LANCASHIRE VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 523 
(in case any of the earlier generations, instead of continuing to live, are 
disintegrated) of the products of such disintegration; so that in the latter 
case it is quite possible that a liquid which was at first non-albuminous 
may, as the process goes on, contain an appreciable quantity of proteid 
matter. That any such formation of plasma actually takes place cannot 
be asserted. All that we know on observation is, that the latter genera¬ 
tions differ, as regards their morphological characteristics, from the 
earlier, and that they alone possess toxic properties, so that two processes 
must go on side by side ; a change in the composition of the liquid, and 
a corresponding change of the organisms which grow in it. 
Experiment has proved that if the exudation of simple peritonitis be 
injected fresh into the peritoneum of another animal the disease assumes 
a more intense form in the second than the first; and if, by artificial 
selection, the most severe cases be taken and the exudate from that case 
be used for further transmission, a still more intense inflammation will 
be the result. When either nature or circumstances causes this course 
to be followed, we get what may be termed “ malignant ” peritonitis. It 
will readily be seen, from what has already been stated, that when you 
have a number of cases in which the process of putrefaction is in 
operation, that you will be likely to get the formation of “ septic ” matter. 
Now, do we find this to be the case ? The answer to this query must 
be in the affirmative. We know perfectly well that the high rate of 
mortality in the surgical hospitals is produced by septicaemia, and the 
army surgeons tell us in their records of practice, during active service, 
that the thing most to be dreaded is septicaemia—a greater percentage of 
the wounded dying from this rather than from the severity of their 
wounds, and that if once established, nothing could be more disastrous. 
Why our patients do not suffer to the same extent may be attributed to 
several causes. Those of you possessing a knowledge of comparative 
pathology will bear me out when I state there is not the same tendency 
of septicaemia in herbivorous animals as the omnivorous and carnivorous. 
Experiments prove that in some liquids Bacteria do not thrive as well as 
others, nor produce the septic poison; but whether the septic matter is 
not so abundantly formed, or whether, when formed, circumstances do 
not favour its absorption in the majority of our cases, we have not 
absolute proof; but there is indirect proof sufficient, I feel satisfied, to 
lead us to conclude that both these surmises are correct. We know that 
the discharges, many of them, swarm with Bacteria; but there does not 
appear to be the septic poison, or at any rate its toxic effects are not 
made visible either from absence or non-absorption. 
The air confined in the beds impregnated with exhalations from the 
body and heated by the same means undoubtedly furnishes an atmosphere 
remarkably genial for the growth of Bacteria and their specific products. 
Secondly, to produce septicaemia, there must be absorption of the septic 
poison, and many of the wounds in our cases are more exposed to the 
atmosphere which must have a tendency to prevent absorption, and they 
are, as a rule, more isolated. We have seen that Bacteria are, under 
some circumstances, inert; as, for example, in the circulation ; then they 
are in a soil that does not favour their growth. And when, so far as we 
can judge, they do not produce their septic effect, whilst the Bacillus 
anthracis of splenic fever find it a most genial and fruitful home. 
Again, the process of putrefaction is in abeyance at a low temperature, 
and the wounds in our patients are not, as a rule, in so warm an atmos¬ 
phere as those of man, and more ample exit afforded for any discharge ; 
but independently of septicaemia wounds, in which the process of putre¬ 
faction is at work, do not heal well. Even if the septic poison be not 
