IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 11.25 Ui 1^ 12.2 ui Hi u& lys iu 11.6 III O: Ta ^ 7 ^ Hiotographic Sciences Corporation \ <^ ^^ V '^'^^ «- 23 WEST MAIN STRIET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716)873-4503 .<^ ^ CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHIVi/ICIVIH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques Technical and Bibliographic Notas/Notaa tachniquas at bibliographiquas Tha Inatituta haa attamptad to obtain tha baat original copy availabia for filming. Faaturaa of thia copy which may ba bibllographically uniqua. which may altar any of tha imagaa in tha raproduction, or which may aignificantly changa tha uaual mathod of filming, ara chackad balow. ,, Cclourad ccvara/ ^ ' Couvartura da coulaur I I Covara damagad/ D D D n n Couvartura andommagAa Covara raatorad and/or laminated/ Couvartura raataurte at/ou palliculte r~n Covar titia miaaing/ La titra il» couvartura ., IXP.H., FKLLOV IM PATHOUMT, ilOGILI. XRnTXmTY, WMmttAU JVom ?i THE BACTERIOLOGY OF HEALTHY ORGANS. By WILLIAM W. FORD, M.D., FELLOW IN PATHOLOGY, MCGILL UNIVERSITY, MONTBEAL. {From the Molson Pathological Laboratory.) Scientific literature is full of careful observations of those ob- servers who have studied the various species of bacteria isolated from diseased organs and tissues in man and animals, and scattered in the literature of the past two decades are a few articles which describe the micro-organisms which have been found in the living body where no evident disease was present. The results of these later observations have been so at variance that practically two schools of bacteriologists have developed: the cae studying cultures and smears from healthy organs removed imme- diately after death, claiming that bacteria are normally found ; and the other, using slightly different methods and finding no growth on their cultures from similar organs, attributing the successful results of its opponents to errors in technique, and coming to the conclusion that these organs are normally sterile. Meissner,^ early in the last decade, states that " in the living tissues of the healthy animal no bacteria capable of development aro present,'' while Zweifel,'^ quite on the contrary, affirms that in the living tissues bacteria are always present, that, however, they are anaerobic in char- acter, their capability of development thus depending to a larger ex- tent upon the amount of oxygen brought to the tissues by the blocd. Hauser,* moreover, following the work of these two men with similar observations, found, almost without exception, that the tissues of the body were sterile, whether sections of these tissues be submitted to bacteriological examinations (Gram's method) or whether cultures be made directly from the organs on the different nutritive media. S FORD, Welch,* in 1891, speaking with especial reference to the colon bacillus, states that he has isolated this organism from the internal organs of the body only where some distinct lesion of the intestinal mucosae was present, and almost uniformly failed to find it outside the intestinal tract when no demonstrable lesion of the mucosa existed. He states, moreover, that the colon bacillus does not invade the blood and organs in the process of post-mortem decomposition.* Among the more extended observations in this particular field of bacteriology are those of Neisser and Opitz, who have not only pub- lished the results of their own careful and painstaking researches, but have as well made accurate historical reviews of the bacteriological literature of the past thirty years, especially that portion which deals exclusively with the question under consideration. Neisser' using rabbits and guinea-pigs removed the internal organs (liver, spleen and kidneys, heart, lung, mesentery) with as thorough asepsis as possible, cultivated them for two days on nutritive media, and finding that without exception these organs were free from bac- teria at the end of this time, concluded that *' under normal conditions no bacteria are present in the lymph or blood stream." After feed- ing {different animals with cultures of various micro-organisms, how- ever, and producing distinct lesions of the intestines, he found a large number of internal organs from which bacteria grew, either those with which the animal was treated or those that normally inhabit the intestine. Opitz* removed the mesenteric glands of cattle killed at the abattoir at Breslau, carried them to the Hygienic Institute in the same city, and there, after carefully sterilizing the surface, cut out bits of these glands and cultivated them on agar and gelatin plates. Observing that in the majority of organs thus treated no bacteria grew at the end of three days, and that the forms isolated from the organs which decomposed were in all cases spore-bearers, especially the bacillus subtilis, the spores of which are exceedingly hard to kill, he concluded that the mesenteric glands of cattle are normally sterile, that is, that a passage of bacteria through the intestinal wall during digestion nor- mally does not take place. * Dr. Welch has, however, informed us— and he will, I feel assured, permit me to mention the fact— that in the course of an incompleted research in his laboratory, prior to the com- mencement of these investigations, it was found that the organs of healthy cats treated imme- diately after death by the perchloride method (to be described later) gave cultures of more than one form. THE BACTERIOLOGY OF HEALTHY 0RGAN8. Neither Neisser nor Opitz record any observations on organs kept longer than three days, and the latter, in the experiments described above, naturally does not eliminate the possibility of post-mortem changes, as the transportation of the organs from one institution to another, together with the means employed to sterilize the surface, made necessary by such a transportation, consume so much time that rapidly growing species of bacteria might develop, or, on the other hand, bacteria present at the time of death might be destroyed by liberated bactericidal substances ; and, to say the least, Opitz is 'not working with tissues absolutely normal. For now some years studies more especially on the liver, made by Professor Adami in Montreal, have revealed the presence under the microscope of minute bodies within the cells, present both in diseased states and in organs showing no special lesion, which Dr. Adami could only conclude were of bacterial origin.'' It thus became of interest to note whether bacteria were taken up by the healthy organism, and Dr. A. G. NichoUs, Senior Demonstrator of Pathology, undertook a study of the bacteriology of the healthy rabbit. His results seemed persist- ently to show that there was a passage of bacteria into the normal tissues. Lack of adequate time, however, to carry out an extended series of observations has prevented the completion of enough experiments to determine with sufficient accuracy whether this law holds true for different species of animals under different conditions, and, conse- quently, the work was elaborated by the Fellow in Pathology. It is the object of the present paper to describe the exj