452 



Mr. G. F. DowdeswelL 



[Jan. 18, 



The symptoms which are observed after the injection of small quan- 

 tities of pntrid blood into a rabbit, when primary infection occurs, are 

 very constant, and similar in most essential respects to those in the 

 subsequent cases of transmitted infection, excepting that the inflam- 

 mation at the seat of injection is more severe and extensive in the 

 former than in the latter case, owing no doubt to the comparatively 

 large quantity of septic* matter used. The period of incubation too is 

 here very variable, in accordance with the uncertain toxicity of putrid 

 blood ; its duration is usually from twenty to forty, or sometimes 

 sixty, hours, but if in specific infection an animal survives the latter 

 period, to my experience, it invariably recovers. Putrid blood, how- 

 ever, in the quantities here used may be toxical, whether fatally or 

 not, owing to the chemical poison it contains in solution, the sepsin 

 of Panum, Bergmann, and other writers, whereas in subsequent cases 

 of transmitted infection, when infinitely smaller quantities of the blood 

 itself are used, — the thousandth or the millionth of a drop or less, — it 

 is either fatally infective or, where not so, no symptoms of disturbance 

 can be recognised. In these latter cases the incubation period is 

 remarkably constant, being in the great majority of instances from 

 twenty to twenty-four hours. 



Beyond an extreme coagulability, which in this specific disease I 

 have found invariable, in this differing from the observations of 

 others, and frequently a great increase in the number of the white 

 corpuscles of the blood, I have not recognised any constant change in 

 the characters of that fluid nor in the form of the red corpuscles, as 

 described and figured by Coze and Feltz, and as stated by others, in 

 this case ; and it seems to me that the appearances there described 

 are often rather those which occur in normal blood from the methods 

 of preparation, exposure to the air, &c, than constant pathological 

 features. These authors, however, describe (op. cit.,-p. 67) filamentous 

 processes developed from the red corpuscles, of the nature of which 

 they are uncertain, and conjecture that they may be parasitical micro- 

 organisms. This statement of theirs has not been noticed, as far as I 

 know, previously. I have observed the same thing, as already 

 recorded, f in the blood of septicheemic mice. These bodies, which I 

 have investigated and fully described elsewhere, { are mere processes 

 developed from the stroma of the red corpuscles. They may be 

 produced artificially and are indicative of a pathological condition of 

 the blood. 



The rapid coagulation of the blood upon death, often within a 



* I here use the term " septic " in its proper signification of " causing putrefac- 

 tion," or accompanying it. 



t " Q.rly. Journ. Micros. Sc.." loc. cit., p. 69. 

 X lb., Vol. 25, January, 1881. 



