PRINCIPLES OF VETERINARY SURGERY 115 



the walls of the veins in the infected area and lodge in the 

 capillaries of the lungs, at which point new, and often fatal 

 abscesses evolve. 



It is also found in superficial inflammations, deep ab- 

 scesses, furuncles, and ordinary suppurating wounds. 



Virulence and Resistance. — Mercuric chloride in solution 

 of I to 81,400 will arrest its growth in the culture media. 

 It is incapable of living without moisture, drying for one 

 hour often being sufificient to reduce its pathogenic proper- 

 ties, but it is not entirely killed after ten days desiccation. 

 It requires boiling of several minutes duration to entirely 

 arrest its growth. The staphylococcus pyogenes aureus 

 must be looked upon as a very durable form of micro-organ- 

 ism, as it is difficult to destroy in the tissues. The ordinary 

 antiseptic solutions have but little effect in permanently 

 preventing its multiplication in a diseased tissue. Its viru- 

 lence is, however, variable. The variability in virulence 

 seems greater than that of the other well studied micro-or- 

 ganisms. In one instance it provokes a trivial suppuration, 

 — a mere pustule, — while in other cases fatal septicaemia 

 is the result. Even with due consideration for the variabil- 

 ity of the resisting powers of the body, it is very evident 

 that the golden coccus is found in many different degrees of 

 virulence. Its pathogenic properties are greatest when tak- 

 en from the first culture made directly from infected tis- 

 sues. The cultivation of successive generations greatly at- 

 tenuates its powers, which may, however, be revived by 

 passing it through the animal body. 



Toxic Products. — Leber describes the toxin of pus cocci 

 under the name of phlogosin, a crystalline substance soluble 

 in alcohol and ether. Other investigators have repeatedly 

 shown that sterilized pus is toxic. Mannatti has shown that 

 injections of pus deprived of its living microbes by heat will 

 cause chronic intoxication that simulates the systemic de- 



