22 BACTERIOLOGY. 



fact, the evolution of our knowledge of bacteriology to 

 the point it now occupies is so intimately associated 

 with this particular line of investigation that a few 

 historical facts in connection with it may not be without 

 interest. 



The observations of Rindfleisch, in 1866, in which he 

 describes the presence of small, pin-head points in the 

 myocardium and general musculature of individuals 

 that have died as a result of infected wounds offer, 

 probably, the first reliable contribution to this subject. 

 He studied the tissue changes round about these points 

 to the stage of miliary abscess formation. He refers 

 to the organisms as " vibrios." Almost simultaneously 

 Von Recklinghausen and Waldeyer described similar 

 changes that they had observed in pyaemia and occa- 

 sionally secondary to typhoid fever. Von Reckling- 

 hausen believed the granules seen in the abscess-points 

 to be micrococci and not tissue detritus, and gave as 

 the reason that they were regular in size and shape, 

 and gave specific reactions with particular staining 

 fluids. Birch-Hirschfeld was able to trace bacteria 

 found in the blood and organs to the wound as the 

 point of entrance, and believed both the local and con- 

 stitutional condition to stand in direct ratio to the 

 number of spherical bacteria present in the wound. 

 He observed also that as the organisms increased in 

 number they could often be found within the bodies ot 

 pus corpuscles. His studies of pyaemia led him to the 

 important conclusion that in this condition micro- 

 organisms were always present in the blood. 



Of immense importance to the subject were the in- 

 vestigations of Klebs, made at the Military Hospital 

 at Carlsruhe in 1870-71. He not only saw, as others 



