ESSAYS ON BACTEKIOLOGY. 153 



follows a wound, and that distinct traumatism is al- 

 most invariably the antecedent of non-tubercular sub- 

 cutaneous abscess. 



Many experiments, some of them of a most ingeni- 

 ous character, have been made to solve the problems 

 of individual susceptibility, general and local. A few 

 of these may be cited : 



The facts quoted in regard to diabetes being so con- 

 spicuous, suggested lines of experiment which have 

 proven most interesting and significant. Thus if 

 white mice are rendered artificially diabetic by feed- 

 ing with ph'loridzine, they at once become susceptible 

 to glanders bacilli, which, naturally, they strongly re- 

 sist. The ordinary pus microbes are, in small quan- 

 tities, ordinarily without much effect when introduced 

 under the skin of rats ; but if associated with a solution 

 of sugar, suppuration is miich more likely to occur. 

 Animals not susceptible to the disease called symp- 

 tomatic anthrax (black leg) may be successfully inoc- 

 ulated with these bacilli provided the animals are at 

 the same time injected with lactic acid. 



Clinical experience indicates that many agencies 

 having a more or less general effect upon the body 

 predispose to infection, and there are definite bacterio- 

 logical experiments Confirming the belief. Certain 

 animals fed on certain kinds of food are more suscep- 

 tible to anthrax than when otherwise nourished. 

 Starvation renders pigeons much more easily infected 

 with the same bacilli. Anthrax and some other bac- 



