FISTULA. 
527 
ground, with plenty of clinical evidence in its favor. Lebedeff 
reports a case where he found streptococci in various tissues 
of a child prematurely born of a mother who recently had 
erysipelas. Sangalli reported the finding of bacillus anthracis 
in the blood of a foetus whose mother had died of carbuncle. 
Ahlfeld and Marchand, together, reported two autopsies, 
which showed that a child had died four days after birth from 
anthrax, and the mother died eight hours after delivery from 
the same cause. Nett.er, Bollinger, Strauss, Koubassoff and 
Levy have presented similar cases of pathogenic germs ac¬ 
quired in utero. Johne, in 1890, published a calf case more 
interesting to Iowa veterinarians than our celebrated Jones 
county calf case, to Iowa lawyers. In this case an eight 
months’ foetus was taken from the body of a tubercular cow. 
The foetal lungs and liver both contained tubercles and bacilli 
of tuberculosis. Levy reports a case wherein the pneumonia 
diplococcus of Frankel and Weichselbaum played a similar 
part. In view of all this evidence, we can hardly doubt the 
possibility of actual germ inheritance, and especially since 
Nepveu has shown, in two cases, that pyogenic organisms 
may remain dormant or encysted for years, awaiting favorable 
conditions for development, and then cause profound dis¬ 
turbance. Gussenbauer, Rinne and Senn have all reported 
similar cases, which clearly prove that apparent pathological 
conditions do not necessarily follow, immediately, the intro¬ 
duction of those microbes, and which prove, also, that the 
absence of such conditions does not demonstrate an absence 
of pyogenic organism. To sum up this discussion of source, 
we can easily say that these troublesome micro-organisms 
are derived from the soil, air, food and maternal circulation. 
Modes of Entrance. —That the actual transmission of 
living micro-organisms from mother to foetus in utero is pos¬ 
sible and probably frequent, has been fairly established by 
competent observers, whose notes and opinions have already 
been given. 
Fraenkel, in explaining the sources of errors which may 
interfere with inoculation experiments, says: 
