604 PRINCIPLES OF VETERINARY SURGERY 



The theory of infection by nitric ferment or the micro- 

 organism of nitrification is held by Petrone, but it is hard to 

 understand what association of ideas led the Italian investi- 

 gator to this new conception of the disease, knowing on one 

 hand the properties of nitric ferment and on the other hand 

 the powerful microbicide action of chloroform on the micro- 

 coccus nitrificans. Was he not led to suspect the patho- 

 genicity of this micro-organism by this very knowledge and 

 to seek a cure or amelioration so evident after bilateral cas- 

 tration, ovariotomy, etc., in this microbicidal action on the 

 nitric ferment? He has inoculated dogs intravenously 

 with nitrates and with pure cultures of the nitric ferment 

 and produced the disease. In the blood of animals afifected 

 with osteomyelitis, he has shown the presence of round 

 cells associated with two specific nitrate micro-organisms. 

 Chloroform and chloral possess a powerful bactericidal 

 action against the nitric ferments. The administration of 

 chloral for three weeks, in doses of two grams per day, 

 would have cured an attack of osteomalacia ; but Latzko 

 relying on his own experiments, holds Petrone's statements 

 to be unconfirmed, because he has always observed relapses 

 after brief periods of improvement, and he did not find the 

 micro-organism in the blood of any of ten patients, nor an 

 abundance of nitrates in the viscera. Petrone's theory is 

 certainly astonishing, and with the numerous facts to sup- 

 port it, it is not an exaggeration to join with Schauta in 

 designating it as a romance. Positive facts must always be 

 taken into account and hence it must be admitted that there 

 are many varieties of the disease, some being curable with 

 chloroform and others not. 



Utero-ovarian Theory. — According to Fehling, osseous 

 cachexia is the consequence of a pathological hyperactivity 

 of the ovaries. From this fact the ovaries would be the 

 starting point of reflexes which create an activity of the 



