A SPECIFIC INFECTIOUS DISEASE 7 
instruments, dressings and the hands of the operator. This is a 
much more difficult task than it appears. The habit of bacteria 
of growing down into the hair follicles and sweat glands and beneath 
the dead epithelial cells on the surface of the skin, renders it necessary 
to use a disinfectant of much penetrating power in order to disinfect 
the skin. In case of traumatic infection the wound itself must be 
disinfected. 
A specific infectious disease. A specific infectious disease is the 
result of the multiplication within the animal* body of a single species 
of microérganism. The lesion may be local or general, but the cause 
producing them is always the same. Thus, Bacterium anthracis 
will produce a disease which is called anthrax, no other agent can 
produce it and no matter how much 
the lesions may vary in different 
individuals if they are produced by 
this species of bacteria the disease 
is anthrax. It is clear, therefore, 
that there is no hard and fast 
line between a _ simple wound 
infection and a specific infectious 
disease, except in the nature of the 
invading organism. The course 
of the disease may vary in differ- 
ent individuals and usually it does, 
especially in different species of Fic. 3. sTREPrococcus PYOGENES. 
animals. If a man becomes acci- DRAWING MADE FROM A COVER- 
i GLASS PREPARATION FROM A BOUIL- 
dentally infected by a cut from a LON CULTURE. HIGHLY MAGNIFIED. 
knife with which he is making a 
post-mortem on an animal dead from anthrax, the lesion is liable 
to be restricted to the point of inoculation, and while it is anthrax 
(malignant pustule) it might be considered as a wound infection. 
If an accidental inoculation should occur in a guinea pig, the disease 
would not be recognized as a local lesion, but the animal would 
develop a general bacteriemia. 
As a class, the specific diseases are differentiated from the lesions 
known clinically as wound infections in a number of ways. The 
bacteria of the epizodtic diseases do not ordinarily produce wound 
*Plants suffer from specific infectious diseases caused by bacteria and fungi, quite 
as much as animals. 
