526 
t 
M. H. REYNOLDS. 
streptococci in seventeen, staphylococci in thirty-one; both in 
sixteen. He also noted that the former followed the 
lymphatic channels and produced diffuse and extensive 
suppurations, while the staphylococci produced and ap¬ 
peared ‘more commonly in distinct abscesses. Rosenbach 
carried his work farther, with better facilities, classifying 
and naming pyogenic microbes and adding to the list. Zuck- 
erman tabulated 495 abscesses, showing that 71 per cent, 
contained staphylococcus, 16 per cent, contained streptococ¬ 
cus, both were found in 5.5 per cent, and the other pyogenic 
microbes rarely. Tricomi, in 1888, reported an examination 
of eighty abscesses, five phlegmonous inflammations and live 
furuncles, and found in all, one or several of the recognized 
pyogenic microbes. A vast amount of statistics have been 
published which prove beyond question that under natural 
conditions certain micro-organisms are always associated with 
the origin of pus. And it is equally plain from every-day 
observation, that bruises or external irritants of any kind do 
not alone produce abscesses. True, Fehleisen, Grawitz, 
Scheuerlen and other investigators have produced a limited 
suppuration by injections of ptomaines; but this is no argu¬ 
ment against a theory of bacterial origin. 
Finally, fistulas frequently appear in an endemic form. I 
have had five cases on the same pasture that developed rapidly 
and in close succession; in every ease there was present 
decided elevation of temperature, loss of appetite, thirst and 
rapid loss of flesh. Twenty-one veterinarians of my acquaint¬ 
ance have written me in response to inquiry, that they have 
each seen three or more cases develop under similar con¬ 
ditions in rapid succession on the same farm. 
Infection — Sources .—It is not difficult to enumerate sources 
from which infection may be received, but it is frequently im¬ 
possible to prove a specific origin in an individual case. Pyo¬ 
genic bacteria have a wide diffusion in nature, for they have 
been demonstrated in air, soil, water and a variety of foods. 
There is the old question of hereditary transmission with the 
still unsettled points: transmitted tissue susceptibility, or 
transmitted living germs, and the latter seems to be gaining 
