Pathogenic Bacteria 79 



diseases, such as syphiHs, are well known in the congenital form. 

 Pregnant women suffering from smallpox may be deUvered of 

 infants with marks indicative of prenatal disease. Some common 

 infectious agents, such as the tubercle bacillus, seem to infect unborn 

 animals with difficulty. The frequency of antenatal tuberculous 

 infection is, however, somewhat controversial at present, Baum- 

 garten having reached the opinion, exactly the opposite of what 

 is commonly believed, that many children are subject to antenatal 

 infection, though the bacilli subsequently develop and cause disease 

 in only a few of them. 



PATHOGENIC BACTERIA HARBORED WITHIN THE SEEMINGLY 

 HEALTHY BODY. CRYPTO GENETIC INFECTION 



In the section upon "The Micro-organismal Tenants of the 

 Human Body" it has been shown that a considerable number of 

 micro-organisms among which are quite a number of pathogenic 

 species, are commonly to be found in relation with the outer and inner 

 surfaces of the body. 



So long as these maintain this purely superficial position and are 

 excluded from the tissues and circulating fluids by the surface 

 coverings, all goes weU, and if the occasional penetration of a few 

 takes place, all may still go well, provided that the defensive mechan- 

 isms, later to be described, succeed in effecting their destruction. 

 Many persons presumably in perfect health are deceived as to their 

 true condition, and careful examination reveals the fact that not a 

 few, though unconscious of it, are, suffering from inconspicuous, 

 inconsequential or latent foci of infection. To these much attention 

 has recently been directed with the result that is now recognized 

 that the crypts of enlarged tonsils, the gall-bladder, the vermiform 

 appendix, the tooth sockets, the apices of the roots of the teeth, 

 the follicles of the urethra, the recesses of the prostate gland, the 

 Fallopian tube, neglected inflammatory tracts and the scar tissue 

 found in the heahng of infectious lesions like carbuncles, may all 

 harbor pathogenic bacteria that are effecting disturbances too 

 trivial to call attention to themselves, but really constituting 

 limited invasions of the body of the host. 



Such latent foci of disease constitute a constant menace to the 

 patient's health because should the conditions that determine their 

 latency become disturbed, they may suddenly flare up and produce 

 active and destructive local lesions — as, for example, when the 

 vermiform appendix, long the seat of unimportant subacute 

 disturbance, suddenly becomes invaded with resulting suppuration 

 and the occurrence of fetid pus. Or, if no such sudden aggravation 

 of the local disturbance occurs, they constitute more numerous 

 and more fruitful opportunities for the admission of bacteria to 

 the blood than when a few pathogenic bacteria are situated upon 

 the undisturbed surfaces. 



Such pathogenic organisms, whether from the surface or from these 



