1883.] On the Infectivity of the Blood and other Fluids. 459 



than in the case of Davaine's septichaemia in rabbits, above recorded, 

 yet it was fonnd that when infection occurred death always followed 

 within about thirty or forty hours ; some few instances occurred in 

 which animals that had been inoculated died subsequently to this 

 period while under observation, but in such cases it was found that 

 this was the result of accidental causes and not of infection. In some 

 cases where infection failed and the animal was obviously in good 

 health, as evinced by there being no loss of weight or of appetite, it 

 was, after the lapse of two or three weeks, used for other experi- 

 ments ; it is quite contrary to my experience in this case or in that of 

 Davaine's septichEemia, that an animal inoculated should die of septic 

 infection after the lapse of several days or some weeks, as has been 

 recorded by other observers. In the experiments on transmitted 

 infection the septic fluids employed were always diluted with normal 

 saline solution recently made and freshly boiled : in cases where 

 moderate quantities — two or three drops or upwards — were used, 

 equal parts of each were taken ; when much smaller quantities were 

 required, they were obtained by the method of " fractional dilution." 

 In all cases the quantities given as having been used for injection 

 apply to the actual quantities of the septic fluid and not to its dilution. 



Experiments. 



0*3 cub. centim. of a dilute solution of ammonia was injected into 

 the peritoneal cavity of a guinea-pig which, when examined the next 

 morning, had apparently died some hours previously, decomposition of 

 the viscera and abdominal wall being far advanced, destructive in- 

 flammation around the site of injection had occurred, and there was a 

 considerable quantity of peritoneal exudation, containing red blood- 

 corpuscles, much altered; some pus or leucocytes, mostly largely 

 vacuolated, with a great number of Bacilli, and spores or Micrococci ; 

 the former actively mobile, i.e., they possessed the power of inde- 

 pendent movement, while the spores or Micrococci weve merely 

 affected by the Brownian movement.* 



In the lower layer of the tissues of the abdominal wall were found 

 in places several Bacilli and some few Micrococci or spores ; these 

 occurred mostly in the connective tissue and between the muscular 

 fibres ; none were found in the skin or subcutaneous connective tissue, 

 either here or in any case of the intra-peritoneal injection of a 

 chemical irritant ; the puncture in the skin and abdominal wall by 

 insertion of the needle of the syringe had produced but very slight, 



* Micrococci, however, are sometimes actively mobile ; but in many cases 

 where moving bodies seen under the microscope are taken for these organisms 

 they are merely the elongated cells of bacteria or Bacilli seen endwise, in " optical 

 section" as it is termed, i.e., floating perpendicularly to the cover-glass of the pre- 

 paration. 



