314 Suppuration 



these injections correspond with those observed in men suffering 

 from chronic suppuration. 



Van de Velde* found that the staphylococcus has some metabolic 

 products destructive to the leukocytes, which he has called leuko- 

 cidin. This poison causes the cells to cease ameboid movement, 

 become spheric, and gradually to lose their granules, until they finally 

 appear like empty sacs containing shadow nuclei, which eventually 

 disappear. The leukolysis occurs in about two minutes. These 

 observations have been abundantly confirmed. Kraussf first ob- 

 served that certain products of the staphylococcus were hemolytic 

 and destroyed red blood-corpuscles. This hemolysin has been 

 carefully studied by Neisser and Wechsberg, J by whom it was called 

 staphylolysin. 



Durme§ found staphylolysin produced most abundantly by viru- 

 lent staphylococci. 



Ribbertll found that both sterilized and unsterihzed cultures when 

 intravenously injected into animals produced definite changes in 

 the heart, kidneys, lungs, spleen, and bone-marrow, and attributed 

 the action to the toxin. 



Morse** found that the toxic products of Staphylococcus aureus 

 were capable of occasioning interstitial nephritis. 



The staphylococci form very little extracellular toxin, as filtered 

 cultures provoke little local or general reaction in animals, even 

 when the staphylococcus is highly virulent. 



To secure the endo-toxin, masses of culture, prepared as described 

 in the section upon "Bacterio- vaccines," are ground in a mortar, or 

 frozen by liquid air and then ground, or the culture masses are 

 treated by dilute acids and alkalies according to Vaughan, or the 

 culture masses are permitted to undergo autolysis in physiological 

 salt solution or in dilute serum containing amboceptor and comple- 

 ment (see Bacteriolysis). 



Staphylococcus aureus is not only found in the great majority 

 of furuncles, carbuncles, abscesses, and other inflammatory dis- 

 eases of the surface of the body, but also plays an important r61e in 

 a number of deeply seated diseases. Becker and others obtained it 

 from the pus of osteomyehtis, demonstrating that if, after fracturing 

 or crushing a bone, the staphylococcus be injected into the circu- 

 lation, osteomyelitis may occur. Numerous observers have demon- 

 strated its presence in ulcerative endocarditis. Rodet has been 

 able to produce osteomyehtis without previous injury to the bones; 

 Rosenbach was able to produce ulcerative endocarditis by injecting 



* "La CeUule," 1896, xi, p. 349. 

 t "Wiener, klin. Wochenschrift," iii, 1900. 

 t "Zeitschrift fiir Hygiene," 1911, xxxvi, p. 330. 

 §"Hyg. Rundschau," 1903, Heft 2, p. 66. 



II "Die pathologische Anatomic und die Heilung der durch den Staphylococcus 

 pyogenes aureus hervorgerufenen Erkrankungen." 



** "Journal of Experimental Medicine," 1896, vol. i, p. 613. 



