464 APPLICATION OF METHODS OF BACTERIOLOGY 



we shall have to deal, but the bacillus of diphtheria remains 

 localized at the point of inoculation, rarely disseminating 

 further than the. nearest lymphatic glands. It develops at 

 the point in the tissues at which it is deposited, and during 

 its development gives rise to changes in the tissues 

 which result entirely from the absorption of poisonous 

 albumins generated by the bacteria in the course of their 

 development. 



In a certain number of cases' diphtheria bacilli have been 

 found in the blood and internal organs of individuals dead 

 of the disease; but all that has been learned from careful 

 study of the secondary manifestations of diphtheria tends 

 to the opinion that they are in no way dependent upon 

 the immediate presence of bacteria, and that the occasional 

 appearance of diphtheria bacteria in the internal organs is 

 in all probability accidental, and usually unimportant. 



By special methods of inoculation^ (the injection of fluid 

 cultures into the testicles of guinea-pigs) diphtheria bacilli 

 can be caused to appear in the omentum; but this is purely 

 an artificial manifestation of the disease, and one that is 

 probably never encountered in the natural course of events. 

 More rarely similar results follow upon subcutaneous 

 inoculation. 



If a very minute portion of either a solid or fluid pure 

 culture of this organism be introduced into the subcutaneous 

 tissues of a guinea-pig or kitten, death of the animal ensues 

 in from twenty-four hours to five days. The usual changes 



' Frosch, Die Verbreitung des Diphtherie-bacillua in Korper des Men- 

 schen, Zeit. filr Hygiene und Infektionskrankheiten, 1893, Bd. xii, pp. 

 49-52; Booker, Archives of Pediatrics, August, 1893; Wright and Stokes, 

 Boston Med. and Stirg. Journ., March and April, 1895. 



2 Abbott and Ghriskey, A Contribution to the Pathology of Experi- 

 mental Diphtheria, The Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin, No. 30, April, 

 1893. 



