The pathology and differential diagnosis of infectious diseases of animals : prepared for students and practitioners of veterinary medicine / by Veranus Alva Moore.

  • Moore, Veranus A. (Veranus Alva), 1859-1931.
Date:
1916
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The pathology and differential diagnosis of infectious diseases of animals : prepared for students and practitioners of veterinary medicine / by Veranus Alva Moore. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Bacteriemia. If the invading bacteria multiply in the blood and become widely distributed in the circulation and tissues, the condi¬ tion is known as septicemia or bacteriemia. Toxemia. If the infecting bacteria remain at the point of entrance and multiply there, elaborating a toxin which is absorbed and which causes the symptoms and possibly death, the condition is a toxemia. Sapremia. If there is a febrile condition, resulting from the absorption of the products or ptomains produced by putrefactive bacteria, the condition is called sapremia or septic intoxication. A Specific, Infectious Disease. If the invading organism is one possessed of definite pathogenic properties, such as the bacterium of anthrax, giving rise to a definite series of symptoms and lesions, the affection is designated a specific, infectious disease. Through the agency of metastasis, invading microorganisms may be carried from the point of introduction to other parts of the body, where they may become localized, multiply, and give rise to any one of many forms of lesions. It may happen that the point of entrance is so obscure that the resulting morbid changes are not easily traced to an external infection. There are many illustra¬ tions of this in comparative pathology, such for example as suppura¬ tive cellulitis. For convenience in discussion, infections may be divided into two clinical groups, namely: wound infections and specific infectious diseases, although in certain instances they cannot be entirely separated. In arriving at a clear understanding of the nature of infections, it is well not to be too closely circumscribed by classifications. It is better to look upon infections as a series of processes going on in the animal world due to the activities of infecting or parasitic microorganisms. In other words, the lesions following an infection are the result of a microbian parasitism. In the study of the various forms of infection in the lower animals, lesions have been found to contain, apparently as their causative factors, bacteria which suggest at least that certain of the supposed saphrophytic organisms may, under certain conditions, become parasitic and cause more or less local or general tissue disturbance. Many lesions seem to be produced by bacteria which are harbored normally upon the skin. When these organisms are introduced b\ accident into the living tissues they multiply and acquire, if thev did not already possess it, the power to produce tissue changes.