igo INFLAMMATORY AND SUPPURATIVE CONDITIONS. 



Intravenous injection in rabbits, for example, produces inter- 

 esting results which vary according to the quantity used. If a con- 

 siderable quantity be injected, the animal may die in twenty-four 

 hours of a general septicaemia, numerous cocci being present in 

 the capillaries of the various organs, often forming plugs. If a 

 smaller quantity be used, the cocci gradually disappear from the 

 circulating blood ; some become destroyed, while others settle in 

 the capillary walls in various parts and produce minute abscesses. 

 These are most common in the kidneys, where they occur both 

 in the cortex and medulla as minute yellowish areas surrounded 

 by a zone of intense congestion and haemorrhage. Similar small 

 abscesses may be produced in the heart wall, in the liver, under 

 the periosteum, and in the interior of bones, and occasionally in 

 the striped muscles. Very rarely indeed, in experimental injec- 

 tion,' do the cocci settle on the healthy valves of the heart. If, 

 however, when the organisms are injected into the blood, there 

 be any traumatism of a valve, or of any other part of the body, 

 they show a special tendency to settle at these weakened points. 



Experiments on the htinian subject have also proved the pyo- 

 genic properties of those organisms. Garre inoculated scratches 

 near the root of his finger-nail with a pure culture, a small cuta- 

 neous pustule resulting ; and by rubbing a culture over the skin 

 of the forearm he caused a carbuncular condition which healed 

 only after some weeks. Confirmatory experiments of this nature 

 have been made by Bockhart, Bumm, and' others. Harris has 

 observed an infection to occur upon the palmar surfaces of the 

 fingers of both hands, the organisms having, in the absence of 

 any demonstrable lesion, passed down the sweat ducts to the 

 deeper lying tissues. 



When tested experimentally the staphylococcus pyogenes 

 albus has practically the same pathogenic effects as the staphy- 

 lococcus aureus. 



The streptococcus pyogenes is an organism the virulence of 

 which varies much according to the diseased condition from 

 which it has been obtained, and also one which loses its viru- 

 lence rapidly in cultures. Even highly virulent cultures, if grown 

 under ordinary conditions, in the course of time lose practically 

 all pathogenic power. By passage from animal to animal, how- 

 ever, the virulence may be much increased, and pari passu the 

 effects of inoculation are correspondingly varied. Marmorek, 



