604 
W. R. COOPER. 
Watson Cheyne, in 1888, pointed out that germs produced 
toxic ptomaines and that they do not make emboli. He stated 
that they were not always cocci but sometimes rods. Besser 
found streptococcus in the blood and tissues in cases of septi¬ 
caemia, thereby supposing that it was the sole cause of the 
disease. 
Senn says: “From the above historical consideration it 
becomes evident that the essential cause of septicaemia has as 
yet not been demonstrated, but that the streptococcus has 
been found in the products of septic inflammations.” 
From the previous mentioned evidence the bacterial origin 
of the disease arising from septic infection is affirmed to a 
practical certainty, but not without a doubt in the minds of a 
few. Subsequent experiments very forcibly strengthen the 
theory that all septic diseases owe their origin to bacteria. 
There are also special forms of septicsemia:—as mouse 
septicsemia, caused by the bacillus tetragenous, which is ob¬ 
tained from the sputum of man. If injected subcutaneously 
into mice, it produces a fatal form of septicsemia. Another 
form fatal to mice is caused by inoculating them by a bit of 
earth. The hog-cholera bacillus, and the germs obtained with 
the bacillus tuberculosis from the sputum of man, produce 
fatal septicsemia in mice. These forms do not produce the 
typical septicsemia of higher animals. Baginsky records two 
cases of pysemia in sucklings. In one case the cause was from 
suppurative inflammation of the noeval with cedematous swell¬ 
ing of the entire extremities. The microscope showed that 
streptococcus occurred in the internal organs, such as the kid¬ 
neys, spleen, lungs, liver, and blood vessels. Streptococci py¬ 
ogenes were obtained from the pus of the abscesses found. 
Bobroff described osteomyelitis as arising from a center of 
infection into which staphylococi are carried by the blood, 
especially when the bone offers lessened resistance which may 
be caused by tromatism. 
From the above evidence the relation of septicsemia, py¬ 
semia, osteomyelitis, and puerperal fever is established ; as 
different experimenters describe the same germs and ascribe 
to them the cause of all these affections. Thus explaining the 
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