452 BACTERIOLOGY. 
From its common seat in the intestines it may, 
under favoring conditions, penetrate other organs after . 
death—which fact may account for its being found 
so often at autopsy in the interior of the body; but it 
may also be absorbed during life, more especially if 
‘there is obstruction of the intestines or if the mucosa 
has been deprived of its epithelium. For this reason, 
no doubt, the B. coli is so frequently found in cholera, 
typhoid fever, and dysentery, producing often a second 
infection. The absorption of the colon bacillus from 
the intestinal canal plays an important part, probably, 
in the production of many diseases, such as cystitis 
and other inflammatory affections. It has been con- 
sidered to be the cause of epidemic infectious enteritis 
and cholera nostras, this assumption being based upon 
the facts that the colon bacillus in these diseases is 
found in greater abundance than usual in the alvine 
discharges and often in pure culture; that it then pos- 
sesses an increased virulence, and that it often pene- 
trates the interior organs, as has been shown by autop- 
sies. But the conclusion drawn from these facts as to 
the etiology of the diseases above mentioned is not 
positive, though it cannot be denied that under certain 
conditions the colon bacillus may be productive of dis- 
ease. This is brought about, according to the com- 
monly accepted view, either by an increase of virulence 
of the B. coli normally present in the intestines or by 
the introduction of especially virulent bacilli in the 
food. The colon bacillus has also been assumed to be 
the cause of cholera infantum; but the investigations 
of Booker, Baginsky, Escherich, and Fliigge would 
seem to indicate that this disease is of a much more 
complicated origin. The B. coli, moreover, is associ- 
