178 
M. L. PASTEUR. 
vibrio. The following days a large abscess was formed, which 
ulcerated on the 4th of June. The pus from it was abundant and 
caseous. A diffused hardness surrounded the abscess. June 8th, 
the opening of the abscess was large and the suppuration abund¬ 
ant. Another abscess communicating with the first was forming 
on the borders. During the whole month of June the rabbit was 
sick, and tire abscesses continued to suppurate, but in diminishing 
degree. In July, they were closed and the rabbit was cured. 
The nodosities under the abdomen were gone. 
How many disorders in a woman recently delivered may 
follow the introduction of a pyogenic organism, when by the 
lesion of the maternal placenta it has been able to penetrate into 
the peritoneum, in the lymphatics or in the blood! Its presence 
is much more dangerous than that of the parasitic chapelets. 
Let us add, that its development is always threatening; for, as I 
stated in 1878, it can be found in many common waters. 
I add, that the organism in long chapelets of grains is not 
less common than that of its location on the surface of the mu¬ 
cous membranes of the genital parts. There is then no puerpural 
parasite, properly so called. I have not met with the true septi¬ 
cemia, but it must be amongst puerpural affections. 
Fourth Observation .—On the 14th of June, at Lariboisiere, a 
woman who had been very sick, after recent confinement, died at 
12 p. m. A few hours after death, pus from an abscess on 
the arm, and blood from one of the fingers, were collected and 
sown. On the 15th the culture of the pus was full of long 
chapelets of grains. That of the blood remained sterile. Au¬ 
topsy took place on the 16th, at 10 a. m. The blood of a vein 
of the arm was sown, as well as the pus taken on the walls of the 
uterus and that of a collection in the synovial membrane of the 
knee. All the cultures were fecund, even that of the blood ; and 
all showed the long chapelets of grains. The peritoneum con¬ 
tained no pus. 
Interpretation of the Disease and of Death .—The wound of 
the uterus after delivery had, as usual, furnished pus which gave 
refuge to the germs of the long chapelets of grains. These, prob¬ 
ably by the lymphatics, had passed into the articulations, and 
