TRAUMATIC ERYSIPELAS, 173. 
(salicylic acid, creolin, camphor, antipyrine). In some cases the weak- 
ness and depression of the animals will have to be treated with stimu-- 
lants (coffee, alcohol, ether). 
VI. 
TRAUMATIC ERYSIPELAS. 
Erysipelas is scarcely ever observed in animals, It is, however, an 
infectious complication of wounds, produced by a streptococcus con- 
sidered at first as a specific microbe. The infectious agent penetrates 
the walls of the wound, reaches its cavity little by little, progresses into. 
the lymphatics, at times promotes phlegmous or local gangrenous acci- 
dents, and may even produce serious general accidents, fatal serous or 
visceral phlegmasia. Ordinarily, erysipelas is a complication of recent 
wounds of the skin and of the mucous membranes; it is with contused 
wounds, burns, and lesions resulting from some cutaneous diseases 
(acne, eczema, follicular mange) that it is observed most commonly ; 
but any solution of continuity of the skin is favorable to its develop- 
ment ; a simple excoriation is sufficient for its appearance. It also often 
appears with wounds already granulating, when this protecting cover is. 
accidentally torn; it is thus that erysipelas is seen with ulcers, suppu- 
rating wounds, or old fistula (auto-inoculation), 
The pathogenous element has been isolated in man by Fehleisen. 
It is a streptococcus arranged in double chains, which grows well on 
gelatine and on agar, where it forms whitish colonies. It does not 
liquefy gelatine. Most barteriologists doubt its specificness, and claim 
that itis the ordinary streptococcus. To this, it is objected that the in-- 
oculation of pure cultures of the streptococcus of Fehleisen promotes 
erysipelas with or without lymphangitis, while the ordinary streptococ-: 
cus engenders phlegmons especially. But it is now known that the 
streptococcus, like mauy other pathogenous germs, may promote diverse. 
affections, very different troubles according to its actual degree of 
malignity or of virulency. Very often the agent of erysipelas does not 
act alone; it is associated with other microbes, most frequently with 
staphylococci. The disease is contagious and is easily transmitted by the 
hands, instruments, and materials for dressings. Before antisepsis, be- 
fore the researches which have definitively proved its infectious nature, 
it has frequently been seen prevailing as an epidemic in hospitals for 
mankind. In veterinary practice, a great number of affections have 
been described under the name of erysipelas. The reading of the 
published observations shows that under this title have been ranged: 
the erythemas produced by the sun or the eating of buckwheat, the 
cutaneous quittor, anthrax, rouget and even eczema, With the excep-. 
