The splanchnic removal of bacteria from the blood stream of leukopenic rabbits.

In rabbits subjected to profound damage of the blood-forming tissues by the use of benzene and mechlorethamine hydrochloride, no impairment of efficiency in the splanchnic removal of M. aureus from the blood stream could be demonstrated by a method involving catheterization of the hepatic vein. All evidence continues to indicate that a bacteriemia cannot be maintained unless the organisms are introduced constantly into the blood stream from some source. The importance of the leukocyte in the establishment and clearing of the bacteriemias appears to lie in its phagocytic activities at the local source of the bacteriemia rather than in any quantitatively significant phagocytosis of organisms circulating in the blood stream. The present studies suggest that in the study of the leukopenic state attention should be directed more especially toward the identification and eradication of the local source of organisms.