318 DB NOVO ORIGIN OF BACTERIA 



with Bacilli, and in every particular the malady so induced has 

 been shown by other pathologists exactly to resemble " Pasteur's 

 septicaemia." Burdon Sanderson's words concerning the actual 

 de novo production at will of this contagious disease are as 

 follows : ' "If a few drops of a previously boiled and cooled 

 dilute solution of ammonia are injected underneath the skin of a 

 guinea-pig a diffuse inflammation is produced, the exudation liquid 

 of which is found after twenty-four hours to be charged with 

 Bacteria. . . . Other chemical agents will lead to the same results 

 and always under conditions which preclude the possibility of the intro- 

 duction of any infecting matter from without." Elsewhere ' the same 

 investigator referred to experiments which were made about the 

 same time in order to throw light upon the cause of the appear- 

 ance of Bacteria in certain peritoneal exudations and to ascertain 

 whether or not their presence was to be considered as " a mere 

 result of the intensity of the peritonitis." He says : "To determine 

 this, experiments were made during the following month (May, 

 1871) which consisted in inducing intense peritonitis by the 

 injection not of exudation liquids but of chemical irritants, par- 

 ticularly dilute ammonia and concentrated solution of iodine in 

 hydriodic acid. As regards the ammonia, precautions were taken 

 to guard against contamination by boiling and cooling the liquids 

 as well as the implements to be used immediately before injection. 

 In the case of the solution of iodine this was, of course, unnecessary. 

 In every instance it was found that the exudation liquids, collected 

 from twenty-four to forty-eight hours after injection, were charged 

 with Bacteria, whence it appeared probable that the existence of 

 these organisms was dependent, not on the nature of the exciting 

 liquid by which the inflammation was induced, but on the intensity 

 of the inflammation itself." 



The organisms in the cases where germ-free chemical irritants 

 have been employed have therefore come from the previously 

 healthy body of the animal experimented upon — either by way of 

 heterogenesis or by the waking up of previously " latent germs " 

 of common microorganisms, instead of being, as in other experi- 

 ments, modified descendants of the common putrefactive organisms 

 contained in the bullock's blood. But the point of importance 

 is that in either case, under the influence of local inflammatory 



■ " Transactions of the Pathological Society," 1872, pp. 306-8. (No Italics in 

 original.) 

 = "Transactions of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society," 1873, p. 365. 



