1887.] Dr A. B. Griffiths on Micro-Organisms. 59 
iodine three days ago has been to cleanse the lung, and to bring 
away the debris found in the sputum this forenoon. This is, of 
course, a good result. The iodine inhalation caused headache and 
considerable depression of heart.” 
(3) Letter of Wi March 1887. — Since I last wrote to you I 
have twice injected a 15 minim solution of the acid. The strength 
was 2 J grains of salicylic acid to a fluid drachm of water ; but the 
acid was mixed with an equal quantity of borax. My immediate 
reason for injecting the solution (which would roughly contain fth 
of a grain of the acid) was a severe attack of rheumatism, of the 
kind that often accompanies phthisis. The rheumatism disappeared 
almost entirely I may mention, that before making the 
injections there was a large deposit of uric acid on the urine. 
This has quite disappeared, at least to the naked eye. That 
the salicylic acid passed through the system I am perfectly 
certain, as I had the usual headache which follows taking it 
by the mouth, and the taste — that unmistakable taste — was 
very apparent next morning on the tongue and palate. I made 
the injections in the calf of the leg, near a large vein 
I had (it appears) rightly assumed that a cavity was forming in the 
lung about the time I first wrote to you. About forty-eight hours 
after inhaling volatilised iodine a considerable quantity of matter 
came away, with the usual discoloured blood-clot. This debris on 
examination, contained an abundance of long fibre One 
most important part of your paper is, that which deals with the action 
of the gastric juice on medicines. I swallow a great deal of sputum 
at times — for it is impossible always to eject the whole. Yet I have 
every reason to suppose that the bacilli thus swallowed in large 
numbers pass harmlessly through the alimentary tract without getting 
into the hlood. In fact, it happens with me and Bacillus tubercu- 
losis, as it happened with M, Bochefontaine and the Comma bacillus. 
This thoroughly bears out your most important remark that, 
‘ there is no doubt the acid properties of the gastric juice .... 
had acted upon these micro-organisms,’ &c. In cases where con- 
sumption of the intestines follows upon pulmonary consumption, 
the inference will be that the gastric juice is either weak or imper- 
fectly secreted. With reference to the salicylic acid (without 
borax), what I think of doing is to dissolve a part of the acid in a 
