THE BACTERIA IN CONTAGIOUS MALADIES. 155 



Coze and Feltz, in their work, have demon- 

 strated the constant presence of bacteria in the 

 blood of animals dead from septicemia. This cor- 

 relation has driven them to admit that " there 

 is a direct relation between the infections acci- 

 dents and the little foreign organisms which play, 

 in the blood, the role of ferments, and reproduce 

 themselves." New researches confirmatory of the 

 first have been communicated to the Academy by 

 the same authors. Opposed to these conclusions 

 upon the bacterial origin of septicemia, some ex- 

 periments have recently appeared in England, then 

 in Berlin, which weaken them. Zuelzer, struck by 

 the analogy which exists between septicemia and 

 intoxication by atropine (dilatation of pupils, in- 

 testinal paralysis, acceleration of heart's action), 

 has sought for the presence of an alkaloid by the 

 method of Stas. In collaboration with Sonnen- 

 schein, he has succeeded in discovering it. Bac- 

 teria cultivated artificially, and introduced in 

 considerable quantity into the mouth, under the 

 skin, and into the vessels of various animals, have 

 never seemed to him to produce septic accidents. 

 But the scene changes as soon as an addition is 

 made to the injected matters of two to five centigr. 

 of neutral sulphate of atropia. The period of in- 

 cubation always lasted from nine to twelve days. 

 The same year, Riemschneider deduced from his 

 observations the same result, and confirmed thus 

 the similarity between atropine and sepsine. The 

 bacterial origin of septicemia received, however, a 

 new support from the experiments of Vulpian. 



