THE BACTERIA IS CONTAGIOUS MALADIES. 157 



twenty-four hours, the arterial blood drawn from 

 a rabbit into which one and one half . centimeters 

 of liquid containing bacteria had been injected, 

 can be preserved (by protecting it from exterior 

 germs) during several months, without presenting 

 traces of putrefaction. The bacteria then are 

 dead in the living organism. Nevertheless, the 

 living blood is powerless to resist beyond a cer- 

 tain point. These results seem difficult to rec- 

 oncile with those which Feltz has reached as the 

 result of new researches with the toxic principle 

 of putrid blood. Compressed air passed through a 

 septic liquid has no influence upon its toxic prop- 

 erties or upon the minute beings contained in 

 it: there is simply a diminished movement of 

 the vibrios. In a vacuum the toxic power is 

 diminished : the Cocco-bacteria and bacteria be- 

 come motionless, the vibrios and spiral bacteria 

 lose their activity, but the smallest forms are 

 not killed. W. Moxon and J. F. Goodhart have 

 recognized the presence of bacteria in the blood 

 and in the inflamed tissues of septicemic pa- 

 tients. According to Virchow, also, the active 

 agent is a bacterium which, injected, with or 

 without putrid liquid, produces death by septic 

 intoxication. 



Livon and Zuelzer have never observed any 

 symptom of putrid infection to follow injections 

 of these micro-organisms into the blood. 



In presence of so many divergent opinions, 

 each supported by scientific authorities, we do not 

 feel justified in adopting any definite conclusion. 



