Krauss, von 

 Lingelsheim, Neisser and Wechsberg, and others, our knowl- 

 edge of the poison that causes the destruction — staphylotoxin, 

 as it is called — has been greatly extended.. Through the 

 work of these investigators we now know that the patho- 

 genic properties of micrococcus aureus are due to a definite 

 soluble toxin elaborated by it: that this poison is produced 



